FRANCE AND AFRICA: A DECLINING RELATIONSHIP?   BY MICHEL GARY | August 22, 2008

In Chad, in October 2007, a French charity, “l'Arche de Zoé” tried to send 103 orphans from Darfur to Europe, so that they can be adopted. A flight had been organized from Chad to France. Just before leaving, the members of the charity were arrested by the Chadian police for “attempted kidnapping and fraud”. In fact, most of the children, probably, were not orphans and came from Chad, not Sudan. Read more

TIBET, DARFUR AND THE BEIJING OLYMPICS  BY MICHAEL MADSON | August 7 , 2008

Boycotts against Beijing were, from the beginning, doomed to failure. As David von Drehle wrote in Time Magazine, “boycotts are empty gestures. Governments boycott, athletes suffer, and the only thing that changes is that the credibility of the Olympics as a festival of goodwill suffers another dent.” Read more

ATTACKING IRAN   BY BINOY KAMPMARK | July 30, 2008

In June, it was reported that Israeli forces were conducting military exercises for

an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israeli historian Benny Morris of Ben-Gurion University has suggested that an attack on Iran within the next five to seven months

is inevitable. November 5 to January 19 is the time given for a likely air strike – between the election and inauguration of the new American president. Read more
 

KEEP HIM ALIVE!!!   July 21, 2008

Uncovering the truth about the alleged secret deals between the Clinton Administration

and certain war criminals is important not only for the international community but also

for the American political process because many of those, who were dealing personally

with Radovan Karadzic in the 90's are presently advising Barack Obama or took active

part in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We count on the Serbian authorities and the ICTY’s

authorities that Karadzic is successfully prevented from committing a suicide in his cell,

overdosing medicine or misusing it. Read more

"THE DARKEST MOMENT IN THE U.N.'S HISTORY"   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | July 12, 2008

EuropeanCourier.org attended a conference at the United Nations’ headquarters on July 11, 2008, devoted to commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre and featuring some prominent former and active diplomats. With this material our magazine expands coverage to reporting on international diplomacy issues related to the work of the United Nations. Stayed tuned for other reports about the most pressing global issues, including Iran, Iraq, nuclear terrorism and others. Read more

SREBRENICA TABOO   BY MO SACIRBEY | July 8, 2008

When Bianca Jagger came to see me that summer of 1998, I knew that any initiative by Bosnia & Herzegovina representatives to the United Nations to investigate Srebrenica would be blocked by Republika Srpska officials within the BiH Foreign Ministry and Government. The Security Council permanent powers were also opposed to reopening of any issue related to BiH, and especially Srebrenica. Read more

JUSTICE DENIED: MEANDERS OF THE BALKAN DIPLOMACY   BY FLORENCE HARTMANN | June 30, 2008

For over a decade and in direct contradiction to all the new evidence which has emerged since then, the Western officials have been denying that they could have reasonably foreseen the attack on Srebrenica and Zepa back in July 1995, which resulted in extermination of 8,000 innocent people. Srebrenica was the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of the World War II and the Holocaust. Both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that Srebrenica and its people have been the victims of genocide in violation of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Read more

LOOKING TO EUROPE? AN ASIA-PACIFIC UNION  BY BINOY KAMPMARK | June 29, 2008

Imagine this: a seamless political and economic area in the Asia-Pacific region, where military and trade interests are bound by a deep compact far beyond any existing arrangement. In short, something akin to the European Union, a replication in part of its institutional arrangements. The features: a common market, shared principles and modified sovereignty; where freedom of movement in people, capital, goods and services is guaranteed. Read more
 

UNITED NATIONS REPORT ON SREBRENICA GENOCIDE    BY MO SACIRBEY | June 19, 2008

Srebrenica was betrayed. There is little doubt and much evidence to now support this conclusion. Much had not yet surfaced back then in 1998-2000, or it was more effectively suppressed, for obvious reasons. The resolution of Srebrenica is part of the future on a regional level, but also to restoring credibility to multilateralism and its institutions. The United Nations must consider reviewing its original report, evidence

and methodology. Read more
  

THE FUTURE OF CUBA   BY RICH BASAS | June 12, 2008

The diplomatic course adopted by the next President will determine whether Cuba and the U.S. would start dialogue to help Cuba to reintegrate into international community and global economy. Presently, the U.S. sees no evil in doing business with communist China despite China’s reported abuses of human rights. At the same time similar human rights abuses in Cuba have been the rationale behind the imposition of rigid sanctions against Castro’s regime. Read more

