December 2000

PressInfo # 109 (December 12, 2000)Sweden in the militarisation of the European Union PressInfo # 108 (December 11, 2000)European Union militarisation: Humpty-Dumpty as peace-maker PressInfo # 107 (December 7, 2000)The militarisation of the European Union: A civilisational mistake PressInfo # 106 (December 4, 2000)Kosovo/a independent? Perhaps, but what matters is how PressInfo # 105 (November 23, 2000)Intellectually the Kosovo Commission Report is a turkey and it won’t fly PressInfo # 104 (November 17, 2000)The Online site “TFF Store & Donations” is launched PressInfo # 103 (October 25, 2000)Post-Milosevic dilemmas – and an imagined way out PressInfo # 102 (October 23, 2000)With Milosevic gone, what shall the West do? PressInfo # 101 (October 18, 2000)TNN – the TFF News Navigator – An event on Internet PressInfo # 100 (October 11, 2000)Why Milosevic won’t get to the Hague PressInfo # 99 (October 9, 2000)The Yugoslav Nonviolent Revolution PressInfo # 98 (13 augusti,...

WIRE # 22, August 26, 2000World court – Peace in Burundi – Clinton in Africa – Truth & reconciliation – The Kursk affair – Israel: 200 nukes – China, arms seller in Africa – UN out of cash, Kosovo – NATO’s smelter takeover in Kosovo foreseen 6 months ago – Media and US elections – Pentagon hates peace in Korea – US, the worlds largest arms exporter – New report on UN peacekeeping – 20 million lives at stake in Africa, no humanitarian intervention – The world water crisis… WIRE # 21, August 16, 2000Millennium Peace Summit at the UN – Cluster bombs kill – BMD & new cold war – Vandana Shiva on poverty – UN & big business – World debt special – Globalizing NGO struggles -NATO in bed with scorpion in Kosovo – Montenegro – Where are the bodies buried? – Chomsky on Kosovo – New presidential...

Att EU så småningom skulle militariseras var förutsägbart. Det ligger inte i stor- eller superstat/makters natur eller kreativitet att se storheten i ickevåld, i dialog, tolerans, eller andliga världen. I EU &endash; vars viktigaste aktörer är f d kolonialmakter, kärnvapenmakter och/eller kulturellt våldsliga &endash; började militariseringen för ungefär tio år sedan med t ex det fransk-tyska militära samarbetet. Under tio år gjorde ingen i västvärlden någonting för att rädda Kosovo-frågan undan krigets helvete. Inte i någon annan konflikt fanns det så många tidiga varningar och så lite tidigt lyssnande och tidig handling. Vare sig Sverige, övriga Norden, EU, NATO och USA gjorde någonting för att åstadkomma en fredlig lösning genom förhandling &endash; som man gör i t ex Mellanöstern och Nordirland. Man missade varje chans till våldsförebyggande diplomati i en sådan grad och under tio år att man kunde få tanken att någon önskade ett krig. I strid med FN:s...

Gandhi i Sydafrika En film av Maj Wechselman By Sverigespremiär den 29 september i Stockholm på Grand Biografen, i Göteborg på Svea,i Malmö på Spegeln och i Lund på Kine  Denna film är resultatet av det första stora filmsamarbetet mellan Sverige och Sydafrika – 600 statister deltar. När Gandhi steg i land i Sydafrika var han en bortskämt överklassyngling, utbildad som advokat i England. Indier var inte populära i Sydafrika och snart blev Gandhi det nya landets mest skarpögda kritiker. Ändå bildar han en frivillig indisk ambulanskår och blir själv ambulanssoldat i det blodiga Boerkriget. I det isolerade indiska gettot i Johannesburg slår pesten ned. Gandhi ser till att isolera de pestsmittade indierna och improviserar ett pestsjukhus där han själv med ett fåtal andra tar hand om de döende. Ett par år senare gör zuluhövdingen Bambatha uppror i Natal. Åter marscherar Gandhi ut som ambulanssoldat. Men det finns knappast någon...

