April 2004

See PressInfo 195 as a background to this PressInfo This PressInfo in Swedish This PressInfo in Danish There is a long-term background and some root causes behind the emerging peace-keeping failure in Kosovo. Media and politicians tend to forget them because they were ignored during the 1990s and do not fit the standardised image of the conflict. In this analysis, TFF’s director who has been engaged in Kosovo since 1991 discusses some of the most important among those causes. In passing, he also points out how an allegedly “prestigious” NGO such as the International Crisis Group serves as a biased NEGO, a NEar-Governmental Organisation, and continues to offer perspectives and proposals that will make things worse in the Balkans. It’s the beginning of the end Slowly but surely – and sadly – the efforts of the international community to create peace in Kosovo/a are coming to an end in spring...

REPORT of Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium 28 April 2004 based on a fact-finding mission to Iraq, March 2004 Contact: Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, info@g3w.be, tel. +32/2 209.23.60 geert.van.moorter@skynet.be, tel. +32/486 79.37.98 May 18, 2004 Dr. Geert Van Moorter was already in Iraq on various missions for the Belgian non-governmental organization Medical Aid for the Third World, in April 2002; before, during and after the war in March/April 2003; in July/August 2003; and in March 2004. He made, together with Iraqi doctors and health workers, a random survey on the health situation and the health care infrastructure in Iraq, after one year of occupation. He visited hospitals and clinics in Baghdad and Basra. On a health conference in Basra, he was able to talk to colleagues from all over the country. He had contacts with Unicef, the World Health Organization, the new Ministry of Health...

Oversat af CensurNyt.dk Rapport om Lægehjælp til den Tredje Verden, Belgien af Dr. Geert Van Moorter, M.D. 28. april 2004 Baseret på en fakta-søgende mission i Irak marts 2004 Kontakt: Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium, info@g3w.be, tel. +32/2 209.23.60 geert.van.moorter@skynet.be, tel. +32/486 /9.37.98 18 maj 2004 Dr. Geert Van Moorter var allerede i Irak, på forskellige missioner for den belgiske NGO Medical Aid for the Third World, i April 2002; før, under og efter krigen i marts/april 2003; i juli/august 2003; og i marts 2004. Sammen med irakiske læger og sundhedsarbejdere lavede han en vilkårlig undersøgelse af sundhedssituationen og sundhedsvæsentes infrastruktur i Irak, efter et års besættelse. Han besøgte hospitaler og klinikker i Baghdad og Basra. Han fik mulighed for at tale med kolleger fra hele landet på en sundhedskonference i Basra. Han havde kontakt med UNICEF, WHO (verdens sundhedsorganisationen), det nye sundhedsministerium og med adskillige krigsofre fra...

LONDON – From the headland here, the most easterly point of the Americas, where Brazil juts out towards Africa- the locals tease visitors that on a clear day you can see Nigeria- one question looms before all others. Why did this bounteous continent to the south do so much less well than its counterpart to the north? North America was settled by pilgrims, idealists, political and religious refugees. They wanted to create a New World and early on democracy became the chosen instrument. It was flawed, of course. It did not protect the Indians and it didn’t encompass the slaves, but it laid the basis for economic advance first and social and political reform later. The Brazilian historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda wrote that the English pioneers went to North America to build a paradise whereas the Portuguese went to Brazil to enjoy a ready made paradise. The Spanish and...

Præsident for The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Californien På engelsk her  Ikke-spredningsaftalen, som trådte i kraft i 1970, er det centrale element i de internationale anstrengelser for at kontrollere spredningen af kernevåben. Måske fik aftalen et forkert navn ved sin dannelse, for aftalen handler både om kernevåbennedrustning og om ikke-spredning. I sin kerne er aftalen en handel mellem de stater, der har kernevåben og de, der ikke har. Handelen er, enkelt udtrykt, at kernevåbenstaterne accepterer en total afrustning af deres kernevåbenarsenaler, mens de stater, der ikke har kernevåben accepterer ikke at skaffe sig dem. Denne aftale eller handel mellem aftalens parter, der angiver den kurs, de hver for sig vil følge med hensyn til kernevåben, er aftalens vigtigste del. Den er imidlertid også den del, som amerikanske borgere dårligst forstår. Den sørgelige kendsgerning er, at fra første færd har kernevåbenstaterne vist ringe tilbøjelighed til at opfylde deres del af aftalen....

In Danish here In Swedish here The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970, is the centerpiece of international efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Perhaps the treaty was given the wrong name when it was created because the treaty is about nuclear disarmament as well as non-proliferation. At the heart of the treaty is a deal between those states that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not. The deal, simply put, is that the nuclear weapons states agree to the complete disarmament of their nuclear arsenals, while the non-nuclear weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons. This agreement, or bargain, between the parties to the treaty, setting forth the course of action each will pursue with regard to nuclear weapons, is the most important aspect of the treaty. It is, however, the least understood, particularly by American citizens. The sad fact is that from...

