Features

April 2, 2002 Are we going to have a “clash of civilizations” a la Hollywood as predicted by Osama bin Laden and Samuel Huntington? Is this going to be between Islam in general and the West, or only between Arabs and the Anglo-Americans? And who is going to lead it? Some lieutenant of Osama and his Wahhabi warriors? Saddam Hussein and his secular forces? Colonel Khaddafi supported by his oil fortunes paid for by Europe? Or perhaps will the forces of a militant Islam be led by President Khamenei of Iran? Even the mere mention of such names is likely to remind us of how preposterous these paranoid speculations turn out to be. There is now in the West a curious inchoate anxiety about a huge swath of mankind who, it is thought, is somehow out to destroy Western capitalist civilization. At least so writes, Paul Kennedy, the celebrated Yale...

By Shastri Ramachandaran, Times of India  April 2, 2002  STOCKHOLM – “Are you not afraid? Is there no fear in India and among Indians after the September 11 attack on the United States?” This was a recurrent question posed by friends, journalists, travelling companions and acquaintances during my 13-day sojourn from Copenhagen, through Malmo, Lund and Kalmar to Stockholm. The questions came from Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Hungarians, Austrians, Pakistanis and, of course, Indians also living in these parts. Invariably, I would burst in to a laugh that provoked them to insistently ask: “But aren’t you frightened with all this terrorism?” I get serious and say that there are few terrors for me as an Indian, at home or abroad. Their perplexed expressions and the expectant silence oblige me to explain that you can die for a million reasons in India; it does not have to be terrorism or bombs alone; and...

By Suzanne Elston, INFACT Canada April 2, 2002  Since the September 11th attacks, global military and security spending has spiraled. In total, $1.6 trillion is spent annually on military weapons. At the recent Salt Lake City Winter Game alone, organizers spent an estimated $300 million on security measures or approximately $125,000 per athlete. By contrast, the 1999 WTO meetings in Seattle had a mere $5 million to spend on security. This is in response to the deaths of 3,000 people. By contrast, in the last twelve months: – more North Americans were murdered by their spouses – three times as many people died from food poisoning – five times as many people were killed by drunk drivers – ten times as many people committed suicide – 100 times as many people died from smoking North American governments are now planning to spend more than 20 billion dollars a year to...

Writing in the March 10, 2002 edition of the Los Angeles Times, defense analyst William Arkin revealed the leaked contents of the Bush Jr. administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that it had just transmitted to Congress on January 8. The Bush Jr. administration has ordered the Pentagon to draw up war plans for the first-use of nuclear weapons against seven states: the so-called “axis of evil”: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea; Libya and Syria; Russia and China, which are nuclear armed. This component of the Bush Jr. NPR incorporates the Clinton administration’s 1997 nuclear war-fighting plans against so-called “rogue states” set forth in Presidential Decision Directive 60. These warmed-over nuclear war plans targeting these five non-nuclear states expressly violate the so-called “negative security assurances” given by the United States as an express condition for the renewal and indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by all of its non-nuclear...

By William M. Arkin for ‘The Los Angeles Times’ (March 10, 2002)  April 2, 2002 A secret policy review of the nationís nuclear policy puts forth chilling new contingencies for nuclear war. WASHINGTON – The Bush administration, in a secret policy review completed early this year, has ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, naming not only Russia and the “axis of evil”–Iraq, Iran, and North Korea–but also China, Libya and Syria. In addition, the U.S. Defense Department has been told to prepare for the possibility that nuclear weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli crisis. And, it is to develop plans for using nuclear weapons to retaliate against chemical or biological attacks, as well as “surprising military developments” of an unspecified nature. These and a host of other directives, including calls for developing bunker-busting mini-nukes and nuclear weapons...

A discussion for La Vanguardia, Spain March 26, 2002 Andre Malraux in his Antimemoirs writes of the “East…likened to an old Arab on his donkey sleeping the inviolable sleep of Islam”. Hegel too thought that the Orient was in a long winter sleep. For Marx the situation was worse. Since the Orient was dominated by despotism, there were no classes, so they were stuck in the Asian Mode of Production, a limbo where nothing of significance happened or could happen over the centuries. Osama bin Ladin has certainly shattered those illusions. All of a sudden, the Americans, safe in their cocoon of North American “isolationism”, have been rudely awakened to the dangers of “wars of civilization” almost like Star Wars in science fiction. Muslim “hordes” fired up with religious zealotry are said to be preparing to wage suicidal war on “the West”. At least that is the impression one receives...