The TRANSCEND perspective is an alternative THE FLAWED PROCESS [1] Extremists excluded, meaning Hamas and Likud/Orthodox, the agreement being between PLO and Labor/Secular-Modern; probably related to Norwegian social democrat “reason is in the middle”. This works in moderate Norway, but not when more than 50% may feel excluded. They also have peace concepts, and they will announce themselves (like killing Rabin, like suicide bombs). [2] Peace actors/movements both sides excluded, Intifadah, Peace Now, not even acknowledged; yet their action was indispensable. [3] USA is not a signatory, even if it is a major actor on the Israeli side, posing as “third party”. Was Oslo acting for USA? [4] A general underestimation of polarization inside Palestine and Israel; overestimation of whether the accords are binding. [5] An unnecessary amount of secrecy, no dialogue with public. The outcome, structure [6] Lack of symmetry: the agreement does not define two states, but a state and an “autonomy” which in...

LONDON – George Bush, the victor of an imperfect presidential election, looks out on a world that has become increasingly democratic the last decade and shows all the characteristics of becoming more so. But the less than straightforward way that Bush won and, in particular, how obvious it became that U.S. courts were political creatures, raises the profound worry that this will rub off on many parts of the world, which may now be democratic but which are immaturely so. We won’t know the answer to that for some while but, meanwhile, reported recently in a new study published by Freedom House, an American organization that monitors trends in democracy, is some heartening evidence that we are in the midst of an era of historic progress. First, it has become apparent that ethnic warfare, a major impediment since the demise of the Cold War to the further spread of democracy, is...

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...

LONDON – President Bill Clinton who has just arrived in Northern Ireland likes to think the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 was one of his great accomplishments. Apart from the fact that he was but one pivotal actor among many, the truth is it is far too early to boast. The silencing of the guns and the creation of an Assembly in which sit militant Catholic Republicans who wish the north to be joined with independent Eire to the south, and equally passionate Protestants who want to ensure that the north is forever wedded to the United Kingdom, is an undoubted accomplishment. But it has all been done on a fudge. At bottom the positions of both sides are irreconcilable and the stresses and strains that have made ribbons of previous understandings can re-surface at any moment. Clinton can use his charisma to push things along an inch or two,...

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,...

The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs withdraws organisational support for TFF, without prior consultation, motivation or documentation but with immediate effect. We intend to survive! September 22, 2000Jan ÖbergTFF’s global constituency and presence on Internet Reflections on the Support Campaign in the year 2000 September 22, 2000TFF SupportersIn their own voiceWhat people around the world wrote to and about TFF September 22, 2000Jan ÖbergAnalys av UD:s beslut om att slopa organisationsbidrag till TFF för år 2000 TFF PressInfo # 98Support Appeal Svensk Stödappell TFF PressInfo # 95Action Request – How You Can Help TFF Now TFF PressInfo # 94The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deprives TFF of Its Annual Organisational Grant – and Allocates Millionswithout Documentation TFF PressInfo # 94 (in Swedish)UD slopar stöd till TFF – och fördelar miljoner utan redovisning Arbetets ledarsida 26 maj 2000Mot en snävare debatt Arbetet 6 juni 2000Socialdemokratin svek idealen, idag jamsar man med –...

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...

LONDON – Al Gore, facing political defeat in an election that appears to have been stolen, certainly knows what unhappiness is. George W. Bush and his mother clearly know the contrary feeling. “Gosh,” Barbara Bush told CBS television, “It was great to be the mother of the president for 30 minutes”. Unlike the rest of her tough-blooded brood she is known as a modest woman. Perhaps that was sufficient for her. After all every sensible person knows that moments of peak happiness don’t last for much longer than half an hour anyway. Yet high moments aside do we know what happiness is? Is the world becoming a happier place? Are we happier than our parent’s or grandparent’s generation? What could give us a little more happiness? I recall twenty-five years ago an article on the subject published by Geraldine Norman, the art saleroom correspondent of the London Times. I haven’t seen...