With the classical meaning of a “diplomat is one who listens and reads twice”, I've been diplomatic with this book and diplomacy has paid.
I underestimated the book when I first read it and appreciated it better after going through it twice. Initially I was put off by some inaccuracies of fact and deficiencies of judgement when referring to Colombian history. Soon I came to value the usefulness of the overviews mainly for non-Colombian readers and the ability of the book to fulfil…
The US describes Colombia as harbouring the hemisphere's biggest terrorist threat. Not surprisingly, the plan it supports to solve Colombia's social ills, Plan Colombia, will have a significantly detrimental effect on the region as a whole. Both these books not only provide a coherent critique of Plan Colombia and offer alternative proposals for dealing with the drugs issue, they delve beneath Colombia as merely an exporter of cocaine or a perpetrator of terrorism and explore the political,…
This brief book was initially written by its Colombian author in order to explain to a US American friend the roots of the complex situation of violence in Colombia.
However, it is actually addressed to the population living there, as if the author could not hold back a need to urge a people despised for centuries by their own plunderers (aristocracy of unscrupulous political leaders, immoral world market and ever increasing military expenditure - utterly useless) to recover their…
Few writers can take two seemingly different subjects like river dams and the war on terrorism and turn them into a coherent, informed, impassioned indictment of the nation state, elitist greed and militarised globalisation. Arundhati Roy can, and does.
India is a country where 70% of the population has no electricity and where more than the total population of Canada might be displaced and made homeless from their villages and farms by dam building. I say might because as Roy states…
International and grassroots peace groups are continuing to urge strong action to defuse the escalating tension between Pakistan and India over Kashmir - mostly out of fear for an “accidental” launch of a nuclear weapon.
The Kashmir flashpoint is the most dangerous nuclear threat in the world today, according to the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), a New Delhi-based peace group. This is because the temptation to use nuclear weapons is the greatest during war or near-…
Since the violent breakdown in February of the three-year-old peace talks, Colombians have been plunged into yet another round of skirmishes and killings.
From the Colombian state military's massive bombing raids on the demilitarised zone and unofficial support for right-wing paramilitary groups, to FARC's supposedly accidental killing of hundreds of civilians during combat, Colombians are experiencing intensified military activity across the country on a scale not seen for several…
This book was first published in 1961, when the Cold War was in full swing. Not surprisingly, it is a product of its time. It was written with the clear conviction that a nuclear war of catastrophic proportions was highly likely within ten years unless something radical was done to prevent it. A lack of faith in most of the politicians of the day is evident throughout. Consequently, one of the principal themes of the book is that an international government of some kind is required in order…
Diana Francis' book appears at a time when it seems almost impossible to stop the war-machine. In the face of this reality, her book gives us some hope that people determined to achieve lasting peace can make a difference.
It is fascinating and instructive to see how she handles both uncertainties and certainties and how she extends the scope of conflict transformation by introducing nonviolence not only as a means but also as a philosophy and a way of life.
She…
War's Offensive on Women catalogues the failure of the international humanitarian community to address the needs - and rights - of women in war, and provides that community with concrete recommendations for respecting women's human rights in war.
Mertus makes a useful addition to the debate on gender-sensitive approaches to both the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, and the administration of humanitarian and development assistance.
Identifying…
A small group of Cypriot women, calling themselves “Hands Across the Divide”, has started actively campaigning for peace in Cyprus. They have to communicate by email, because face to face meetings between people living in north and south Cyprus are so difficult to achieve.
Since 1974, the island of Cyprus has been divided by a barbed-wire fence, which runs from coast to coast and through the heart of the principal city of Nicosia. This UN partition line was set up during a period of…
For two years, with a small break of a couple of months, our human rights organisation “Soldiers Mothers of St Petersburg has held a picket every Thursday on Nevskij Prospekt, where members of the group gather opposite the Kazanski Cathedral.
With banners like: “Peace in Chechnya” , “I am against war, and you?” , “From war to reconciliation” , “Forgive us Chechnya” , and “You can t stop terrorism by using terrorism” , we protest against war in general and against the war in…
For more than 20 years, Colombia has been caught up in a brutal conflict between political opponents. On the left, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other groups have conducted guerilla warfare against the government since the mid-1960s. Unlike other insurgents in the region who were dependent on support from the Soviet bloc, the Colombian “revolution” has been self-financed through kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and by “taxing” coca producers and cocaine exporters.…
Here is an interesting question for you: how does the military protect its soldiers from chemical weapons? The answer, of course, is by exposing them to these toxic gases in “controlled” experiments, as “human guinea pigs”.
Since the British Government opened the “chemical warfare experimental establishment” at Porton Down in 1916, it is estimated that some 30,000 military personnel have been used in such tests.
Porton scientists also conducted these test on themselves. Tests…
The twentieth century has ended up with a dark account of violence and of wars all over the world. After the horrors of World War II it seemed that the situation had to change, that it was not possible to continue with the way things were going. Looking back, clearly it was able go on.
Quite a long time ago we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the International Human Rights Declaration. Amnesty International's report for 2001 says that - according to the information they have been…
This year, the award was bestowed upon six women and organisations, for their courage and hard work. Among the six were, Dr Flora Brovina, a Kosovar Albanian human rights campaigner, imprisoned in 1999 by Serb authorities, and Veneranda Nzambazamariya for her role in promoting peace in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide and for helping women rebuild their lives.
Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, the human rights activists and lawyers, were also among the recipients – in acknowledgement of…
