Features

By Cynthia Cockburn for ‘Hands Across the Divide’, London   A small group of Cypriot women, calling themselves “Hands Across the Divide”, has started actively campaigning for peace in Cyprus…. They have to communicate by e-mail, because face to face meetings between people living in north and south Cyprus are so difficult to achieve. Since 1974, the island of Cyprus has been divided by a barbed-wire fence, which runs from coast to coast and through the heart of the principal city of Nicosia. Partition… This UN partition line was set up after a long period of ethnic violence beginning back in 1963, compounded by meddling on the part of other nations with an interest in the region. Ever since, the Turkish Cypriot population of the north of the country has lived in complete separation from the mainly Greek Cypriot population of the south. There’s only one checkpoint in the ‘Green Line’,...

By Richard E. Rubenstein* The failure of the Democratic Party and the mainstream news media to criticize President Bush’s overwrought, alarmingly bellicose State of the Union speech is no less appalling for being predictable. Their vacuous, timid responses remind us once again that democracy and freedom depend ultimately on ideas and the courage to voice them, not just on forms of legality. Bush makes three points in his speech. (1) The war on Afghanistan was a great victory. (2) The war on global terrorism must be continued and expanded. (3) We will “defeat” the economic recession as well as the terrorists. For the moment, we can forget point (3), which simply dresses up the Bush Administration’s economic program in military rhetoric, and point (1), which represents the worst sort of tub-thumping propaganda. Afghanistan has been “freed from oppression,” although upwards of 40,000 new refugees have fled their homes to escape...

Sveriges förändrade utrikes- ochsäkerhetspolitik – och debatten om den The change in Sweden’s foreign andsecurity policy – and the debate about it På TFF:s site – On TFF’s site PressInfo # 134, 17 oktober, 2001Sverige og 11. septemberEn konkretisering af PressInfo 133 – om Sveriges støtte til bombningerne i stedet for at understrege FNs Charter om fred med fredelige midler. Og om hvorledes kritiken vokser. PressInfo # 134, October 17, 2001Sverige och 11 septemberKonkretisering av PressInfo 133 – om Sveriges stöd till bombningar istället för att understryka FN:s stadgans normer om fred med fredliga medel . Och om hur kritiken växer. PressInfo # 134, October 9, 2001Sweden and September 11Concrete examples of how the Swedish government chooses to acquiesce in the policies of the U.S. and the European Union (EU) rather than defending the interests of small states and the UN norm of peace by peaceful means. PressInfo # 133, 12 oktober,...

Ferencz is a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial By Katy Clark,September 19, 2001 See other articles, letters and analyses by Benjamin Ferencz at http://www.benferencz.org Ferencz: Perhaps some of the tears have dried and people can begin to think rationally about the horrors of the past week and what we can do to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies. Katy Clark: Ben Ferencz has spent most of his 82 years doing just that. He was a prosecutor for the United States during the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders. Ferencz’s response to the Vietnam War was to withdraw from his private law practice and spend the rest of his life studying and writing about world peace. He founded the Pace Peace Center at Pace University, where he is Adjunct Professor of International Law. Ben Ferencz lives in New Rochelle, New York. You wrote this letter because you believe that...

By Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner@tikkun.org Editor, Tikkun Magazine  There is never any justification for acts of terror against innocent civilians — it is the quintessential act of dehumanisation and not recognizing the sanctity of others, and a visible symbol of a world increasingly irrational and out of control. It’s understandable why many of us, after grieving and consoling the mourners, will feel anger – – and while some demagogues in Congress have already sought to manipulate that feeling into a growing militarism (more spies, legalize assassinations of foreign leaders, increase the defence budget at the expense of domestic programs), the more “responsible” leaders are seeking to narrow America’s response to targeted attacks on countries that allegedly harbour the terrorists. But though the perpetrators deserve to be punished, and I personally would be happy if all the people involved in this act were to be imprisoned for the rest of their...

By Scott Taylor  espritdecorp@idirect.comwww.espritdecorps.on.ca   TETOVO, Macedonia – August 09, 2001 As international envoys and Macedonian government officials try to hammer out a last-minute peace deal in the holiday resort Ohrid, fighting and violence continues to escalate across the country. On Wednesday, the ethnic-Albanian rebels (UCK) mounted a major offensive to cut the main highway between the capital of Skopje and the city of Tetovo. After suffering heavy casualties – 10 dead and 14 wounded in an ambush – Macedonian Security forces battled throughout the night to regain control of this vital route. Helicopter gunships pounded rebel villages and armoured columns inched their way up steep mountain paths to engage the UCK. By Thursday morning the highway was proclaimed secure, but a handful of still smoldering vehicles bore stark testimony to the violence of the previous day’s attacks. Angered by the news of the initial ambush, mobs of Macedonian citizens took...

