Features

Af Ole Hoff-Lund, Ritzau TELEGRAM 040532 6/2004 Ny bog betegner Irakkrigen som en forudsigelig fiasko En forudsigelig fiasko. Sådan betegner fredsforskeren Jan Øberg krigen i Irak. I en ny bog gennemgår han konflikten og kommer med 19 løsningsforslag. Han sagde det, allerede før krigen mod Irak brød ud i marts 2003. At den amerikanske invasion ville være frugtesløs og kaste Irak ud i en kaotisk situation, hvor modstanden mod besættelsesmagten gradvist ville vokse sig større. At den amerikansk ledede krig med stor sandsynlighed ville frembringe endnu flere terrorister, som ville rette deres had mod den vestlige verdens imperialisme. Og at der formentlig slet ikke var nogen masseødelæggelsesvåben i Saddam Husseins Irak, der var tvunget i knæ efter 12 års handelssanktioner. Mange beskyldte dengang fredsforskeren og forfatteren Jan Øberg for at være på den forkerte side og for at være antiamerikansk. Derfor kan det heller ikke komme bag på nogen, at...

Af Mads Stenstrup, Jyllands-Posten, 20. maj, 2004 “Skyd en perker og vær glad. Skyd to perkere og kom i himlen..” 1. april sagde militærsociolog Claus Kold sit job på Forsvars-akademiet op. Han følte sin forskning undertrykt i stedet for, at man tog ved lære af den. Drengestreger? – i givet fald nok af den grovkornede slags. Sådan vil de fleste i de danske militærlejre i udlandet kalde den slags lokumsgraffiti, som blandt utallige andre eksempler blev fundet i de danske lejre Camp Olaf Rye og Camp Holger Danske i Kosovo for nogle år siden og stadig kan findes i tilsvarende lejre i Afghanistan og Irak. Militærsociolog Claus Kold har lavet et feltstudie og en ph.d-afhandling om den slags og mere overordnet om de udsendte danske soldaters opfattelser og holdninger til deres opgave. Han er overbevist om, at lyrik som ovenstående dækker over meget mere end drengestreger. Det dækker bl.a. også...

By Anders Brännström May 18, 2004 Translated article from the Swedish Daily Dagens Nyheter of May 3, 2004 “Do not abandon Kosovo!” Unless the Serbian minority is protected by a strong international military force, the part of the Kosovo Albanian population that is prone to violence will ethnically cleanse anything Serbian out of Kosovo as soon as it gets an opportunity. Until the violent riots in March, the external world believed that the situation in Kosovo had become stabilized. There were plans to strongly reduce the peacekeeping KFOR troops. Thanks to the disarmament not having gone very far, it was possible to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs. Brigadier Anders Brännström, until recently brigade commander in Kosovo, writes that an international force must remain. Last Friday I returned to Sweden after serving as brigade commander in Kosovo. During the last six months, Sweden has been responsible for the Multinational...

May 18, 2004 An Idea for the Creative Destruction of Abu Ghraib Prison Injustice, pain, suffering and humiliation characterize Abu Ghraib Prison. The process of destroying the prison as symbol and reality should be used as one means for redress of past injury in addition to compensation for victims and justice for perpetrators. Let engineers place 1000 explosive charges to bring down the prison structure. Let each person who has suffered there push the button for a detonation. Let the prisoners and former prisoners organize themselves for this ceremony to regain and preserve their dignity. Let Coalition government and military representatives also participate in the detonation. Let one representative of the torturers also push a button to signal their remorse and an end to their inhumane and criminal activities. Give the metal gates and prison doors to artists to create a monument. If you agree with this idea, please forward...

REPORT of Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium 28 April 2004 based on a fact-finding mission to Iraq, March 2004 Contact: Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, info@g3w.be, tel. +32/2 209.23.60 geert.van.moorter@skynet.be, tel. +32/486 79.37.98 May 18, 2004 Dr. Geert Van Moorter was already in Iraq on various missions for the Belgian non-governmental organization Medical Aid for the Third World, in April 2002; before, during and after the war in March/April 2003; in July/August 2003; and in March 2004. He made, together with Iraqi doctors and health workers, a random survey on the health situation and the health care infrastructure in Iraq, after one year of occupation. He visited hospitals and clinics in Baghdad and Basra. On a health conference in Basra, he was able to talk to colleagues from all over the country. He had contacts with Unicef, the World Health Organization, the new Ministry of Health...

Oversat af CensurNyt.dk Rapport om Lægehjælp til den Tredje Verden, Belgien af Dr. Geert Van Moorter, M.D. 28. april 2004 Baseret på en fakta-søgende mission i Irak marts 2004 Kontakt: Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, info@g3w.be, tel. +32/2 209.23.60 geert.van.moorter@skynet.be, tel. +32/486 /9.37.98 18 maj 2004 Dr. Geert Van Moorter var allerede i Irak, på forskellige missioner for den belgiske NGO Medical Aid for the Third World, i April 2002; før, under og efter krigen i marts/april 2003; i juli/august 2003; og i marts 2004. Sammen med irakiske læger og sundhedsarbejdere lavede han en vilkårlig undersøgelse af sundhedssituationen og sundhedsvæsentes infrastruktur i Irak, efter et års besættelse. Han besøgte hospitaler og klinikker i Baghdad og Basra. Han fik mulighed for at tale med kolleger fra hele landet på en sundhedskonference i Basra. Han havde kontakt med UNICEF, WHO (verdens sundhedsorganisationen), det nye sundhedsministerium og med adskillige krigsofre fra...

