TFF PressInfo

“The military provisions in the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris has nothing to do with peacekeeping.Neither the civilian nor the military provisions will helpbring about peace among Serbs and Albanians. It will furtherantagonize the 10 million citizens of Yugoslavia and theinternational community. There is simply nothing in it forthe Yugoslavs and that’s why I am deeply afraid that we arelikely to see something very bad happen very soon. Thiswhole affair has nothing to do with violence prevention, theappropriate term would be: peace-prevention. Leading media, commentators, scholars and diplomatsjoin in condemning the Yugoslav side in the Paris talks onKosovo and thus legitimate subsequent NATO bombing and defacto NATO control over the territory. Who can be soungrateful, stubborn or scoundrelly to refuse an offer ofpeace? However, no one asks: what does the Kosovo Agreementin Paris, the “peace” plan, actually contain? I don’t think this is necessarily deliberate,” saysDr. Jan Oberg, head...

“Odredbe Vojnog dela Kosovskog sporazuma stavljenog nasto u Parizu nemaju bas niceg zajednickog sa mirovnommisijom (ocuvanje mira – peace keeping). Kao ni civilni,tako ni vojni deo ovog sporazuma nece dovesti do mira medjuSrbima i Albanacima. On ce samo dodatno antagoniziratimedjunarodnu zajednicu i 10 miliona gradjana Jugoslavije. Unjemu Jugosloveni nece naci nista dobrog za sebe i stoga seplasim da cemo svi uskoro biti svedoci neceg vrlo ruznog stose sprema. Citava ova prica nema niceg zajednickog sasprecavanjem nasilja, ustvari – odgovarajuci naziv za ovobio bi: sprecavanje mira (peace-prevention). Vodeci mediji, komentatori, akademici i diplomateujedinjeni su u osudama jugoslovenske delegacije napregovorima u Parizu cime daju legitimnost buducem NATObombardovanju i de-facto NATO-ovoj kontroli nad tomteritorijom. Ko bi se usudio da bude toliko nezahvalan,bandoglav i siledzija pa da odbije ponudjeni mu mir?Medjutim, nema nikoga da se zapita: sta to Kosovskisporazum, tzv. “mirovni” plan, u sustini sadrzi?” “Mislim kako ne mora biti da se sve to...

“NATO’s build-up in Macedonia is incredible, and goesvirtually unnoticed – except in that country. The MacedonianParliament has not even discussed the deployment of morethan 12.000 heavily armed troops and NATO bars journalistsfrom investigating what is going on. NATO is now strongerthan the country’s own defence. It took the internationalcommunity, read OSCE, 5 months to get 1500 civilian monitorsinto Kosovo, but it took only a few weeks to get themilitary build-up underway in Macedonia. When does some oneinvestigate how this happened or who pays for this and theNATO build-up around Yugoslavia? Or ask what MacedonianPrime Minister Ljupco Geogievski was promised by U.S.Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, when the hadbreakfast recently in Washington?” – says Jan Oberg, TFF’sdirector and co-founder who has just visited the country. “Here is another reasonably relevant question: SinceChristopher Hill, the main author of the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris and the diplomat who prepared the groundfor...

“Read the so-called Kosovo Peace Agreement beingdiscussed these very hours in Paris and you are in for a fewsurprises,” says TFF director Dr. Jan Oberg. “I do notthink that any recognised, sovereign state would accept allthe CIVILIAN provisions and the MILITARY implementationon its territory of a plan like this. No state likes toreceive “sign or be bombed” ultimatums – particularly notwhen the said plan implies the de facto end of its status asa sovereign state with territorial integrity. The standard story with CNN, BBC, and leading papersconveys the impression that the Serbs are just stubborn andstall the peace negotiations, whereas the Albanian side isco-operative, as evidenced by a letter from their delegationleader of March 15. Yugoslavia deserves punishment whileAlbanians are praised for their “courage to compromise forpeace.” That’s virtual reality and virtual truth. Realreality is way more complicated,” says Oberg. “You must have noticed that no one has raised the simplequestion: Could there...