Om dumhet, undfallenhet och Makedoniens väg mot katastrofen Kjell Magnusson Fil.dr., balkanforskare vid Uppsala universitet  Kjell.Magnusson@multietn.uu.se Så började förändringen i bilden av Makedonien När albansk gerilla angrep Makedonien för ett halvår sedan blev reaktionerna förvånansvärt skarpa. Sveriges utrikesminister fördömde i Europas namn de oprovocerade attackerna och underströk att man omöjligen kunde förhandla med “terrorister”, medan Natos generalsekreterare talade om “banditer och mördare”. Några månader senare var tonläget ett annat. I uttalanden från EU och Nato fanns en illa dold irritation mot Makedoniens regering, vilken hotades med sanktioner om man inte visade större förhandlingsvilja. Vad hade hänt? Enligt utfästelser från Nato skulle “terroristerna” oskadliggöras genom att Kfor stängde gränsen till Kosovo, arresterade gerillasoldater och beslagtog vapen. Samtidigt gjorde Nato klart att man inte tänkte intervenera militärt, medan EU manade den makedoniska regeringen till återhållsamhet. Infiltrationen ifrån Kosovo Detta ledde till ett karaktäristiskt mönster som gång på gång upprepades: Kfor lyckades inte...

By The British Helsinki Human Rights Group, BHHG For more information, call 01865-439483; or contact Mark Almond (07885-625415) or John Laughland (02087419749). SUMMARY Anti -Western Feeling –  no surprise This Group’s observers detected unprecedented hostility towards Westerners on the part of ordinary ethnic Macedonians during their mission to Macedonia before 20th June and so they were not surprised when the angry crowds which stormed theMacedonian parliament in Skopje on the night of June 25th after agroup of Albanian rebels had been escorted to freedom by Nato troops earlier in the day also vented their frustrationon Western journalists. The four month crisis in Macedonia provoked by an Albanian guerrilla insurgency has led to repeated calls in the West  for the EU and Nato to act as “honest brokers,” yet the widespread perception among Macedonians that the insurrection has been facilitatedat best by the failure of Western troops to interdict weapons smuggling...

By Arun Gandhi, director M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence gandhi@cbu.edu www.gandhiinstitute.org   Understandably, after the tragedy in New York and Washington DC on September 11 many have written or called the office to find out what would be an appropriate nonviolent response to such an unbelievably inhuman act of violence. First, we must understand that nonviolence is not a strategy that we can use in a moment of crisis and discarded in times of peace. Nonviolence is about personal attitudes, about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. Because, a nation’s collective attitude is based on the attitude of the individual. Nonviolence is about building positive relationships with all human beings’ relationships that are based on love, compassion, respect, understanding and appreciation. Nonviolence is also about not judging people as we perceive them to be — that is, a murderer is not born a murderer; a terrorist is not...

– for inspiration, encouragement and empowerment About the book “PEACE IS POSSIBLE” by Fredrik Heffermehl, Norway  A reader in California who orders 20 copies for family and friends for Christmas, a peace movement leader in Toronto who wishes 35 copies to spread to key people in local chapters, an enthusiastic General Director of UNESCO, professors from universities around the world using it for teaching peace, a democracy activist in Albania reading from it on local radio, a leading foreign affairs journalist  saying that it was great reading – and a lot to learn , a Foreign Minister recommending it warmly whenever he can …. This is the kind of feedback that tells me that “PEACE IS POSSIBLE” has become the book I set out to make, in every respect – except one: “peace” was not sexy enough to find a major publisher to distribute the book all around the world. The answer is...

Gandhi i Sydafrika En film av Maj Wechselman By Sverigespremiär den 29 september i Stockholm på Grand Biografen, i Göteborg på Svea,i Malmö på Spegeln och i Lund på Kine  Denna film är resultatet av det första stora filmsamarbetet mellan Sverige och Sydafrika – 600 statister deltar. När Gandhi steg i land i Sydafrika var han en bortskämt överklassyngling, utbildad som advokat i England. Indier var inte populära i Sydafrika och snart blev Gandhi det nya landets mest skarpögda kritiker. Ändå bildar han en frivillig indisk ambulanskår och blir själv ambulanssoldat i det blodiga Boerkriget. I det isolerade indiska gettot i Johannesburg slår pesten ned. Gandhi ser till att isolera de pestsmittade indierna och improviserar ett pestsjukhus där han själv med ett fåtal andra tar hand om de döende. Ett par år senare gör zuluhövdingen Bambatha uppror i Natal. Åter marscherar Gandhi ut som ambulanssoldat. Men det finns knappast någon...

ARTIKELSAMLINGSveriges förändrade säkerhetspolitik och debatten om den Benjamin Ferencz, 2001Interview on terrorism as a crime against humanity Arun Gandhi, October 2, 2001Terrorism and nonviolence Rabbi Michael Lerner, September 17, 2001Where the violence comes from Scott Taylor, Esprit de Corps, CanadaMacedonian Backgrounder – and the Americans in Aracinovo (From Esprit de Corps, August 9, 2001). Kjell Magnusson, Uppsala Universitet, September 12, 2001Makedonien: Så knäcktes ett föredöme Om dumhet, undfallenhet och Makedoniens väg mot katastrofen… Marianne Eriksson, Herman Schmid och Jonas Sjöstedt, Aftonbladet 29 dec 2000EU vill gå i krig för svenska pengar Miroslav Hadzic, Ph.d., BelgradeCritical points for the security of Serbia/FR Yugoslavia Ny film om Gandhi i Sydafrika“Där våldet slutar börjar kärleken John Pilger, AftonbladetMedierna som maktens tjänstehjon(September 15, 2000) Karin Wegestahl, TFF vän, i ArbetetInsatser itan FN godkännande? Sveriges allt mer oklara säkerhetspolitiskahållning måste diskuteras? (August 20, 2000) New book by Riane Eisler, TFF friend and author of “The Chalice...