December 2002

LONDON – It always feels nice to open a New Year with good news. But that indeed is the message on the democracy front this week. It began in Kenya with the defeat last Sunday of the hand-picked candidate of the long time corrupt autocrat of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi. On Friday, January 3rd, the election winner, Mwai Kibaki takes over as president and there is some hope that this clever ex-finance minister will be skilled enough to start to put the country back on its feet and to release the wealth of talent and energy that it has in abundance. Despite the gloomy headlines that speak of war and dictatorship, Africa is in fact becoming more democratic. A decade and a half ago few African countries held open elections. Now most do. On January 1st the working class hero, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will be sworn in as...

by Brian J. Foley (1) Necessity has been called “the mother of invention.” Although the precise relationship between these concepts may be open to debate, they are certainly closely related in international law: The requirement that force may be used only when necessary should compel a search for alternatives to force and violence. After September 11, however, no such search occurred. There were and are alternatives to the U.S. war against Afghanistan, but the U.S. and the UN failed to work together to find any. As such, the war against Afghanistan is illegitimate under international law. (2) This short paper argues that the search for alternatives to violence in international responses to terrorism is not merely an idealistic whim: it is a legal requirement. This paper thus also argues that U.S. and UN Security Council should have worked together to seek, and try, alternatives to force and violence. More generally,...

Special FeaturesPeace Movements Esther Kaplan, The Nation, December 31, 2002A Hundred Peace Movements BloomThis article is part of the “Waging Peace” series, covering the movement that is emerging across America to oppose war on Iraq. Iraq Peace Team, December 31, 2002The Iraq Peace Team websiteIn the face of recent threats against Iraq, Voices in the Wilderness has initiated an “Iraq Peace Team” plan. Since September 2002, seasoned nonviolent activists have been on the ground in Iraq standing in solidarity with the people of Iraq while at the same time working to prevent a US attack. Observer Comment, Guardian, December 31, 2002Back to Iraq as a human shieldToday’s Observer reports plans by peace activists to go to Iraq as human shields. In this online commentary, protest organiser and former US veteran Ken Nichols O’Keefe explains why he believes that this is the most effective way to oppose the war. Special FeaturesWar...

With these pictures I want you to get a sense of the simple fact that Iraq is not only Saddam Hussein, weapons and wars. Iraq is 24 million fellow human beings. It has been a civilisation for some 7,000 years. It has a distinct, rich culture; it has norms, and – above all – it has pride. I have never visited a country where there is so much kindness and hospitality – a genuine welcoming of the stranger. During the four weeks I spent in Baghdad, Babylon and Basra, I never felt insecure or had the feeling that I could not speak with the locals. Neither did I sense that they were afraid to speak with me as a foreigner. © 2003 Jan Oberg The future belongs to the children, doesn’t it? Iraq has a young population; about half the people are under 16 years old. They are innocent, they...

This comprhensive peace proposal was submitted to Feature editor Robert Donahue, the International Herald Tribune on December 5. On December 19, Donahue accepted the article for publication by e-mail. Then nothing happened. On February 6, however, Mr. Donahue told us that he had let another editor read the article. This editor “didn’t like the article and thought that many of its points were unrealistic – and I respect my colleague,” he said over the phone. So the International Herald Tribune changed its mind and hoped we would accept their apology. On February 17, the European Council of the EU came together and began formulating a common foreign policy in relation to the Iraq crisis. The International Herald Tribune made a politically motivated turnaround and effectively wasted exactly two months of this proposal’s life in the public debate. We are proud to publish the original manuscript with all its “unrealistic” points...

Governments, editors, commentators and even supporters of the United Nations currently express the view that a war against Iraq is, or will be, acceptable if the United States and others “go back” to the Security Council and obtain a “UN mandate” before they attack. But, this is false logic and could spell the end of the UN as a peace organisation. If you think that the planned war is or entails a violation of international law, such a mandate does not make it more legal. If you think that the war is morally wrong or unfair, such a mandate won’t make it right or just. If you think that war has nothing to do with conflict-resolution but must be categorised as aggression, a resolution – inevitably the result of horse-trading among the Five Permanent (and nuclear) Security Council members and the other ten under the leadership of Columbia – does...

