Features

So how many people were killed in Kosovo? Opponents of the NATO bombing campaign claim estimates were wildly exaggerated through cynical propaganda. But the totals for confirmed dead are mounting. By Ian Williamsin New York Holocaust revisionism – denial of the massacre of Jews during the war – is illegal in some countries. But the downward revision of the numbers murdered in Kosovo is proving very fashionable – even in the New York Times. In mid-October a Texas-based analytical group called Stratfor <www.stratfor.com> issued a report claiming that casualty figures among civilians in Kosovo were deliberately exaggerated to justify NATO’s attack on Serbia. “It really does matter how many were killed in Kosovo,” the report said. “The foreign policy and political implications are substantial. There is a line between oppression and mass murder. It is not a bright shining one, but the distinction between hundreds dead and tens of thousands...

The US is planning a massive intervention in Colombia under the pretext of fighting the ‘narco-guerrillas’ By John Pilger Following its attack on the Balkans, the United States is planning a massive intervention in Colombia. The Clinton administration has decided to seek congressional approval for $1bn in military aid to the government of Andres Pastrana in Bogota. This is for a low-level air war, American-planned and “advised”, with Blackhawk helicopters, satellite surveillance and cluster bombs. “It is the same policy,” says Amnesty International, “that backed, death squads in El Salvador in the 1980s.” It is the policy that started the war in Vietnam. Colombia receives more US arms and equipment than any country in the world, apart from Israel and Egypt. Last May, the Washington Post disclosed that 200 American military personnel were playing key parts in the war against the guerrillas of Colombia’s popular resistance, who occupy an area...

UNICEF launched a campaign in Colombia this week that aims to bring together more than 2 million Colombians to promote peace, reports Bogota’s El Pais. The “Manos a la Paz” (Hands For Peace) campaign, which began Monday and runs through Sunday, has recruited 100,000 youth between the ages of 14 and 18 to act as “peace builders.” After receiving training, the youth deliver messages on peace building to families, schools, businesses and unions in more than 1,000 towns. According to its promoters, the campaign supports the Colombian peace process and is intended as a “push” to resolve the Colombian conflict with negotiations. It also teaches “tolerance and respect for others, reconciliation, solidarity and participation” (Ignacio Tena, Bogota El Tiempo, 4 Nov, UN Wire translation). At least 35,000 Colombians have been killed in just the last decade of Colombia’s 40-year civil war. “Kidnappings and extortion are common, and 1.5 million Colombians...

By Chris Black Lawyer, Toronto Private justice replacing public justice The indictment of Slobodan Milosevic for alleged war crimes raises important questions about the impartiality and, ultimately, the purpose of the International Criminal Tribunal. For centuries, the independence of judicial bodies has been considered one of the fundamental precepts of the quest for justice. As Lord Hewart stated in 1924, it is “…of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” It has also been said that there is nothing more important than the public administration of justice. But in the case of the International Criminal Tribunal a compelling argument can be made that private justice has replaced public justice, that even the appearance of fundamental justice has been replaced by an open contempt for justice. It is clear that from the beginning American, British, French and German interests...

Links to Facts & Views A NEW COLD WAR ?  Are nuclear policies shaping a new Cold War era?• New U.S. policies anatagonize Russia and ChinaThe Clinton administration appears to be heading for a confrontation with Russia and China on its plans to develop an antiballistic missile (ABM) system capable of warding off blows from rogue states like North Korea and Iran. High-level Chinese diplomat sees the United States developing into a rogue state.• The U.S. is drunk with its own powerWashington seems to be developing a stubbornness against abiding by weapons’ control pacts and a greater penchant to use armed force against its real or perceived enemies. This is not the era of peace it could have been, says the director-general of the Arms Control and Disarmament Department of the Chinese foreign ministry. Russia’s warfare in Chechenya, just an immitation of NATO’s in Yugoslavia?• On Winning Battles And Losing WarsRussians who want to...

By Max Boot,the Journal’s editorial features editor. The Wall Street JournalNovember 2, 1999 PRISTINA, Kosovo–Rumors of colonialism’s demise have been much exaggerated. In recent years the United Nations has taken over the administration of Cambodia (1992-93), Bosnia (1995-present), Kosovo and now East Timor. Nowhere is this process further advanced than in Kosovo. Here, unlike in Bosnia, there has been no indigenous government at all (at least none that is officially recognized) since the Serbs left in June. So how is colonialism, U.N.-style, going? That question was on my mind as I tried to concentrate above the thacka-thacka-thacka of a big Chinook helicopter ferrying a group of journalists and policy makers from Macedonia into Kosovo. Although the Italian crew members–part of KFOR (Kosovo Force)– diligently manned their heavy machine guns as we swept in over the countryside, our journey last week was a peaceful one. Pristina, Kosovo’s capital and main city,...

