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Verden er blevet rystet i sit fundament, først af de grusomme begivenheder i USA 11. september og så af den påfølgende amerikanske erklæring om “krig mod terrorismen,” som startede med krigen mod Afghanistan. Kritikere argumenterede allerede dengang for at terrorisme måtte forstås som en kriminalforbrydelse og at en erklæring af “krig” mod en fjende, som var uklar og dårligt defineret, ikke alene giver logistiske men også logiske problemer, som kunne blive årsag til alvorlige vanskeligheder efterhånden som projektet rullede sig ud. Det følgende bombardement af Afghanistan har selvfølgelig skabt et stort antal civile dødsofre. Ved slutningen af 2001, var der dræbt ligeså mange eller flere i Afghanistan gennem bombning fra stor højde, end der dræbtes i de to tårne i New York ved september-angrebene. Men endnu mere dyster er den fortsatte, konstante officielle hvisken om efterfølgende mål. Siden terrorisme er så vanskelig at udpege med præcision, kan den findes hér,...

Danish Daily Ekstrabladets “Frontalt” feature, February 14, 2002Translated from Danish by Theresa Marlan An open letter to the Danish and other Nordic governments Remember the innocent dead in Afghanistan too As did other European Union countries, Denmark observed three minutes of silence for the innocent victims killed in the terrorist attack upon the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on the 11th of September last year. A memorial service was also held in Copenhagen with representatives from the government, the Royal family and from The United States. Out of a similar humanitarian consideration, it is my opinion that Denmark and like minded countries should show the innocent victims killed in Afghanistan the same honour. On the grounds of principle and because there is an obvious connection between the two events. All religions maintain that each human life is sacred. Humanism is built, amongst other things, upon the premise that each...

As bad as September 11th may have been, it could have been far worse. Had terrorists attacked with nuclear weapons, the death toll could have risen into the millions. It is likely that even one crude nuclear weapon would have left Manhattan utterly destroyed, and with it the financial and communications center of the country. Were terrorists to obtain one or more nuclear weapons and use them on New York, Washington or other cities, the United States could cease to exist as a functioning country. The stakes are very high, and yet the US is creating new nuclear policies that increase the likelihood that terrorists will ultimately obtain nuclear weapons. A bipartisan commission, headed by Howard Baker and Lloyd Cutler, concluded that the United States should be spending some $3 billion per year over the next ten years to help Russia control its nuclear weapons and weapon-grade nuclear materials. Rather...

A paper prepared for the International Conference on “Gandhian Alternativesto Terrorism and War”Organized by the Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti,Kerala, South India, February 7-9, 2002 Introduction: Tears in a mosque and a T-shirt at the American Embassy Shortly after September 11, 2001, I attended a juma-at (Friday) prayer at a local mosque in Bangkok. At this mosque the Imam (prayers/mosque’ s leader) would give kutbah (sermon) in three languages: Arabic, Thai and English, because there are a large number of foreign Muslims at the service. After the Friday prayer, the Imam invited the attendees to perform a special prayer asking God’s blessing for World Peace and for the truth about the cruel event of September 11 to come out. While praying, a man who stood next to me began to weep. After the prayer, I turned to him and asked in English: “Where do you come from?” “Kashmir,” was the...

LONDON – Jonas Savimbi was like the war in Angola itself: he went on and on, seemingly forever. Whatever peace deal was negotiated he was sure to break it, sure to find another sponsor who’d trade diamonds for guns. He outlasted most of his principal rivals and he certainly outlasted his godfather, the Cold War, and the earnest need of the superpowers to woo friends who were prepared to engage in a proxy war against the friends of the rival superpower. In the end, such was his tenacity and his masterly improvisation, he showed that he could survive and live to fight another day without a superpower behind him. When America finally but belatedly turned against him he wooed the malevolent and rich dictator of neighbouring Zaire, and when that ended with Mobutu’s death he befriended the presidents of Togo, Rwanda and Burkina Faso. Anyone who’d sell him a gun or...

To be human is to recognize the cultural perspectives that bind us to tribe, sect, religion, or nation, and to rise above them. It is to feel the pain of the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the refugee, the starving child, the slave, the victim. To be human is to break the ties of cultural conformity and group-think, and to use one’s own mind. It is to recognize good and evil, and to choose good. It is to consider with the heart. It is to act with conscience. To be human is to be courageous. It is to choose the path of compassion. It is to sacrifice for what is just. It is to break the silence. It is to be an unrelenting advocate of human decency and human dignity. To be human is to breathe with the rhythm of life, and to recognize our kinship with all forms of life. It...

