PressInfo

We have four pieces of good news for you: Nonviolence Forum on our site, training with the Tibetan exile government in Dharamsala in India, an exploratory travel in Gandhi’s footsteps and the proposal of a three-year research program on reconciliation and forgiveness for which we seek funding. M. K. Gandhi’s warned us all against seven social sins: politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, education without character, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. Hardly without relevance today… Nonviolent thinking and politics and Gandhian thinking are themes at the heart of the foundation’s work. But we have not done as much as we think we should around this theme. Like others, TFF tends to get bogged down in day-to-day events in a world spinning faster and faster. We hardly get enough time to think of why we do what we do and what we must...

Peace is promoted by constructive proposals and dialogue Four preceding PressInfos have expressed concern over — and criticised — the ongoing, militarisation of the EU. Some will say: but there are no alternatives. We believe that there are always alternatives, that democracies are characterised by alternatives and choice, and that openly discussed alternatives will improve the quality and legitimacy of society’s decision–making. In addition, it is an intellectual and moral challenge to not only criticise but also be constructive. If we only tell people that we think they are wrong, they are not likely to listen. However, if we say: what are your views on this set of ideas and steps? — we may sometimes engage them in dialogue and sow a seed. Most people in power circles live their daily lives in in a time frame and a social space where certain ideas, viewpoints and concepts are just not...

Can imperial policies and warsbe avoided now? EU militarisation as an outburst of deep culture How is it possible to militarise the European Union with so little attention and so little knowledge in the media, in public debate and in political decision-making circles? How come that an idea such as military humanitarian intervention, bombing, war-fighting strategies and a never-ending flow of new smaller as well as mass destructive weapons are sold to the general public as instruments of peace? Let’s start out with a few heuristic theses that I believe underpin the present global militarisation trends, driven as they are by the West: 1) In spite of all the good things that can also be said about it, the West, the Occidental culture, is a deeply militarist, violence-prone civilisation. Direct and structural violence, psychological, cultural and entertainment violence is so pervasive that they look ‘natural’ to the majority.Thesis # 1:...

Take the longer view, reflect on what we may learn about conflict-management in the 1990s. TFF publications are short with long duration. For students, concerned citizens, media people and humanitarian organisations, course and seminar leaders &endash; everyone searching beyond mainstream and political correctness: May we remind you of three Balkan related publications? Learning Conflict and Teaching Peace in Former Yugoslavia. A Course Report by Peter Jarman and Jan Oberg, 1998. (Catalogue # 60); about teaching peace in conflict regions. Violence Prevention, Postwar Reconstruction and Civil Society. Theory and Yugoslavia by Jan Oberg, 1998. (Catalogue # 61); about peace-making with a human and social face. Preventing Peace. Sixty Examples of Conflict Mismanagement in Former Yugoslavia since 1991 by Jan Oberg, 1999. (Catalogue # 62); about a few things that could have been done differently, and why militarisation of the EU/NATO is not the right lesson to learn. May we also remind you of our...

It’s only a few months since we launched TNN – the TFF News Navigator. Now we open another new chapter, an online site “TFF Store & Donations.” Here you can do two things: a) Buy TFF and related publications, the whole list since 1986. b) Make donations to help TFF remain a free voice and become people-financed. Our aim is to make it easier for you to buy our publications – books and research reports – and to donate money to our peace research and field work. While we are energetic on Internet, we still believe in the printed word; we also know that many thought it was too costly and time-consuming to acquire our unique peace publications (you can’t buy them anywhere else). We also know that the foundation have thousands of supporters. We expect some of them to be willing to help us now. We must remain a constructive independent...

Many changes in Sweden’s identity Interesting things are happening in Sweden. On November 28, 2000, the Swedish prime minister Goran Persson told Financial Times that Sweden is no longer a neutral country but that it remains militarily alliance-free. That was two weeks before the Swedish Parliament will focus a debate on the issue (December 13). The Social Democratic party program is under revision. Sweden shall no longer be “non-aligned in peace in order to be (able to be) neutral in war.” A main argument is that with the end of the two-bloc Cold War there is nobody to stand “neutral” between and no longer any reason to stand neutral. Only, Sweden will not formally join an alliance and be obliged to come to the rescue should another alliance member be attacked – – see Romano Prodi’s argument in TFF PressInfo 108. In the full glare of publicity the Chief of...