OUTSKIRTS OF EU: PERSECUTION IN BREAK-AWAY REPUBLIC OF TRANSNISTRIA  

BY AMANDA HOWE | June 7, 2008

The “5+2 process”, which refers to negotiations intended to help Moldova and Transnistria reach a settlement regarding the region’s autonomous status, has stalled. The parties include the OSCE, the Russian Federation and Ukraine as mediators. The European Union and United States are observers at the negotiations. Read more

ANTI-CHINESE PROTESTS IN NEW YORK CITY   | June 1, 2008

Anti-Chinese protests to boycott Olympic Games because of China’s violations of human rights in Tibet continue. Watch our short video showing demonstrations in front of the Chinese Consulate in New York City, which are now being held every weekend. Video

HILLARY, BOSNIA AND THE BAGHDAD PEACE ACCORDS   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | May 18, 2008

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Holbrooke/Clinton would be like awarding it to Henry Kissinger for stopping the war in Vietnam. Yes, it did happen in the past but afterwards everybody thought it was undeserved and the very image of the prize suffered. It is perhaps not even irony that all peace endeavors made by the Clinton Administration in the 90's, produced only one Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Al Gore in 2007 for saving penguins and icebergs in the South Pole. Read more

AMBASSADORIAL DEBATE   May 10, 2008

- a discussion between Mr. Diego Arria (a prominent opposition leader in Venezuela) and Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey (former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina) about: Kosovo's independence, International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, international diplomacy and the weakness of the United Nations (moderated by the European Courier). Video

FOOD IN FUEL TANK, HUNGER ON ROAD   BY MO SACIRBEY | April 24, 2008  
  

What is dramatically increasing malnutrition and raising the risk of mass starvation on a global basis? 100 million people are under threat of hunger according to the United Nations and possibly 20 million starving. Many more infants and children could be handicapped for life from a lack of needed nutrients at the critical time in the development of bodies and minds. Read more

PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY LEGACY   BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | March 3, 2008

As President Dmitry Medvedev has succeeded Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, there has been considerable speculation about the future directions of Russia’s foreign policy. Some analysts noted that Medvedev’s public pronouncements to date have been less confrontational and more conciliatory than Putin’s harsh anti-western rhetoric. Read more

EXPIRATION DATE OF HUGO CHAVEZ   February 5, 2008
    

– a discussion between Mr. Diego E. Arria, an opposition leader in Venezuela, former Governor of Caracas, former Minister of Tourism, former Minister of Information, and former Permanent Ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations, and Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina and former Permanent Ambassador of BiH to the United Nations. Transcript | Video
  

BURMA, REPRESSIONS AND (IN)HUMANE SANCTIONS   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | January 16, 2008

Burma is not a major foreign policy focus for most Western nations and few top diplomats or government officials can afford to spend the time or effort to understand all the detailed complexities of the situation. [...] However it is felt it is time for Western governments to seek other options towards improving the situation in Burma than the use of economic and political sanctions. Read more

MIGHT NEEDS RIGHT, SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM MEETS THE ICC

BY MO SACIRBEY | December 13, 2007

Multilateralism, for the moment at least, has lost its mojo. The dominant forces in the current U.S. Administration are only part of the downer mood. Unfortunately even many that rhetorically advocate multilateralism do not necessarily have the UN in consideration as the forum to consummate critical policy . Read more

SECURITY COUNCIL IN REHAB   BY MO SACIRBEY | November 1, 2007

You know that Amy Winehouse melody: “They wanna make me go to rehab, but I say, No, No, No!!!” Well, that obstinacy fits the UN Security Council, for the last 15 years or more. Everyone knows that the UN Security Council is in need of reform, but only the Security Council is in a position to ultimately act upon it. Read more
  

