TFF PressInfo

Högt uppsatta Kosovo-albaner och Serber från Belgrad möttes ansikte till ansikte 14. oktober 2003 i Wien. Det var ett historiskt möte i mer än en betydelse. För alla som är engagerade i konflikthantering och fredsbyggande innebär det en möjlighet att reflektera över mötets filosofi, metoder och politik. Gjorde det såkallade internationella samhället rätt? Har institutionerna lärt sig det man borde? Finns det paralleller mellan Kosovo, Afghanistan och Irak som vi bör diskustera självkritiskt, snarare än att helt enkelt lägga skulden på parterna? Dialog är bra, men bombningarna 1999 har förhärdat alla. Det är första gången sedan NATO:s krig mot Jugoslavien i 1999 att serber och albaner möts på detta sätt. Visserligen är detta, med några få undantag, det första försöket till regelrätta förhandlingar sedan allt började i slutet av 1980-talet. Som i Irak, hindrades de viktigaste parter från att träffas. Med tiden har hökarna tagit över scenen och nu finns...

 “The world has entered a new nuclear age, a second nuclear age. The danger is rising that nuclear weapons will be used against the United States. Just as bad, the danger is rising that the United States will use nuclear weapons against others.” With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union, many Americans gave a deep sigh of relief and pronounced the nuclear threat at an end. It was a heady time. I can remember being asked, “What will the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation do now that the nuclear threat is gone?” My response was that the nuclear threat was still with us despite these momentous changes in the geopolitical landscape. It was far too soon to pronounce the Nuclear Age dead. In retrospect, from a vantage point of more than 12 years after these tectonic shifts in geopolitics, we can see that the...

Sätt klackarna i backen. Propagandaångvälten för minnet av den 11 september är tillbaka igen för att kväsa oppositionen mot USA:s krigs- och imperiepolitik. Här några punkter som hjälper dig att fortsatt hålla kursen stadig. Vi lägger fram dem i djup respekt för de oskyldiga som dog den 11 september och de lika oskyldiga som dog i anfallen mot Afghanistan och Irak under kriget mot terrorismen. Utnyttja dessa punkter – särskilt om du är lärare, journalist eller annars en medborgare som bryr dig. Lär och minns 11-07-20 Innan dessa punkter radas upp, är det några saker som bör nämnas. Under hundratales föredrag, tal och intervjuer har jag frågat åhörare i många länder om de vet vad den 11 september är för något. Naturligtvis gör de det och några kanske också nämner den av USA understödda omstörtningen av den folkvalda regeringen Salvador Allende i Chile 1973 för 30 år sedan. Som av...

Or learn the number 11-07-20 Dig in your heels, the September 11 memorial propaganda steamroller is back again – to quell opposition to US wars and imperial policies. The following points are meant to help you stay focussed. We raise them in deep respect for the innocent people who died on September 11 and the equally innocent who died in the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq in the war on terrorism.Use these points – particularly if you are a teacher, journalist or an otherwise concerned citizen. Learn and remember 11-07-20 Before listing these points, a few things should be mentioned. During hundreds of lectures, speeches and interviews, I have asked audiences in many countries whether they know what September 11 is. Of course they do, and a few may add the US-backed overthrow of the popularly elected government of Salavador Allende in Chile in 1973, 30 years ago. Incidentally, more than 3,000...

The Iraq debacle is providing a historic opportunity to implement long sought, widely supported reforms needed for the UN – to assure its independence and its vital role in this new century. The breakdown in the Security Council over the US war on Iraq illustrated its obsolete aspects. An anachronism of the post-World War II era, its permanent five members: the USA, Britain, France, China and Russia with their veto power, finally demonstrated all its dysfunctional aspects. Most reformers agree on the indispensability of the Security Council – and the shape and direction of needed reforms. The Council needs to dispense finally with the veto – a relic nod to the winners of World War II. Then the permanent seats can be rearranged to accommodate important new world players, including India, Brasil, Japan, South Africa and newly democratic Indonesia with the world’s largest Muslim population. To keep the Council’s size...

På toårsdagen for terrorangrebet i USA, den 11. september 2003, bragte Japan Times en artikel af SGIs præsident Daisaku Ikeda. Japan Times er et stort og indflydelsesrigt, internationalt dagblad, og det vakte derfor opsigt og stor glæde blandt de japanske Soka Gakkai medlemmer at Ikeda Sensei kunne få sine meninger bragt ud til en stor offentlighed. The Japan Times: 11. september 2003Eksklusivt for Japan Times “På toppen af den pyramide som vi kalder civilisation, befinder krigens virkelighed sig stadig. Vi kan ikke kalde os fuldt civiliserede mennesker sålænge muligheden for krig eksisterer og oveni købet tages for givet.” Disse stærke ord stammer fra John Kenneth Galbraith som var vidne til det 20. århundredes krige og vold. Professor Galbraith og jeg har en dialog kørende hvori vi bl.a. åbenhjertigt udveksler synspunkter angående den 11. september 2001. Vi er alle direkte eller indirekte blevet påvirket af denne rædselsvækkende forbrydelse og dens eftervirkninger....

