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Talk by Doug Roche on Kosovo, April 28
>Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 08:19:31 -0400 (EDT)
>From: ad207@freenet.carleton.ca (Richard Sanders)
>To: ad207@freenet.carleton.ca
>Subject: Talk by Doug Roche on Kosovo, April 28
>Reply-To: ad207@freenet.carleton.ca
>
>Please circulate this notice (re: change of topic)
>
>Senator DOUG ROCHE will speak on:
>
>"Kosovo and Canada: NATO or the UN?"
>
>on Wednesday, April 28, 1999 (7:30 p.m.)
>at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
>(30 Cleary Ave.)
>
>There will also be a showing of COAT's documentary:
> "Mothers' Day at the War Show"
> This documentary exposes the use of war planes
> (including nuclear weapons delivery systems and many
> varieties used to bomb Yugoslavia) as sources of family
> fun and entertainment at air shows.
>
>This event is organised by
>the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
>and the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
>
>For more information, contact COAT: 231-3076
>
>Please note, regarding the change of subject matter:
>The topic of Doug Roche's talk was originally to be "The Middle Powers
>Initiative and the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Movement." It has been
>changed in response to the crisis in which the world now finds itself. His
>statement on this crisis (reprinted below), makes a very clear connection
>between the Balkan war and the urgent need for nuclear disarmament.
>(Please spread the word.)
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Statement by Senator Douglas Roche, O.C.
>
>On the Kosovo Crisis
>
>(Edmonton, April 9, 1999 and Vancouver, April 10, 1999)
>
>The greater context of Kosovo must be understood. The current
>Kosovo crisis points to an inescapable fact: the world must avoid such
>future conflicts to head off a global war. This is a defining moment in the
>history, not just of post-Cold War Europe, but the post-Cold War world.
>This is, indeed, a world crisis and we must be prepared to live with the
>precedents we are now setting. In this vein, this conflict involves the
>development or the loss of a viable security structure for the entire world
>in the decades to come.
>
>Canada can play a leading role in building a viable system
>that will prevent the bloodshed we are now witnessing.
>
>We all recognize that diplomacy and negotiations leading to
>a political solution to a conflict is the preferred route to its
>resolution.
>
>But what happens if negotiations fail and the slaughter and
>genocide of innocent persons takes place?
>
>We cannot stand idly by - and perhaps that is the first
>lesson we have learned from the Kosovo crisis. Humanity must be protected.
>
>But how?
>
>The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros
>Boutros-Ghali, showed the way in his remarkable document, "Agenda for
>Peace," prepared at the request of the Security Council. In this document
>one can find the expectations and hopes for a new global security
>structure.
>While NATO seeks a just outcome for the Kosovars, what is it throwing away?
>What is Canada, in its bombing raids, saying to the world?
>
>In his "Agenda for Peace" Boutros Boutros-Ghali
>distinguished between peace-keeping and peace-making.
>
>Peace-keeping supervises a truce and in the many instances of U.N.
>peace-keeping, which was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, Canada has played an
>outstanding role.
>
>Peace-making is military action to bring hostile parties to
>an agreement. Under Article 42 of the U.N. Charter, the Security Council
>has the authority to take military action to maintain or restore peace and
>security. In fact, such action is essential to the credibility of the U.N.
>as a guarantor of international security.
>
>Such forces should be supplied by member states; these
>forces would never be sufficiently large to deal with a major army equipped
>with sophisticated weapons, but they would be effective in countering a
>threat posed by a military force of a lesser order. This is exactly the
>case in dealing with the Serbs in the present crisis.
>
>Had this plan been implemented, NATO troops, along with
>troops from other nations, could have, on the ground, made peace in Kosovo.
>The immense bombing destruction of the infrastructure of Kosovo and Serbia,
>along with the killing of innocent people, could have been spared.
>
>Major nations never agreed on the Boutros-Ghali plan. But
>Canada did and recommended to the U.N. that a force of up to 5,000 military
>and civilian personnel be deployed in a crisis, under the authorization of
>the Security Council. Canada emphasized that such a force would have to be
>made up of components from several countries, not just NATO. A U.N. Rapid
>Reaction Force would prevent conflict and, if it broke out, settle it by
>military means.
>
>This plan, which has withered as the U.N. has increasingly
>been sidelined in conflict situations, must be revived.
>
>It cannot be left to NATO, as a Western military alliance,
>to impose its will on conflict situations. This is too dangerous for world
>stability.
>
>The former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has warned that
>the views of other major countries, such as Russia, China, and India, must
>be taken into account. Air strikes by a powerful Western alliance are an
>affront to these other major nations. They are not going to quietly sit by
>while a powerful, nuclear-armed Western alliance asserts its dominance.
>
>Crises, such as the one represented by Kosovo, will spin out
>of control unless we reassert the predominant responsibility of the U.N.
>Security Council as the guarantor of peace and security in the world.
>
>Canada is instrumentally placed to press for the
>implementation of a U.N. Rapid Reaction Force. We should learn this lesson
>from Kosovo. We must realize the future opportunities that may be lost and
>reflect deeply on the precedent we are now setting.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Some information about Senator Doug Roche
>
>Doug Roche has recently become known to many Canadians as an outspoken
>critic of NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia. Between 1984 and 1989, he was
>Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament to the UN. In 1988, he was elected
>Chairman of the U.N. Disarmament Committee, the main U.N. body dealing with
>political and security issues.
> Senator Roche was elected to Parliament four times, serving from 1972
>to 1984 and specializing in development and disarmament. He was appointed
>to the Senate in September 1998.
> In 1989, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of
>Alberta, where he now teaches "War and Peace in the 21st Century?"
> Senator Roche is an Officer of the Order of Canada, Chairman of
>Canadian Pugwash and Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative, a network of
>seven international non-governmental organisations specializing in nuclear
>disarmament. He is also a mentor of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
>(COAT).
> He is the author of fifteen books, and has contributed chapters to
>eight more. His latest is The Ultimate Evil: The Moral Case Against
>Nuclear Weapons (Lorimer, October 1997).
> Senator Roche has served as president of the U.N. Association in
>Canada and was elected in 1985 as honourary president of the World
>Federation of U.N. Associations, the first Canadian to receive this honour.
>He was the chairman of the Canadian Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary
>of the U.N. in 1995. He was the founding president of Parliamentarians for
>Global Action, an international network of 1,200 parliamentarians in 82
>countries.
> In 1995, he received the U.N. Association's Medal of Honour. In
>1995, Pope John Paul II presented him with the Papal Medal for his service
>as Special Advisor on disarmament and security matters.
>
>For more information on Doug Roche, check out his web page at:
>http://sen.parl.gc.ca/droche
>
>For more info. on the lecture by Doug Roche on Wednesday, April 28,
>contact COAT at 613-231-3076 or email ad207@freenet.carleton.ca
>
>--
>Richard Sanders, Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
>COAT, 489 Metcalfe St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 3N7
>Tel: (613) 231-3076 Fax (613) 231-2614
>WWW: http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/coat Email: ad207@freenet.carleton.ca
>
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