February 1997

the working title of a research programthat started in February 1997 We have been witnessing the creation of new ethnic boundaries or maybe reactivating of existing ethnic boundaries in former Yugoslavia. But we do not know when and why some people started to treat their former friends and neighbours as enemies and why that led to atrocities, totally destroyed societies and genocide. In order to find out why, we have to trace the process and the people involved in it. It seems to be a good way to choose one geographically defined place and try to find out what has happened to the people living there, also in their minds. Our assumption is that an understanding of what happened in Pakrac in Western Slavonia, Croatia, will offer useful insights into what happened elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia, and, for that matter, into other parts of the world where ethnic hostilities...

LONDON– The world has much to be thankful for that Deng Xiaoping died when he did, just four and a half months before the Union Jack is run down in Hong Kong. Britain and China, until last week, were set on what seemed an unavoidable collision course. If Beijing was holding the whip hand of divine power to do as it pleases, commencing July 1st., London, or in effect its audacious governor, Chris Patten, held the trumps of the electorate’s will. Against every brutish blandishment–“a serpent, a whore and a sinner for all millenia” Beijing’s foreign ministry called him at one time–he has over the last five years engineered Hong Kong’s entry into the democratic community. If Hong Kong’s citizens could fill the streets for days after the Tiananmen Square massacre then one can reasonably surmise that any move to take away their own new-found liberties after July 1st.will meet with...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden–The rage and the storm have passed–thus diminishing the hope that the world’s governments, in their collective unease, have decided at last to throw their combined weight against the growing cancer of paedophilia, ravaging and spoiling societies all over. Last August, in a veritable blaze of publicity, the Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Stockholm. 122 countries participated. The press, more than sensitized by gruesome revelations of sexual abuse and child murder in Belgium earlier in the month, turned up the heat. The governments said they WOULD do something. A week later the U.S. was bombing Iraq once again. It didn’t, as usual, do much to damage Saddam Hussein but it did bury the paedophilia story and allowed governments to return to doing what they had pledged to do in Stockholm as a matter of urgency more at their usual pace. But to quote Julius...

LONDON– Apathy was the only voice left to Pakistan’s voters in Monday’s general election. By staying away from the polls in record numbers they turned their back on the choices they were given, two alternative anciens regimes, both discredited, both corrupt, both unwilling or too beholden to military and feudal interests to turn Pakistan’s many consecutive years of satisfactory economic growth even modestly in the direction of the have-nots, the overwhelming majority of this potentially bountiful country. This is always the country that might have been–might have been Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia or, these days, the Philippines, if its corruption wasn’t so endemic, its successive administrations so incompetent, its feudal structure so deeply entrenched and, above all, its military spending so high. Benazir Bhutto, the now totally rejected two time prime minister, should realize that the demons she rails against are within not without. They are certainly not President Farooq...

NATO ekspanderer. Selvom de militære udgifter årligt falder nogle få procent, så øger den ny teknologis slagkraft; atomvåbenindustriens forskere og arbejdere trues ikke af arbejdsløshed og social misére. USA alene står for et budget pågodt 250 milliarder dollar, og verdens samlede militærudgifter svarer til årsindkomsten for de 49% fattigste på jorden. Tyskland ekspanderer. Engang forstod man at et forenet Tyskland måtte være neutralt. Men Gorbatjov, der forærede Vesten Sovjetunionens og Warszawapagten opløsning i den tro at han ville få noget igen, serverede også et forenet Tyskland i NATO på en sølvbakke. Delvis atomnedrustning og det russiske forsvars sociale og militære nedrustning fulgte. Triumfalistiskt udråbte Vesten sig til den kolde krigs sejrherre. Det samlede Tysklands første markante udenrigspolitiske skridt var at splitte Jugoslavien. Bevidst om at re-militariseringen måtte gå langsomt begyndte man med infirmerier i Bosnien. Nu blir den tyske stabilitetsfremtvinger dernede mere militant — hvad der måske kan ses som...

Nato expanderar i en värld där de samlade militärutgifterna motsvarar årsinkomsten för jordens 49 procent fattigaste, skriver fredsforskaren Jan Øberg. Satsningen på Nato:s utvidgning går ut på att kämpa mot fiktiva hot och skapar exakt det man säger sig vilja undvika, ekonomisk kris, instabilitet och nya hot. Nato expanderar. De globala militära utgifterna har årligen fallit med några få procent. Men den nya teknologins slagkraft ökar. Kärnvapenindustrins forskare hotas inte av arbetslöshet. Enbart USA har en militär budget på drygt 250 miljarder dollar och världens samlade militärutgifter motsvarar årsinkomsten för de 49 procent fattigaste på klotet. Tyskland expanderar. En gång i tiden förstod man att ett förenat Tyskland måste vara neutralt. Men Gorbatjov, som gav Sovjetunionens och Warszawapaktens upplösning till Västvärlden i tron att han skulle få någonting i gengäld, serverade också ett förenat Tyskland till Nato på en silverbricka. Delvis kärnvapen-nedrustning följde liksom ryska försvarets sociala och militära nedrustning....