Japan Times11 September 2003 “At the top of the pyramid which we call civilization there is still the terrible fact of war. We cannot call ourselves a fully civilized people as long as that possibility exists and is, indeed, taken for granted.” These are the heartfelt words of John Kenneth Galbraith, a man who witnessed firsthand the war and violence of the 20th century. Professor Galbraith and I are engaged in an ongoing dialogue that has included a frank exchange of views on the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Directly or indirectly, we have all been affected by this horrific crime and its aftermath. One of the victims was a gifted graduate of Soka University whom I knew personally. However deep our sense of outrage, we must not allow the flames of hatred and anger to drive our world toward further division and destruction. It is crucial to maintain...

Den irakiske fiasko åbner for en historisk chanse for at gennemføre en længe savnet, bredt støttet reform, som FN behøver for at kunne sikre sin uafhængighed og sin vitale rolle i dette nye århundrede. Sammenbruddet i Sikkerhedsrådet på grund af USA’s krig mod Irak, giver et godt billede af de forældede rutiner. En overleveret arv fra efterkrigstiden (de fem stående medlemmer: USA, Stor Britanien, Frankrig, Kina og Rusland med hver deres vetoret) viser til syvende og sidst alle de ubrugelige aspekter i en nøddeskal. De fleste reformivrere er enige om Sikkerhedsrådets uundværlighed – og også om hvilken form og retning forbedringerne skal have. Rådet må definitivt gøre en ende på vetoretten – et relikie der i sin tid blev givet til vinderne af Den 2.Verdenskrig. Så der skal møbleres om på de permanente stole så der kan blive plads til vigtige nye medsiddere ved det globale bord, deriblandt Indien, Brasilien,...

Proliferation and Full Spectrum Dominance “The horror scenarios of the Cold War have disappeared, but the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons has not.  Like the monstrous Hydra of Greek mythology, modern weapons of mass destruction are sprouting new heads faster than anybody can cut them off.” So wrote Anna Lindh and Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Finland respectively, in an article in The International Herald Tribune, whose title gives their answer to the threat:  “Slaying the Hydra – together”.  As they conclude: “Even Hercules could not kill the many headed monster alone.  Only by acting together will we safeguard the security of all.” In spite of strenuous combined efforts, the hydra of proliferation remains very much with us, and it has certainly not been caged by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  The most recent NPT preparatory conference, held in Geneva, between April 28th and May 9th 2003,...

Originally posted on the ‘AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list’ It is now a matter of public record that immediately after the terrible tragedy of 11 September 2001, U.S. Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld and his pro-Israeli “Neoconservative” Deputy Paul Wolfowitz began to plot, plan, scheme and conspire to wage a war of aggression against Iraq by manipulating the tragic events of September 11th in order to provide a pretext for doing so.(1) Of course Iraq had nothing at all to do with September 11th or supporting Al-Qaeda. But that made no difference to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, their Undersecretary of War Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, and the numerous other pro-Israeli Neo-Cons inhabiting the Bush Jr. administration. These pro-Israeli Neo-Cons had been schooled in the Machiavellian/Nietzschean theories of Professor Leo Strauss who taught political philosophy at the University of Chicago in its Department of Political Science. The best...

News Poem 1 Fresh wave of sabotage and violence took its toll on Iraq on Sunday Baghdad (Reuters) A second blaze hit a crucial oil export pipeline,A water pipeline was blown up,Six Iraqis were killed in a mortar attack on a Baghdad prison,A Danish soldier was killed. A Reuters cameraman was shot dead while working near a U.S.-run prison,Iraq’s governor (Kissinger-associate and terror expert L. Paul Bremer)said on Sunday: the country was losing$7 million a day due to the attack on the pipeline, 59 wounded in a mortar bomb attack on a U.S.-guarded prison,500 Iraqi detainees,including common criminalsand suspected anti-American guerrillas,are being held at Abu Ghraib prison,which was one of Saddam Hussein’smost notorious jails. [President Bush cites progress in Iraq.] News Poem 2 Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, 43 (Perhaps his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher) New York Times/Reuters Mazen Dana, a Palestinian working for Reutersfilming outside Abu Ghraib...

1. Fulfill Existing Obligations. The nuclear weapons states have made solemn promises to the international community to negotiate in good faith to achieve nuclear disarmament. The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China accepted this obligation when they signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and extended their promises at the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference and again at the 2000 NPT Review Conference. India and Pakistan, which are not signatories of the NPT, have committed themselves to abolish their nuclear arsenals if the other nuclear weapons states agree to do so. The only nuclear weapons state that has not made this promise is Israel, and surely it could be convinced to do so if the other nuclear weapons states agreed to the elimination of their nuclear arsenals. The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, unanimously highlighted the obligation to nuclear disarmament in its 1996 Opinion: “There exists an obligation...