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LONDON – After we had talked about all manner of jihadists for an hour – jihadists in Kashmir attacking India, jihadists in Afghanistan attacking America and today jihadists in Pakistan attempting to kill President Pervez Musharraf – I asked the high American official, “don’t you feel that you spend all your time just picking up the pieces for the wrongheaded policies when the West supported the jihadists as a tool against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan?” He sighed, nodded and replied, “That’s right”. Driving away from that conversation I was convinced more than ever that the various terrorist movements unleashed in this corner of the world over the last twenty years have their origins in the policies of Jimmy Carter, that most pacific of all post war American presidents who, prodded by his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, decided to undermine and repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan of Christmas...

Den turkiske författaren Orhan Pamuk dras har blivit en bricka i spelet om Turkiets medlemskap i den europeiska gemenskapen. På Bokmässan i Göteborg drog han stora skaror med anledning av romanen “Snö”. Sören Sommelius har träffat honom över en kopp te. Fundamentalister och nationalister med olika förtecken intrigerar, liksom marxister och ex-marxister. Dödande skott avlossas på teatern under staden Kars första direktsända TV-föreställning. Snön faller oavbrutet. Staden är isolerad från omvärlden och varje kapitel i boken inleds med snöflingor. Orhan Pamuk skapar ett mikrokosmos, ett Turkiet i miniatyr, i den östliga utposten Kars i sin roman “Snö”, som i höst kommit på svenska (Norstedts, översättning Inger Johansson). Kars är periferi i Turkiet på samma sätt som Istanbul är periferi i Europa. – Det är en underlig känsla att bo “vid kanten”, säger Orhan Pamuk när jag får en intervjustund med honom under bokmässan i Göteborg. Vi sitter i kanten av...

I sitt Nobeltal skrädde litteraturpristagaren Harold Pinter inte orden. Han anklagade USA för statsterrorism, global maktmanipulation, totalt förakt för internationella rättsprinciper, därtill ett land med en inhemsk Gulagarkipelag av fängelser. Invasionen av Irak betecknade han som “ett banditdåd”. Och, sa Pinter, “det patetiska och fogliga Storbritannien” traskar efter USA i ledband som ett bräkande litet lamm. Tal, skriver jag. Men var det jag såg ett tal eller ett väl regisserat stycke existentiell enmansteater? Naturligtvis var det teater. Brittiska The Guardians teaterkritiker Michael Billington jämförde Pinters tal med en laddad teaterpjäs av Beckett, som “Slutspel”. På scenen satt den svårt sjuke författaren i rullstol, med en filt över knäna. Hans kroppsliga bräcklighet och rösten anfrätt av strupcancer stod i total kontrast till vreden och livskraften i hans moraliska övertygelse. Det han framförde var en svidande politisk anklagelseakt mot världens mäktigaste stat USA och mot hans eget land. Bush och Blair borde ställas inför...

The Myth of Ethnic WarSerbia and Croatia in the 1990sV.P. Gagnon JrCornell University Press Daytonavtalet undertecknades på en amerikansk flygbas december 1995. Därmed sattes punkt för ett blodigt bosniskt inbördeskrig. Fredsavtalet ledde till att vapnen vilade men inte till att fred byggdes. Bosnien är i dag ett internationellt protektorat. Fredsavtalet garanterade de etniska grupperna vissa rättigheter, vilket försvårat ett politiskt demokratibygge baserat på medborgarskap. Hög arbetslöshet och utbredd fattigdom präglar den unga staten. Det finns de som kallat Bosnien en “monsterstat”. Varför har såren från kriget varit så svårläkta? En orsak är att fredsavtalet inte konstruerades för att lindra de konflikter som lett till krig. Kriget beskrevs ständigt som ett etniskt krig mellan hatiska folkgrupper. Daytonavtalet skapade en “etnisk fred”, med etnisk maktbalans. Men var det ett “etniskt krig”? Naturligtvis inte, det vet varenda människa med rötter på Balkan. Redan i titeln till sin bok “The Myth of Ethnic War”...

LONDON – This is not just currently the world’s most dangerous geological faultline, it is the world’s single most dangerous geopolitical fault line – and there is now a clear connection between the two. Standing here in this devastated town and looking at the foot ranges of the Himalayas where October’s earthquake tore off a kilometre-long front of mountainside makes one shiver in awe at the earth’s almighty power of destruction. A nuclear war would destroy in a different way – whole cities of the subcontinent would be incinerated. What is the connection between these two events? Geographically there certainly is. I’m standing near the epicentre of the earthquake in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the one-third slice of Kashmir that Pakistan wrested from India after the first of their three deadly wars. Nearby the two countries have a de facto border, the so-called Line of Control. The Indian part is also largely...