Det er lite vann i bassengene etter fire måneder uten regn. Men Colombo har ikke opplevd mange “power-cuts” den siste tiden. Grunnen er ganske enkelt at myndighetene ikke vil vise at de har problemer med kraftforsyningen rett før et valg. Slikt påvirker velgerne negativt for de partier som har sittet ved makten frem til i dag. I ukene som kommer regner folk med at strømmen forsvinner noen timer hver dag. Dessuten har Buddha, Kristus, Rama, Muhammed eller hvem du ellers tror på vist seg fra sin beste side og vi fikk skikkelige ettermiddagsregn de siste tre dagene før valget. I Sri Lanka er de fleste store religioner godt representert og de er viktige faktorer i valgkampen. Det er derfor godt om religiøse høytidsdager og selvsagt er det røde dager i kalenderen ved hver fullmåne. Men landet er delt etter mange andre linjer enn religion. Som for alle andre stater er...

Inngress Valget i Sri Lanka andre april gav støtte til president Kumaratunga, men uten eget flertall i parlamentet er det langt frem. Det ble langt mindre vold enn forventet og det forventede utegangsforbudet ble aldri utlyst. Av de 225 representantene som ble valgt er 13 kvinner. Presidenten vil forsøke å få gjennom en grunnlovsendring som gir henne og embetet mer makt på bekostning av statsminisiteren. Spørsmålet er om fredsforhandlingene blir lettere etter dette. Splittelser To år med våpenhvile har skapt en ny politisk virkelighet i Sri Lanka. Når krigen pågikk var det lett å glemme interne motsetninger i de forskjellige grupper. Nå som muligheten til en fremtid uten terror, krig og katastrofer åpner seg kommer interne motsetninger opp til overflaten. Noen av disse er gamle konflikter, andre oppstår som resultat av at maktkamp om politisk lederskap og ressurser blir mer akutte. Valget i Sri Lanka har vist en splittelse i...

LONDON – In Recife one can see the real abomination of Brazil. Over the last 30 years I’ve watched this north eastern city’s population grow like a fungus. A quarter of the people of Brazil’s fourth largest city live in the crime-ridden, extremely violent, favelas (shanty towns), many of them without sanitation. After I walked these filthy, mud-laced streets and returned to stay at the house of the local Catholic priests deep inside one favela lines of a Kipling poem turned in my mind, “Chance-directed, chance-erected, laid and built on the silt/ Palace, byre, hovel- poverty and pride- side by side/ And, above the packed and pestilential town, Death looked down.” Last year the newly elected president, Luiz Inacio da Silva, “Lula”, brought his cabinet here. He was waylaid with placards reading, “Lula, only you can save us”. Can Brazil move from Third World to First World? Can it rid itself...

Why did it fail to deal with themost destructive conflicts? Thirty-one year old Virgil Hawkins’ dissertation is a treasure of information and solid analysis at a time when the largest reforms of the United Nations since its establishment are being discussed. Although not his aim, Hawkins’s book could be said to make the case for the most important UN reform of all: learn from earlier mistakes and get engaged in the most important conflicts; take on the conflicts that cost many human lives and make, finally, the UN an organisation for all humankind not just for the few. The truth Hawkins tells us is this: the Council has failed miserably to respond to the conflicts that cost most lives and concentrated on minor ones – because of members’ narrow interest policies. Globalisation takes place in the economic and military spheres of international society – but there is not yet anything...

LONDON – There is a widely held opinion abroad that Brazil never had the chance of profoundly changing for the better- shedding its widespread poverty and dire income distribution- until Lula (President Luiz Inácio da Silva) came along last year. This is not entirely false, but neither is it entirely true. Brazil has long made a kind of progress- in the last century it was second only to Taiwan as the fastest growing economy in the world- but it has been appallingly uneven. Part of the story of contemporary Brazil is clear to the eye in this small village of 7,000 people in the arid north east, along with the Amazon the poorest part of this vast country. Twenty five years or so ago I used to come to Pilõezinhos regularly when I had a close friend living here, Valéria Rezende, a radical, grass roots-stirring nun, part of the Catholic Church...

By Lewis MacKenzie April 22, 2004 From The National Post, Canada, April 6, 2004 Five years ago our television screens were dominated by pictures of Kosovo-Albanian refugees escaping across Kosovo’s borders to the sanctuaries of Macedonia and Albania. Shrill reports indicated that Slobodan Milosevic’s security forces were conducting a campaign of genocide and that at least 100,000 Kosovo-Albanians had been exterminated and buried in mass graves throughout the Serbian province. NATO sprung into action and, in spite of the fact no member nation of the alliance was threatened, commenced bombing not only Kosovo, but the infrastructure and population of Serbia itself — without the authorizing United Nations resolution so revered by Canadian leadership, past and present.  Those of us who warned that the West was being sucked in on the side of an extremist, militant, Kosovo-Albanian independence movement were dismissed as appeasers. The fact that the lead organization spearheading the...