For over 100 years the Ku Klux Klan, White Citizens Council, other hate groups and individuals used terrorism and all types of violence in the United States. They have produced some of the bloodiest years in United States history. There appeared to be no limits to their hate and violence which included lynching of blacks, castration, and bombing of blacks homes, churches and businesses. This same tactic was used against Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., and others during the Civil Rights Movement. As we examine this era, the weapon of Kingian nonviolence was successful. Therefore, it would behoove us to examine some basic aspects of Kingian nonviolence and its application to terrorism and violence. My paper will examine Dr. King’s experiment with nonviolence in the 1960’s and hopefully stimulate serious discussion concerning the Kingian nonviolence application to terrorism today. We will examine the Kingian nonviolent approach to terrorism and war...

LONDON – “Sunshine is dead. Long live the darkness.” Is this what President George Bush would have liked to have said this week during his visit to Seoul? Even he, so soon after his “axis of evil” speech, might think that would be over the top. Nevertheless, President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea is clearly fighting tooth and nail to save what remains of what he calls his “sunshine policy”, his ambition to forge reconciliation with communist North Korea. The opposition at home has been buoyed by the sounds of jihad from Washington. The fact that the political pros in the European Union and the awarders of the Nobel Peace Prize, who in these matters tend to reflect sophisticated liberal opinion, have supported “sunshine” all along cuts no ice in the Bush entourage. Bush’s tactic when he feels he has upset his interlocutor is to turn on the charm and stress...

(forthcoming in the Second Edition of “Searching for Peace: The Road to TRANSCEND” by Johan Galtung, Carl G. Jacobsen and Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen. London: Pluto Press, 2002) 1. Diagnosis. Politics, like communication is seen in terms of who does what to whom, how-when-where, and why. The what-how-when-where of the September 11 attack in New York and Washington is clear; the problems are who and why. But why is at least clear up to a certain point. Like the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, also bombed on a September 11 (1973) somebody had something against what happened inside some buildings: the capitalism of the US world trade and the militarism of the US Pentagon for year 2001/1/; the politics of the Unidad Popular for year 1973. The text was written in building language, and like for all texts what is not written may be equally important: no museum, no cathedral, no parliament. The...

The undertaking of this chapter is to consider the record of the United Nations System since its inception, with an eye focused on prospects for renewal and reform at the present time. The main criteria relied upon for assessment are considerations of effectiveness and legitimacy in relation to the operations of the United Nations. The chapter begins with a discussion of why the present global setting is resistant to renewal and reform, but with the qualification that such a climate of resistance could change rapidly. And that over time, the sheer complexity of international life and the salience of global scale problems is likely to exert pressures to strengthen the United Nations. From matters of context, the chapter moves on to discuss the historical origins of the United Nations, and the extent to which the experiences with global security prior to 1945 shaped the character of the UN in relation...

For the project INSTEAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONSBy the Swedish Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (SLMK) in cooperation with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Ten years after the so-called end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are still with us. There is the BMD, the risk of diversion of fissile materials, the fear of nuclearisation of terrorism. The weapons and their means of delivery have become ever more sophisticated. Through base systems, sub-marines, aircraft carriers, the global reach of militarism has intensified. Still, in proportion to the increasing threat all this represents to humankind’s survival as well as to democracy and global development, public debate with visions of a nuclear-free is desperately feeble. Advocates of a nuclear-free world, face immensely powerful governments and military-industrial-scientific structures. We also face the arrogance of power of the roughly 600 individuals (presidents, prime ministers, defence ministers, chiefs of staffs and commanders)...

The unprecedented revocation on 7 November 2001 of Dr. Azmi Bishara’s immunity as a member of the Israeli Knesset opened the way for his criminal indictment on charges that he had violated the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (1948) and Regulation 5 of the Emergency Regulations (Exiting the Country) (1948). The essence of the allegations against Dr. Bishara was that he had on two occasions made speeches that expressed support for Palestinian resistance in Occupied Palestine and in support of the expulsion of Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. Bishara was also accused of violating Regulation 5 as a result of his humanitarian role in arranging family visits by elderly Palestinians to their relatives living in Syrian refugee camps. Such a criminal proceeding raises extremely serious questions concerning the free speech rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and particularly those who have chosen to participate in Israeli governmental institutions. For the Knesset...