Links to Facts & Views There are many great initiatives – also in the field of norm-setting – to further a truly global democracy. Here is one of them:• A Charter for Global DemocracyOur call for international accountability, justice, sustainable development and democracy. In September 2000 the United Nations will hold a special Millennium Assembly and Summit on the future of the world. This Charter will be published as an open letter on worldwide and other presented to UN Representatives. Please join us. NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia was also an experiment in information or cyber warfare…• The Cyber Bomb in YugoslaviaFor specialists in this burgeoning field of information warfare, Yugoslavia merely stands as another demonstration that computer network attack will eventually become an integral part of the way warfare is waged, writes Bill Arkin in Washington Post. Bit by bit, the truth about the consequences of NATO’s irresponsible bombing comes out:•Environmental effects of...

Associated Press, Friday October 8 By Robert BurnsAP Military Writer NORFOLK, Va. (AP) – The U.S. military conducted a form of computer warfare against Yugoslavia as part of NATO’s air war last spring, the military’s top officer acknowledged for the first time. Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the remark during an interview Thursday in which he discussed the Pentagon’s decision to assign U.S. Space Command the responsibility of coordinating both the defense of military computer networks and attacks on enemy networks. Asked broadly if U.S. information “weapons” were used against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo campaign, Shelton replied, “You can assume that we in fact employed some of our systems, yes.” He said the “systems” were offensive in nature, but he would not be more specific about how they were used. A defense official said later that Shelton was referring to a broad range...

Yahoo! News World HeadlinesThursday October 28, 1999http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991028/wl/macedonia_elections_1.htmlAP Photo By Jovana GecAssociated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) – As presidential elections approach, Macedonia’s outgoing president fears nationalism and ethnic intolerance sweeping the Balkans may endanger the future of the nation he led peacefully to independence eight years ago. Voters in this landlocked nation of 2 million people will choose a new president Sunday to succeed Kiro Gligorov, 83, who led Macedonia to independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. In doing so, this ethnically mixed country of Slavs, Albanians, Gypsies and others became the only former Yugoslav republic to leave the Belgrade-led federation without bloodshed. Macedonia’s long-term future, however, is far from assured. Many Macedonians fear that the recent bloodshed in Kosovo and the continuing political turmoil in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, may engulf their country once Gligorov has left office. In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Gligorov said he had...

San Francisco, October 27-November 1 TFF is proud to have been invited to this year’s FORUM as the only institution from Scandinavia. It is tasked with making a special contribution to the Coexistence and Community Building Initiative chaired by Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe. Read more here! Join some of the world’s most thoughtful and innovative business, scientific, political, cultural and religious leaders to explore and shape the trends of the coming century. This year’s Forum is convened by the following co-chairs: Askar AkaevOscar AriasJean-Bertrand AristideJames A. Baker, IIITansu ÇillerMarian Wright EdelmanSonia GandhiJane GoodallMikhail GorbachevRuud LubbersFederico MayorThabo MbekiYasuhiro NakasoneLea RabinJose Ramos-HortaJehan SadatTed TurnerDesmond TutuElie WieselMuhammad Yunus The State of the World Forum is designed to inspire your life. You will interact with other leaders from around the world and a multiplicity of disciplines. You will be part of broad-ranging discussions covering the spectrum of human interests from spirituality to global security, science...

Links to Facts & Views Are we ever told the truth about what is done in the name of security? This is what the United States did not tell us about its own proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world – since 1951! • Read “Where the Nukes Were” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists“Soon complete weapon systems found their way to all sorts of places &emdash; Okinawa, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines in the Pacific for example, and Morocco, France, and then most of the NATO countries in the West. Sometimes U.S. allies knew they were hosting nuclear weapons; sometimes they didn’t. Then, too, the United States was occasionally a little too eager to share control with its NATO buddies…” This is the full listof where these nuclear weapons were.  – and here follow the news reports about this shocking report: • The United States scattered nuclear weapons around the...

Links to Facts & Views You want to find interesting analyses, reports, articles and papers on peace and conflict issues from around the world? Now we do the job for you. This page provides links to a selection of the best critical and constructive materials – the essential stuff we learn from ourselves and want to share. Just click below at what you are interested in read, download or send on to a friend. •  What is Operation Matrix? A strategy to undermine MilosevicThe program originated with a December 1998 White House meeting at which Robert S. Gelbard, the president and secretary of state’s special adviser for Kosovo, was put in charge of an umbrella strategy. That’s what CIA got money to do and – perhaps – it explains why NATO didn’t destroy Yugoslavia’s mobile phone net? Read William Arkin’s Washington Post column of October 11, 1999. • What Makes Europe Look Increasingly...