Some reflections on conflict management in the 1990s PressInfo 107 dealt with the conclusions the EU seems to draw from the Balkan crisis, Kosovo in particular. The lessons I, a peace researcher with some knowledge about the region, would pinpoint go in the following, quite different, direction: 1. The EU must first of all improve its capacity to diagnose and understand complex conflicts, conduct early warning, early listening and early action and intervene with civilian capacity to create talks, dialogues, brainstorms and negotiations in close co-operation with all conflicting parties. I would suggest that it attempts to reduce national interests and intervene as impartially as it can and attack problems rather than actors. It is essential to understand that the earlier we intervene and the less violent a conflict is, the easier it is to help solve it without politicising the situation and the easier it is to control prestige,...

It was quite predictable that the EU would militarise itself. In fact, one of the world’s leading peace researchers, TFF adviser Johan Galtung, predicted that in his book about the EU from 1972, “A Superpower in the Making.” It is not in the nature of big powers to see greatness in nonviolence, dialogue, tolerance or in playing the role of one among many. The EU – – whose main players are former colonial powers and present nuclear powers and/or culturally violent – – began their militarisation some ten years ago with the French-German military co-operation, and it got another boost with the French-British agreement in 1998 in Saint Malo. And today’s EU Nice Summit is likely to put the militarisation of EU on an irreversible path, most likely to a new Cold War. Today it is the so-called Eurocorps which is formally in charge of NATO/KFOR in Kosovo. Internally, the EU struggles...

We expect soldiers we send to the front to have some military education and training. As patients we hope the doctor has studied medicine. And who would write a constitution for a new state if not professionally educated lawyers? But not so when it comes to conflict-analysis, mediation or peace-making. In this field it seems that neither specific education, practical experience nor knowledge about the conflicting parties and their cultures is of any importance. The important thing is that you want to do good. Last year, Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden took the initiative to establish an independent international commission tasked with analysing the equally enigmatic and tragic Kosovo conflict and NATO’s bombing as well as outline the lessons to be learnt. He appointed Richard Goldstone, the well-respected South African judge and former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal to chair it together with former Swedish education minister, Carl...

(Erratum to PressInfo 105 after this text) The main proposal in the independent international Kosovo Commission’s report is that Kosovo should be given conditional independence. This PressInfo deals with this proposal and a few other aspects of the report. THE FIRST PARAGRAPH The very first paragraph of the report’s executive statement states: “The origins of the crisis have to be understood in terms of a new wave of nationalism that led to the rise of Milosevic and the official adoption of an extreme Serbian nationalist agenda. The revocation of Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989 was followed by a Belgrade policy aimed at changing the ethnic composition of Kosovo and creating an apartheid-like society.” Here are some simple counter arguments: a) nationalism alone certainly can not explain the conflicts in the region; b) not only the Serbs used nationalism, so did Bosnian Muslim, Croats, Macedonians, Slovenes and Albanians at the time; c)...

Based on the analysis in PressInfo 102, here follow some examples of the cul-de-sac created by the Milosevic/West symbiosis: Kosovo options 1. Declare it an integral part of Serbia/Yugoslavia. If so, it can’t be excluded that hardline Albanians would begin to attack KFOR, UN, OSCE, and NGO staff. The risk of losing lives would scare the West, the US in particular. The Albanians are perfectly right in interpreting US and other Western actions the last years as a policy of strong support to their struggle for Kosova as an independent state. The KPC could quickly become KLA again. And if Serbs and other chased-out people came back to Kosovo we would see much more violence. 2. Declare Kosovo an independent state. That is incompatible with UN SC resolution 1244. More important, no democratic government can be elected in Belgrade on “let’s give Kosovo away forever.” If a democratic government actually did so...

Photos © TFF 2000 Read PressInfo 91 “Prevent Violence in Montenegro” © TFF 2000 Please reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the source.