“Procitajte tzv. Sporazum o Kosovu, isti onaj o kom seupravo ovih sati raspravlja u Parizu i budite sigurni da cevas puno toga sto on sadrzi zaista iznenaditi”, kaze Dr. JanOberg, direktor TFF-a. ” Mislim da ni jedna suverena drzavane bi prihvatila sve CIVILNE odredbe a tako ni VOJNUimplementaciju predvidenu ovakvim planom. Nijedna drzavanije odusevljena kad joj prete ultimatumom tipa “potpisi ilicemo te bombardovati” a pogotovo ne kada takav navodni planu sebi de-facto sadrzi i kraj nje same kao suverene drzavesa vlastitim teritorijalnim integritetom. Uobicajeni izvestaji CNN-a, BBC-a i vodecih listovaprenose svetskoj javnosti utisak kako su bas Srbi ti kojitvrdoglavo odugovlace pregovore o miru, dok je Albanskastrana kooperativna, sto se vidi i iz pisma sefa njihovedelegacije od 15. marta. Jugoslaviju treba kazniti dokAlbance treba pohvaliti zbog njihove “hrabrosti da napraveustupke kako bi se doslo do mira.” No to je samo laznaslika, opsena i obmana. Prava slika je kudikamokomplikovanija od ovoga” kaze...

“The Plan being discussed at Rambouillet is aformalistic, legal document. Its provisions may be needed,but it doesn’t contain any ideas on how to make peace amongthe citizens who are to live with it when implemented. Theirvoice is not heard, their needs are not dealt with in thePlan. Most of the delegates in Rambouillet are notrepresentative of the citizens. The “mediators” have noprofessional education as mediators. The idea that Kosovo’sproblems can be solved in two weeks is absurd. Rambouilletmilitates against all we know about human psychology andtrust-building. So, once again politics fool media and media foolworld public opinion. And people in Kosovo will have to waitfor peace as long as the vagabonds in Beckett’s drama waitfor Godot…” says Dr. Jan Oberg upon returning from TFF’s34th mission to ex-Yugoslavia, this time to Skopje, Belgradeand the troubled Kosovo province. 1. The preparation When wars are fought thousands of trained soldiers aremobilised, highly trained...

“What happens now in Rambouillet has little to do withcreating peace for the suffering citizens in the Yugoslavprovince of Kosovo/a. Disguised as “negotiations” about a“peace” plan, the international so-called community promotesless noble values and long-term goals in the region and usethe Serbs and Albanians as supernumeraries in its drama.It’s time we ask what the self-proclaimed “conflictmanagers” are actually up to. If peace in Kosovo or thewider Balkans had been the real aim, we would have witnesseda completely different approach leading up to Rambouillet.We come closer to the truth about Rambouillet if we usewords such as globalisation, strategic expansion, Caspianoil, Greater NATO, containment policy and imperialismdisguised as conflict-management and peace-making,” says Dr.Jan Oberg upon returning from the 34th TFF mission to theregion since 1992, this time to Skopje, Belgrade and Kosovo. “If PEACE was their profession, the governments of theinternational community would – around 1992 – have putenough diplomatic and other...

In a large interview with the leading Kosovo-Albanianweekly “ZËRI” on December 22, TFF director Jan Obergchallenges the international community’s whole approach toconflict-resolution and peace. He also believes that thepolicy of positioning and the focus on formal status pursuedby the parties is counterproductive. It’s time, he maintains, to listen to the needs ofcitizens, to address real issues of daily life and tointroduce some new ideas and actors. Governments have failed on all sides. Their diplomatsmay be great lawyers but they lack professional knowledgeand training in conflict analysis, conflict psychology,social issues and mediation techniques. This is simply notthe way to proceed if you want to help people to live inpeace.” Read theinterview in its entirety Here follow excerpts: “Modern history is full of conflicts at least as bad asthat in Kosovo that have been overcome by nonviolence.” “What I have said here applies also to the internationalcommunity’s “conflict managers”. Neither the US...

