October 2005

LONDON – In mid 1999 only three weeks into his first term of office President Olusegun Obasanjo had to send the army into Warri, an important oil town, in the Niger delta. Around two hundred people were killed by intertribal fighting over confused land ownership. Obasanjo flew into Warri and started negotiations between the fighting groups. Six years later there is now peace between the three tribes who fought each other the most, the Ijaws, the Urhobo and the Itsekeri. He also promised to substantially increase the proportion of federal revenues going to the delta states. Nevertheless, sporadic violence has continued through the Obasanjo era, with the army and police sometimes responding viciously. Periodically, panicky articles appear in the local press quoting the oil companies – in particular Shell, by far the biggest – as fearing for the lives of their employees and threatening to shut down their oil wells....

Den serbiska provinsen Kosovo, huvudsakligen befolkad av den albanska separatistiskt inställda majoriteten, har inte lyckats tillgodose de grundläggande mänskliga rättigheter och den politiska standard som villkorats av världssamfundet, men icke desto mindre ska under de närmaste månaderna påbörjas samtal om dess framtida status. Denna grundläggande slutsats av en länge emotsedd rapporten av FN:s särskilda utsände Kai Eide har godkänts av FN:s generalsekreterare Kofi Annan och fått fullständigt stöd från EU och USA, men paradoxen med detta har man inte lyckats avmystifiera. För bara två och ett halvt år sedan krävde världssamfundet att samtal om Kosovos ställning inte skulle inledas innan man uppnått en viss standard i fråga om mänskliga rättigheter. Men då det sedan dess har blivit allt klarare att den kosovoalbanska majoriteten är ovillig att tillgodose kriterierna och att FN inte förmår genomdriva dem, har förutsättningarna oavbrutet urvattnats tills den proklamerade politiken “standard före status” slutligen begravdes med Eides...

The Serbian province of Kosovo, largely populated by the Albanian separatist-minded majority, has failed to meet basic human rights and political standards set as prerequisites by the international community, but it should nevertheless enter in the months to come talks on its future status. This basic conclusion of the long-awaited report by UN special envoy Kai Eide was approved by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and fully supported by the EU and the US, but it fails to demystify the paradox. Only two a half years ago, the international community had charged that talks on status could not start before a set of basic human rights standards was achieved. Since then, however, as it became clearer that the Kosovo Albanian majority was unwilling to meet the criteria and the UN unable to enforce them, there was a permanent watering down of prerequisites, until the proclaimed policy of “standards before...

Dear friends at BBC I am the director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF. I have just returned from Burundi where I have worked on and off since 1999. I believe it is fair to say that, so far at least, the Burundian peace process is remarkably positive and promising – while it is also true that it can still go madly wrong. With the exception of the FNL that keeps on fighting, all other movements in the bush have, as I am sure you know, gone civilian and joined the political process – president Nkurunziza being the foremost example. If the present government should engage in a full war against the FNL, it would be catastrophic for the country. Elsewhere, warlords and other military actors have been successfully disarmed by tough UN peacekeepers – such as Eastern Slavonia, Croatia in the 1990s. May I add...

LONDON – Whoever wins the Liberian election, which now goes to a second round, will confront the question: how can Liberia avoid a resumption of politics-as-plunder? Charles Taylor, Liberia’s and Africa’s plunderer (and murderer)-in-chief, may be off the scene but the interim government that has presided over Liberia in the preparations for the recent elections has shown that raping raw material resources is deep in the sinews of Liberian politics. In March, a UN panel reported that Liberian officials had signed a secret contract with a European company that gave it a virtual monopoly to sell Liberian diamonds, even though Liberia has been banned from selling its diamonds by the UN until the UN certifies that transparent and accountable procedures are being followed. Although the two front-runners in Liberia’s presidential contest are known for their probity and integrity and doubtless will want to get on top of the problem, the...