By Lewis MacKenzie April 22, 2004 From The National Post, Canada, April 6, 2004 Five years ago our television screens were dominated by pictures of Kosovo-Albanian refugees escaping across Kosovo’s borders to the sanctuaries of Macedonia and Albania. Shrill reports indicated that Slobodan Milosevic’s security forces were conducting a campaign of genocide and that at least 100,000 Kosovo-Albanians had been exterminated and buried in mass graves throughout the Serbian province. NATO sprung into action and, in spite of the fact no member nation of the alliance was threatened, commenced bombing not only Kosovo, but the infrastructure and population of Serbia itself — without the authorizing United Nations resolution so revered by Canadian leadership, past and present.  Those of us who warned that the West was being sucked in on the side of an extremist, militant, Kosovo-Albanian independence movement were dismissed as appeasers. The fact that the lead organization spearheading the...

Af Folkerepublikken Kinas Statsråds Informationskontor Folkerepublikken Kinas Statsråds Informationskontor udsender årligt en menneskerettighedsrapport for USA. 2003-rapporten er dateret 1. marts 2004 og gengives her i Orla Jordals danske oversættelse. Den engelske udgave findes på Folkets Dagblad og Information Clearing House. “Den 25. februar 2004 udsendte USAs State Department sin Landerapport om menneskerettighedsforhold for 2003 (i det følgende kaldet “rapporterne”). Som i tidligere år optræder USA igen i år som “verdens menneskerettigheds politi” ved i “rapporterne” at forvrænge og kritisere menneskerettighedssituationerne i mere end 190 lande og regioner i verden, herunder i Kina. Og ganske som sædvanligt “udelod” USA sine egne langvarige uregelmæssigheder og problemer med menneskerettigheder i “rapporterne”. Derfor må vi, som tidligere, hjælpe USA med at holde rede på USAs egne menneskerettighedsforhold. 1. Om liv, frihed og personlig sikkerhed De forenede stater har længe været et volds- og kriminalitetshærget samfund med alvorlige krænkelser af folks rettigheder fra ordensmagternes side og med...

By The recurrent theme of The First Casualty, the classic account of war reporting through the ages, by Phillip Knightley, is the unforgiving verdict of history on the way conflicts are presented by journalists to their readers and audiences. It recounts a struggle between media and the military, from the earliest authentic frontline despatches, in the Crimea – which exposed a face of war the generals would rather have remained hidden – through World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the 1991 Gulf War and, in more recent editions, Kosovo, which Knightley sees as a ‘final victory’ for military propagandists over the cause of honest reporting. In all these cases, journalism, the first draft of history, had to be substantially redrafted as hindsight showed that important parts of the story – often the most important – had been omitted at the time. This familiar pattern is now unfolding in Kosovo. Nato’s bombing...

Av Doris Kruckenberg 16 februari 2004 World Social Forum, 2004. Mumbai, Indien For mig at se var hovedbudskabet i årets WSF det at den aktuelle økonomiske verdensorden er i dyb krise. Det er desperation der præger den hidsige jagt på profit, hvori også terroristjagten og de dermed begrundede krige har sin del. På en workshop om “Udenlandsk kapital til U-lande??”, som Attac-Tyskland afholdt, udtalte Riaz K.Tayob, sydafrikansk økonom, specialiseret i “FDI” (Foreign Direct Investments): “Tro ikke at det bare handler om at DE er grådige, det vil de gerne have os til at tro for at dække over den egentlige årsag. Den hidsige profitjagt der siden 70-erne har opfundet stadig nye veje at udnytte (der er nemlig ikke flere reelle tilgange penge kan produceres på), bunder i at kapitalismen er i krise, en krise der hele tiden fordybes. Derfor er DE desperate, derfor bliver verden et stadig farligere sted at...

By Uri Avnery February 16, 2004 Do you want to make the deal of a lifetime?Go to Gaza! The government has kindly laid on armored vehicles for this purpose. Once there, you can obtain the villa you have dreamt about all your life, with two floors and a green lawn, for next to nothing. The State is rich. You can put up greenhouses and produce flowers or vegetables. Once upon a time you could engage Palestinian workers, who would work for a pittance. They had no alternative, because their land was taken away from them. Now this is too dangerous, so you will engage workers from Thailand, who get even less. There are no legal problems, such as a minimum wage, annual vacations, dismissal indemnities or any of that nonsense. Israeli law does not apply. The prevailing law is a relic of the pre-1967 Egyptian occupation, and the conditions are...

Av Poul VillaumeProfessor, dr. phil. 16 ferbuar 2004 På attende måned raser med uformindsket styrke debatten, både internationalt og herhjemme, om grundlaget for krigen mod Irak. For de af os, som fra starten påpegede, at den amerikanske (og den britiske) regerings motiver for at vælge krigen havde meget lidt med eventuelle irakiske masseødelæggelsesvåben eller graden af efterlevelse af FN-resolutioner at gøre, er dette ikke overraskende. Trods den omfattende debat er imidlertid nogle afgørende pointer om det nære historiske forløb, som blev fremført af nogle af os, der talte imod krigen, stort set blevet overset eller glemt: 1) I december 1998 beordrede præsident Clinton FNâs våbeninspektører (UNSCOM) trukket ud af Irak, fordi USA og Storbritannien havde besluttet – uden om FNâs Sikkerhedsråd og i øvrigt med aktiv dansk støtte – at gennemføre en bombekampagne mod Irak som “straf” for manglende samarbejde med FN. I sin sidste rapport konkluderede UNSCOM imidlertid dengang,...