TFF on CNN - 3rd time on Kosovo

[TFF <tff@transnational.org>]

On http://www.transnational.org from January 27, 2000



TFF P r e s s I n f o   # 8 4


T F F   O N   C N N   -   3 r d   T I M E   O N   K O S O V O




Lund, Sweden
January 27, 2000

Yet another evidence of TFF's rapidly increasing international prestige is
its opinion piece on CNN's new "In Depth Special on Kosovo" - see
http://europe.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/kosovo/stories/present/kfor/.

It's the third time TFF's expertise is called upon by CNN; first during
NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia and then before New Year, a longer conversation
about the international community's peacebuilding failure in today's
Kosovo/a. And now with this website feature "Misguided motives led to the
chaos in Kosovo" under CNN*s heading "Missed Opportunities."

In the article TFF director Jan Oberg summarizes the Kosovo crisis through
the 1990s and the foundation's experience with conflict-mitigation there
begnning 1991. In a few points, he outlines why NATO's  KFOR mission, the
United Nations' UNMIK mission and the OSCE are unlikely to succeed with
building genuine peace in the Balkans.

Writes Oberg: "The international community -- a euphemism for a handful of
top leaders -- has historically been an integral party to the conflicts, not
an impartial mediator. A policy of disinterested conflict analysis,
mediation and conflict resolution would require different analyses, means
and institutions (with just a minimum of training)."

"It was a Western "civilizing" mission. Nations must accept free markets,
NATO's doctrine, EU militarization, selective human rights for the chosen
people, and democracy in the form of "free" elections. We must accept NATO,
not the U.N. or OSCE, as the only peacemaker under the only superpower.
We are supposed to believe there is no alternative to all this and to
bombing. In the long run, this sort of intellectual poverty threatens to
make us look like the "ugly West" in the eyes of all other cultures."

Read this concise and critical piece to understand why "the absence of
self-criticism in the West is ominous."

CNN's "Kosovo In-Depth Special. Prospects for Peace" which offers a wealth
of interesting materials on the region, the past, the future, Balkan
Notebook, chat, message board and links can be found on
http://europe.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/kosovo.



© TFF 2000

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Dr. Jan Oberg
Director, head of the TFF Conflict-Mitigation team
to the Balkans and Georgia

T F F

Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden
Phone +46-46-145909 (0900-1100)
Fax +46-46-144512
Email
tff@transnational.org
http://www.transnational.org


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