LONDON – Even the worst of African situations can be turned around. In Liberia it has been done in two years. The descent during the 1980s and 90s was precipitous, fast and deadly. A quarter of a million people were killed by rival militias, hundreds of thousands driven across borders into refugee camps, one president tortured to death and the macabre event recorded on video, young adolescent boys dressed up in wigs and terrified the populace with random killings and, not least, the country was systematically looted almost clean by its warlord/president Charles Taylor, who became rich on the export of timber, iron ore and alluvial diamonds from neighbouring Sierra Leone. Two years ago I was here at the war’s end. Nigerian and Ghanaian peacekeeping troops lined the road from the airport, backs to the road, eyes scanning the jungle for movement. The roads were sandbagged with checkpoints, the telephone...

 En genlæsning af”BRIEFING FOR A DESCENT INTO HELL” Doris Kruckenberg har genlæst Doris Lessings 34 år gamle roman og ser mange forbindelsespunkter til verdens situation i dag. Kruckenberg mener at den frygt, Lessing dengang indirekte bearbejdede vedrørende menneskehedens fremtid, er blevet virkelighed. Titlen på Doris Lessings roman fra 1971 hedder på dansk: “Instruks om Nedstigning til Helvede”. Instruksen til nedstigning hentyder til et møde mellem planeterne, eller kald dem de græske/romerske guder, foranlediget af at Jupiters ældste datter Minerva – denne kloge og humanistiske måne – havde taget kontakt til Merkur/Hermes for at han, med sin autoritet som overguden Solens talerør og budbringer, skulle få gennemført, at nogle reddere blev sendt ned til jorden for at lempe den ind på et bedre spor. Denne “Briefing” i de olympiske sfærer foregår i hovedet på en professor (måske et sendebud fra oven?), der har mistet hukommelsen og på et mentalsygehus i London...

Trykt som kronik i Information i juni 2005 Vores oplevelse af tryghed rystes af voldsepisoder på gader og stræder. Og vi ønsker, at nogen handler, så vi selv og vore familier kan færdes frit og sikkert: De skyldige må findes og straffes. Retssystemet og staten sørger på ofrets vegne for, at retfærdigheden sker fyldest. Så langt så godt. Vores ærinde er ikke at nedbryde eller erstatte retssystemet. Men spørgsmålet er, om samfundet gør nok for at bryde de spiraler af hævn, gengældelse og vold, som risikerer at gøre livet endnu mere utrygt for almindelige borgere. Kan der gøres mere? Det danske forsøg med konfliktråd i straffesager blev indført for at give ofrene for kriminalitet mulighed for, gennem et møde med gerningsmanden, at få talt ud om episoden og dens konsekvenser. Vi ved, at det for mange har medført, at de igen turde færdes i det lokale miljø uden frygt for...

Oprindelig publiceret i Jyllands Posten 12. august 2005 Just hjemkommet efter en måneds ophold i udlandet har jeg haft anledning til at læse en debat i aviser og dagblade som følge af imam Abu Labans forslag om, at den drabssigtede dørmand fra café Rust på Nørrebro skal betale blodpenge til ofrets familie. Debatten synes at være gledet af sporet, og der er ingen tvivl om, at man skal holde tungen lige i munden, hvis debatten skal bringes tilbage på sporet igen. Jeg vover her forsøget. Først må nogle forudsætninger slås fast: I de fleste moderne retssamfund har staten 1. monopol på legitim voldsudøvelse, 2. uafhængige domstole tager stilling til skyld og straf og 3. politiet står for håndhævelse af lov og orden. Ordensmagten (dvs domstole og politi) varetager i straffesager forholdet mellem det offentlige og borgerne. Dvs. at ordensmagten har som sin opgave at sikre, at de love, der er...

LONDON – There are two ways of tracking down terrorists and war criminals. One we might dub the Simon Wiesenthal way, in honor of the Nazi hunter-in-chief who died on September 20th at the ripe old age of 96. The other we should dub the George W. Bush way. Wiesenthal was a stickler for legality. As The Economist obituary described him, Wiesenthal “was a clever detective with an elephantine memory”. It was this skill that enabled him to unearth war criminals wherever they were hiding, even though governments everywhere, including Western ones, were often content to let sleeping dogs lie. His greatest catch was Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of the Holocaust. Another important catch was a former concentration camp guard notorious for shooting small children. She was living a respectable life in New York and neighbors thought her “the nicest woman on the street”. All those he uncovered were sent...