By Shastri Ramachandaran, Editor, Times of India Stockholm   March 26, 2002 STOCKHOLM: Has Sweden lost its way? Or is it merely stuck at the crossroads? This is the dilemma of a pioneer. Having opted out of the beaten course, the path-breaker must for ever be conscientious about progress in a chosen direction. It calls for sustained vision to remain steadfast in a self-elected mission. Unfortunately, Sweden, once perceived as a moral superpower that outshone the nuclear powers in their battle armour has lost its reference points: the twin routes of unbridled capitalism and Stalinist socialism between which it charted a promising new way. The Third Way, born of the visionary-activism of Olof Palme, one of the tallest social democrats and celebrated ‘Third Worlder’, was a beacon of hope for many in the South, and also sections in the North, who were unwilling to hitch their wagon to the Cold Warriors....

By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson   March 26, 2002 One of the marks of exceptional hegemonic power is the ability to define words and get issues framed in accord with your own political agenda. This is notorious at this moment in history as regards “terrorism” and “antiterrorism.” Since the September 11 attacks, two truths have been indisputable and universally reported. One is that the hijacker bombings of the World Trade Center and Pentagon were atrocities of a monumental and spectacular scale (and media coverage of that day’s events alone may have generated more words and graphic images than any other single event in recent history). A second truth is that the bombings were willful acts of terrorism, accepting the basic and widely agreed-upon definition of terrorism as “the use of force or the threat of force against civilian populations to achieve political objectives.” And let us also recognize that...

Av Lars-Olof FredrikssonMajor, Ret, M.Sc.Pol., Äänekoski, Finland  26 mars 2002  Jag minns sextiotalets fredsdiskussioner och demonstrationer, alla med udden riktade mot kalla krigets kapprustning och de strategiska vapnens snabba spridning, i synnerhet i Europa. Som ung officer ville jag försvara neutraliteten och det självständiga försvaret då som nu. I de finska diskussionerna fanns det i många partier en stark vilja att stödja Sovjets rätt till rustning i solidaritetens och fredens namn. Känns det bekant? Visst är det samma sorts resonemang som nuförtiden ständigt ekar från väst när President Bush påstår sig ha rätt att utkämpa fullskaligt krig mot terrorismen, talar ut om “ondskans axel” och delar in världen i de som är med USA och de som inte är det. Kalla krigets fred hade sin grund i de två antagonistiska blockens förmåga att bekämpa varandra, även &endash; ifall avskräckningen skulle misslyckas &endash; medelst kärnvapen. Men ingen vågade utmana grundförutsättningen och...

A hundred-page guide to the latest ideas on war reporting, based on tough, honest debates with 200 top journalists and analysts who together came up with a practical checklist for the ethical reporting of conflict. The book shows how patterns of reporting violence may exert a cumulative influence on the behaviour of parties to a conflict and, therefore, the course of subsequent events. It suggests that conflict analysis skills could help journalists come to grips with their responsibilities, by clarifying the connections between reporting and reality on the ground. There are detailed sections on Israel & the Palestinians; Macedonia; Africa & the DRC; Iraq, and Indonesia. Including practical examples of stories on each conflict demonstrating how each could be radically enhanced if the checklist points are applied. “First class” – Fergal Keane, Special Correspondent, BBC “A thoughtful blend of academic rigour and journalistic experience… To read it is to learn...

By Zelim Skurbaty, Ph.D., LL.D., The Danish Center for Human Rights  Speech delivered at the Graduation Ceremony forthe Master of Arts Students in Human Righs and Democratization16 November 2001, Malta University, Valetta Only for those without hope that hope is given to us Good afternoon Mr. Rector, members of the University Senate, graduates, teachers, friends, First of all, I want to thank on behalf of the Danish Center for Human Rights as well as on my own behalf Prof. Roger Michaleff, Rector of the Malta University, the Dean of the Faculty of Laws Prof. Ian Refalo, the Foundation for International Studies, Mr. Leslie Agius along with Ms Cynthia D’Amato and Ms Therese Cachia, for the honor to be part of this solemn and important ceremony. I feel grateful and privileged at the opportunity to address the graduates as well as the ‘rookies’ of the master of Arts human rights. The...

By Lars-Olof Fredriksson, Major, Ret, M.Sc.Pol., Äänekoski, Finland March 5, 2002 I remember the peace discussions and the marches of the sixties, with their focus on the Cold war re-armament and the rapid increase in strategic weapons, especially in Europe. As a young officer I defended non-alliance and independent defence, as I do today. In the Finnish discussions, in many parties and organisations, there were strong currents from backing the right of the Soviet Union to re-arm, all in the name of the solidarity and peace. Does it seem familiar somehow? Do we hear the same type of rhetoric now rumbling from the West as President Bush asserts his right to fight a total war against terrorism, speaks about the “axis of evil” and divides the world into those who are with the U.S. and those who are not. The peace of the Cold war was grounded in the capabilities...