PressInfos 1999 No 83 (December 31, 1999)Time For Forgiveness. End of the Year Statement No 82 (December 16, 1999)Preventing Peace – New Report No 81 (November 22, 1999)Questions to Clinton in Kosovo No 80 (November 22, 1999)A Bouquet of Ideas for Peace in Macedonia…and Kosovo No 79 (October 31, 1999)Your Ideas for Peace in Macedonia Wanted No 78 (October 3, 1999)Misleading UN Report on Kosovo (B) No 77 (October 3, 1999)Misleading UN Report on Kosovo (A) No 76 (August 20, 1999)The World Needs Reconciliation Centres (Serbo-Croatian version) No 75 (July 30, 1999)NATO’s Psychological Projection (Serbo-Croatian version) No 73 and 74 (July 14 and July 30, 1999)Some Ethical Aspects on NATO’s Intervention in Kosovo. Part A.andPart B. (Serbo-Croatian version – No 73) (Serbo-Croatian version – No 74) No 72 (June 18, 1999)NATO in Kosovo – Failed Peacekeeping (Serbo-Croatian version) No 71 (June 18, 1999)Read UN Resolution 1244 and Watch NATO in Kosovo(Serbo-Croatian...

“This is yet another publication from TFF – ‘Violence,Postwar Reconstruction and Civil Society – Theory andYugoslavia.’ It’s main focus is civil society in war andpeace. It relates this concept to the economicglobalisation, to international conflict-management and tothe case of Yugoslavia and the Dayton agreement,” says JanOberg, TFF director and author of the study. It reflects the fact that everything TFF does is based ontriple-thinking: We have three types of activities –academic analyses, field work and advocacy. We do threethings in conflict regions – conflict analysis/earlywarning, conflict-mitigation and peace and reconciliationeducation. We offer three perspectives – analyses, criticismand constructive alternatives. We believe that conflictsdeserve three steps – diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.And we work with three conflict regions – former Yugoslavia,Georgia in the Caucasus and one more conflict,” saysOberg. The first chapter deals with civil society andviolence-prevention; the second discusses various conceptsof ‘civil society’ and relates it to various types of power.It...

“There cannot be just one way to describe the problem with Iraq. Or one way to handle it. However professional CNN is, it exposes the American foreign policy and security establishment to an extent that borders on monopolising“truth.” We need more than American media to cover the bombings of Iraq. We need more than bomb coverage, we need an understanding of that the underlying conflict is about. War and violence IS not the same as the conflict but the result of conflicts mismanaged by the parties and the so-called international community,” says Dr. Jan Oberg. “In situations like this it is essential to gather manyand varied facts and interpret the issues through otherlenses than those of the mainstream media. Internet permitsyou to combine many sources and perspectives, find the lesswell-known facts and construct your independent opinion. Idon’t believe we can know what is really happening and whyby watching CNN alone...

“The law on information, on theuniversities and the prepared law on NGOs should be stronglyopposed by all international organisations, governments andNGOs.” Jiri Dienstbier, Special Rapporteur of theU.N. Commission on Human Rights “Serbian authorities commit gross human rightsviolations through new draconian laws that will furtherundermine free media, education and civil society in Serbia.Given its seriousness, we have heard deplorably few andlow-voiced protests from top diplomats, politicians, fellowintellectuals and media people in the Europe and the US.Dienstbier’s is an important exception” says TFF’s directorJan Oberg. The situation is appalling. After media and education,NGOs will probably be targeted. People in Serbia are in adouble cage – that constructed by their own authorities andthat constructed by the international community since 1991.Just look at how the Kosovo conflict is now “managed”through the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement and you’ll see howthe two cages reinforce each other. The losers? Ordinarycitizens – like in Bosnia under Dayton. All citizens of...