Annette Schiffmann, PressInfo 229, December 2, 2005Tookie Williams – from gang leader to children’s book author and peace activist…butHe is scheduled to die by injection on December 13. Breaking news is that the California High Court won’t spare him. Unless Governor Schwarzenegger intervenes to stop the execution. TFF Associate Annette Schiffmann writes the Tookie story and tells you how you can help save his life – but please act now! Times, LondonDead man talking International Herald TribuneClemency for a crisp Stanley Williams official website WikipediaStanley Williams State’s high court won’t spare WilliamsSchwarzenegger could still stop execution of gang founder CNN December 13, 2005Williams just hours from execution Jan Oberg, TFF director – December 13, 2005Save the life of Stanley “Tookie” WilliamsWilliams was executed today. Oberg’s appeal letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. CNN, December 2005Williams claim of founding Crips is disputedGang expert: Crips ‘helped destroy the black community’

Catharina Östman, Vasa Bladet, 8:e november 2005Burundi – vad då?Med utgångspunkt i Burundis positiva fredsprocess frågar Catharina Östman “Vore det inte på tiden med ett utvidgat nyhetsbegrepp där också det som redan görs för de drabbade i olika länder skulle lyftas fram – inte för att dölja problemen, utan som sporre för oss omkring att engagera oss ännu mer?” Patrik Stålgren i Göteborgs-PostenVänd inte ryggen åt Burundis folkMed en ny president öppnas en möjlighet att bryta våldsspiralen i Burundi, skriver Patrik Stålgren. TFF Feature Collection, November 7, 2005Burundi’s peace process: Positive story – but did you ever hear about it?Is the story of 7 million people moving towards peace, development and justice after war not worth telling or is it that editors and journalists simply don’t see peace when it happens? TFF keeps updating you about the country – and continue to serve as goodwill ambassador for the country! PressInfo...

Save the life of Stanley “Tookie” Williams Dear Governor Schwarzenegger Moral leaders of our times – such as those who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – have consistently been against violence in general and the death penalty in particular. If we kill a fellow human being, the act can never be redressed. We can never say, I am sorry if – later – it turns out that we made the wrong decision. The case of Stanley Williams is not only about his guilt, but also about the doubts and perhaps feelings of guilt you will feel forever as a moral being: did he really deserve to die? What if I made the wrong decision? How will I be judged for this? I am stuck since I cannot make it good again. Stanley Williams may have done very bad things. We must think, of course, with empathy and sorrow...

LONDON – Tightening the noose on Islamic seminaries – madrasas – Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, promulgated last week an ordinance prohibiting these institutions from teaching or publishing literature which promotes militancy, sectarianism and religious hatred. This should please both the Americans and the British who have long been convinced as Colin Powell, when Secretary of State, put it, that “the madrasas are a breeding ground for fundamentalists and terrorists”. Some of the suicide bombers who exploded the bombs on the London transport system in July were educated in Pakistani madrasas and London has been leaning on Islamabad to close down the more extremist ones. How virulent are they? Yesterday I arrived unannounced at one the of the largest madrasas in Lahore, a city that, besides being the home of some of the most beautiful and breathtaking of Mogul architecture, sits close up to the Indian border and provides a base...

TFF Amahoro (Peace) Coalition in Burundi, December 6, 2005Appeal for an Open Center for Peace and Reconciliation !Twelve of the best Burundian NGOs – youth, women, teachers, media, scholars, former militaries, etc – have joined forces to set up the first ever learning center in support of one of the world’s most promising – but internationally unknown – peace processes.Competent and experienced, they will foster peace and improve life among their 7 million fellow citizens in Burundi, the world’s third materially poorest country with so much talent and energy. Burundi must be rewarded for having recognised in earnest that war is rubbish and peace is realistic and possible.This is your 2006 people-to-people peace project. It’s a TFF-initiated project. Do something positive today: read, spread the message and donate! Even the smallest support will make a huge difference. TFF Feature Collection, December 6, 2005Burundi – Isn’t it time we rewarded this country for...

This is our response to Hashim Thaci’s article, My People Deserve Their Independence, in the International Herald Tribune, November 25, 2005. The IHT printed our response on December 4, 2005 – but in a much shortened version. Here is our letter in full. Hashim Thaci, leading Kosovo-Albanian politician, argues (International Herald Tribune, Nov 25, 2005) that “my people” – presumably referring here to the Albanians – deserve their independence. It’s one of many pro-independence articles appearing now when talks are to start about the future status of this UN-administered part of Serbia and Montenegro. Independence is one option and it would be a good solution if a) the arguments for it were more truthful and b) it would not risk further instability and perhaps renewed violence. Thaci’s main argument is that his Albanian people have suffered so much that they deserve independence. But while Milosevic’ policies were indeed ruthless and indefensible, Thaci’s historical...

A People’s Summit for Departments of Peace was held in London, October 18 & 19 2005, in the spirit of the United Nations General Assembly’s Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (A/RES/53/243 dated 13 September 1999) and its definition of a culture of peace as “a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour, and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups, and nations” (A/RES/52/13). The purpose of the Summit was to strengthen and grow the international movement for a culture of peace and for government Departments of Peace and Ministries for Peace. Vicky Rossi: Where does the concept of a Ministry/Department for Peace originate? Diana Basterfield: I went on the demonstration in February 2003. Despite the millions marching, the war went ahead nevertheless. By coincidence, I was on the mailing...