Posts Tagged ‘Aleppo’
TFF PressInfo # 397: Syria’s destruction – When everybody thinks power and no one thinks peace
December 18th, 2016 | 
Author: TFF Conflict and Peace Report Syria # 3
By Jan Oberg
People try to live their lives and enjoy the small things in Damascus. © Jan Oberg 2016
In spring 2011 I was invited by then Danish foreign minister, Villy Søvndal, to be a keynote speaker at a conference in Copenhagen arranged by the ministry and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) with experts, then UN mediator Kofi Annan’s adviser, scholars, diplomats and, most importantly, a number of Syrian (opposition) politicians and civil society representatives.
The minister left the conference when he had opened it and, like most politicians today, obviously did not give priority to listen to the input of this high-level group present in the conference room.
I made these major points, trying to be as educative as I possibly could:
1) Look at conflicts as if they are problems to be solved – adhere to the peace research concept of the ABC conflict triangle and study A for Attitudes, B for Behaviour and C for the Contradiction/conflict that stands between people. (Cf. Johan Galtung). It’s a classical model that can be applied by virtually anyone.
2) Remember that there are always more than two parties to international conflicts – this is a kind of civil war but also part of the international wars – or aggressions – conducted since the assault on Afghanistan October 7, 2001.
3) Apply this model to another simple methods, namely that of Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment (DTP) – try to be conflict doctors instead of Realpoliticians. That is the only – only – way in which you can approach peace in the future and prevent a huge war with thousands of dead and much destruction.
So ABC and DPT – extremely simple for anyone who wants to understand conflict and help conflict-stricken peoples and countries to solve them and not just use conflicts as opportunities to promote one’s own more or less noble interests.
But he spoke of his next trip, I think to Paris, where the “Friends of Syria” – a group initiated by then-French President Sarkozy who was responsible for much of Libya’s destruction – were planning to meet. Intuitively I felt things were already going wrong there and then.
I then added Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Conflict and war, Jan Oberg, Libya, Middle East, Migration and refugees, Nonviolence, Peace, Psychology - war & peace, Russia, Syria, TFF PressInfo, Theories and concepts, Uncategorized, Violence-prevention | 
Tags: Aleppo, Bashar al-Asad, conflict analysis, conflict journalism, conflict resolution applied to Syria, Denmark bombing in Iraq, Denmark bombing in Syria, Eastern Aleppo, human suffering in Syria, Jibrin reception centre, Kofi Annan in Syria, mediation in Syria conflict, people from eastern aleppo, Syria, the fall of Aleppo, the industrial city of Aleppo, the liberation of Aleppo, The shaykh najjar Industrial city, Villy Søvndal | 
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US hypocrisy: Bombing of Aleppo is no worse than what happened in Gaza and Iraq
By Gareth Porter
The Russian-Syrian bombing campaign in eastern Aleppo, which has ended at least for the time being, has been described in press reports and op-eds as though it were unique in modern military history in its indiscriminateness.
In an usual move for a senior US official, Secretary of State John Kerry called for an investigation of war crimes in Aleppo.
As terrible as that toll of civilian lives is, the United States should drop the stance of moral superiority.
The Al-Quds hospital building on 28 April 2016, a day after air strikes (AFP)
The discussion has been lacking in historical context, however. Certainly the civilian death toll from the bombing and shelling in Aleppo has been high, but many of the strikes may not be all that dissimilar from the major US bombing campaign in Iraq in 2003, nor as indiscriminate as Israel’s recent campaigns in densely populated cities.
The impression that the bombing in Aleppo was uniquely indiscriminate was a result of news reporting and commentary suggesting, by implication, that there are no real military targets in east Aleppo.