LONDON – War in February now looks very likely. The die is almost cast. It will be a bitter, hard fought war, baring little comparison to the easy run of ten years ago. With his back to the wall Saddam Hussein will fight in the toughest, cruellest way imaginable, luring the American and British invaders into the Iraqi cities where they will be butchered one by one and they in turn will wreck vengeance, intended or not, on the innocent, the trapped city dwellers. “And there is this earth, this mud where the flesh rots, where eyes decompose. These arms, these legs that crunch in the jaws of the boars. The souls ulcerated and foul from killing, the bodies so starved for tenderness they haunt stables in search of pleasure. There is this gangrene that eats at the heart….” President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, two men who...

LONDON – War in February now looks very likely. The die is almost cast. It will be a bitter, hard fought war, baring little comparison to the easy run of ten years ago. With his back to the wall Saddam Hussein will fight in the toughest, cruellest way imaginable, luring the American and British invaders into the Iraqi cities where they will be butchered one by one and they in turn will wreck vengeance, intended or not, on the innocent, the trapped city dwellers. “And there is this earth, this mud where the flesh rots, where eyes decompose. These arms, these legs that crunch in the jaws of the boars. The souls ulcerated and foul from killing, the bodies so starved for tenderness they haunt stables in search of pleasure. There is this gangrene that eats at the heart….” President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, two men who...

Speech given Peace operations successful, the patients unfortunately died… Thank you very much, herzlichen Dank. It’s about 30 years ago that I spoke German, so I don’t want to make you a victim of whatever might be left of that language in my hard disk! I am honoured to be invited and discuss with you what is so terribly important and urgent, and could have such disastrous consequences for many. May I suggest to you that each one of you promise yourself to speak with at least ten people next week and discuss what you heard and learned during this conference? There’s only one way compatible with democracy: to spread the word and work with nonviolent means. Also, to show the contrast with the undemocratic leaders – including those in so-called democracies – who get their point through by violence. I’m not an expert on Iraq. I happen to know...

LONDON – Of all the rogues there is no question that Kim Jong-Il and his odious regime in North Korea are the furthest advanced in threatening the outside world with nuclear weapons. Yet an honest administration in Washington has to ask itself how much the U.S. has been responsible for bringing about this state of affairs, one that threatens to escalate fast with North Korea announcing in October it was enriching uranium to build a nuclear weapon and now last week in effect abrogating the landmark 1994 agreement. The 1994 agreement avoided war, one that President Bill Clinton was convinced could lead to a nuclear attack on South Korean cities and American troops based in the South. In the circumstances it was an amazing deal, midwifed by former president, Jimmy Carter. The North agreed to close its plutonium-producing nuclear power plant, and seal up the cooling rods from which weapons-grade...

Hvad indebærer en krig mod Irak? Offentliggjort i Politiken 17. december 2002 En række humanitære organisationer og enkeltpersoner opfordrer i et åbent brev regeringen og Folketinget til at sikre sig det bedst mulige grundlag for beslutningen om, hvorvidt Danmark skal støtte en eventuel krig mod Irak. Der må gøres realistiske analyser af de mulige konsekvenser og skabes debat både i Folketinget og i den brede offentlighed. De sidste ugers internationale udvikling gør det sandsynligt at Irak bliver angrebet enten af USA og England eller af en større koalition. Danmark, der har formandskabet i EU, skal derfor tage stilling til to ting: For det første skal det endeligt besluttes, om Danmark vil støtte denne krig, med de politiske, humanitære, økonomiske og folkeretlige konsekvenser, den kan få. For det andet skal regering og folketing tage stilling til, om Danmark vil deltage aktivt i angrebet på Irak. Vi opfordrer hermed folketingets medlemmer og...

The threat of an outbreak of smallpox anywhere in the world is indeed a frightening prospect. It’s quite obvious that even a very small terrorist organisation could easily spread the disease globally without technically advanced vectors – provided it had access to the pathogenic virus. Furthermore, smallpox belongs to the category of biological weapons of mass destruction. It is extremely contagious and will easily spread outside the area of conflict. Thus completely “innocent” or only peripherally affected people can be stricken with disease. This is a severe, global threat against one and all! As a Swedish citizen one must ask: can we handle an attack even if we are affected only in the second-hand? Have those who have been delegated the power created a realistic preparedness against what may happen? In 1980 smallpox was officially declared eradicated following an internationally successful vaccination campaign. Simultaneously the former – sometimes compulsory –...