RUSSIA’S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD ASIA BY DR. DMITRY SHLAPENTOKH | April 12, 2007

Iranians [...] recently clearly conveyed their displeasure when Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Israel will collapse in the same way as the USSR. The statement was made at exactly the time when most Russians nostalgically remember the death of the USSR 15 years ago. The Iranian president was also aware that Putin proclaimed the collapse of the USSR as the greatest catastrophe of the twentieth century. Read more

MIDPOINT IN ACHIEVING THE UN’S MILLENNIUM GOALS   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | March 11, 2007

In Vietnam, back in 1990, over 80% of the population lived in extreme poverty (earning less than $2 a day), but that number has fallen to well under 50% today according to a recent World Bank report. The story of rapid poverty reduction can be found in the recent history of China. During the period of 2001 through 2005, an astounding 156 million people were able to lift themselves out of extreme poverty [...] Read more

MYTHS OF GLOBALIZATION   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | January 2, 2007

The world's largest company measured by sales, Wal-Mart, calls itself a "global retailer" in its 2005 annual report. However, it only has direct sales operations in around 5% of the countries that make up the United Nations, around 80% of its sales come from the USA and approximately 90% of all sales come from North America. Is Wal-Mart a "global" company? Read more

LEBANON: THE MIDDLE EAST CAULDRON   BY TIMOTHY NEENO | December 17, 2006

Whatever good intentions may have gone into it, Iraq has now made further U.S. military interventions anywhere all but impossible. As the new Democratic Congress begins investigating the war in January of 2007, every mistake Bush and Rumsfeld made in Iraq will be highlighted and fed to the media. Republicans will not want another war between now and November of 2008. Read more

ASIA’S RAPID ECONOMIC RISE   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | November 26, 2006

The rapid economic growth of China, India and much of the rest of the most populous continent is causing leaders and the voting public in the US and Europe to sit up and take notice. The repercussions of Asia’s increasing economic power are frequent topics of discussion in government offices, boardrooms and factory lunchrooms across the Western world. Read more

USA-ASIA: JAPAN RESURGENT   BY TIMOTHY NEENO | October 2, 2006

On September 26, 2006, Shinzo Abe took office as Japan’s new Prime Minister. Abe has vowed to give Japan a more prominent place in the world scene, and is calling for a revision of Article IX of the Japanese Constitution [...] which forbids Japan from having any military other than self defense forces, and permanently renounces “war as a sovereign right of the nation”. Read more

ASIA: STATUS OF ETHNICAL MINORITIES IN JAPAN   BY PIOTR SZCZEPANIAK | August 19, 2006

Officially, the problem of discrimination of ethnical minorities in Japan does not exist. The Japanese political elites have been successfully promoting and popularizing over years the image of ethnically and culturally homogenous country. Read more

NORTH KOREAN SYSTEM OF SUCCESSION OF POWER   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | August 8, 2006

Comrade KIM JONG IL, the present leader of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, is an extraordinary man. To begin with, he had an unprecedented opportunity to be the closest and most faithful assistant of Comrade Kim Il Sung, who was his father and the first leader of the North Korean communist state. Read more

NORTH KOREAN STRATEGY OF SURVIVAL   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 22, 2006

At the beginning of 2005, North Korea declared that it had manufactured atom weapons for self-defense and would continue to strengthen its nuclear program. Threateningly, the regime suspended its participation in six-part talks for an indefinite period of time. Read more

DOES THE WORLD NEED CHINA?   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 11, 2006

As it has been proved throughout the world’s history, rising economic and military powers tend to start external expansion at certain point of their development.There is no reason to assume that the rising Chinese superpower would take different course. Read more

UNITED NATIONS' FIGHT AGAINST NUCLEAR TERRORISM   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 6, 2006

War on terror has many front lines. Besides numerous intelligence agencies and military forces actively taking action to eliminate terrorist threat around the world, there are many other groups of people and organizations willing to contribute to this great effort. Read more