“Moscow in a Fix”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Nato secretary general George Robertson on the conflicts between the European and American partners, on shortcomings during the Kosovo operation and Russia’s war in Chechnya:

“There may be a few visionaries in various European countries who see a change in the strategic responsibilities in the distant future. The majority adheres to Nato in its present form and would like to bring it back into balance. … There are distinct differences between the Balkans and Chechnya. Milosevic’s politics regarding Kosovo were a premeditated, systematic attempt to drive people from a particular ethnic background out of their home country. … We Europeans were not humiliated in the Kosovo war but simply reminded of the fact that our contribution alone is not enough, particularly in the high-tech area.”

“Otherwise There Will Be Another War”

SPIEGEL interview with Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen on the intended tribunal against the Khmer Rouge, the responsibility for the “Killing Fields” and the emergence into democracy:

“Following the arrival of the liberation armed forces in January 1979 we sentenced Pol Pot and his foreign minister Ieng Sary to death in absentia. But the international community did not recognise our government and allowed Pol Pot to take part in the Paris negotiations on the future of Cambodia. Only now, after the Khmer Rouge has been destroyed by us, are the major powers calling for a human rights tribunal against these butchers. That’s just hypocritical. … Our people must not be allowed to break apart into different Khmer factions. The only way out is to establish democracy and freedom of the press, a pluralist society. … I have a deep distrust of the United Nations. It kept the Khmer Rouge alive artificially even though everyone long knew about the “Killing Fields”. A member of the Security Council financed the Pol Pot regime for years. The United Nations will block any resolution against its former friends.”

“Austria Will Do Whatever It Wants”

SPIEGEL interview with Portuguese prime minister and current president of the European Union Antonio Gueterres on the united front against Haider in Brussels, the fundamental values of the community and the populist threat to human rights:

“Our aim was not to interfere with Austrian decisions … We wanted to define a very clear position which holds true for this and all future challenges of a similar kind: we will not accept anyone who attacks the foundations of European civilisation. … The initiative by the 14 states is at least a sign that the EU views itself as a political institution and not just as a common market with a joint currency. To my mind, that is a step in the right direction.”

“I Have Nothing to Conceal”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Liechtenstein fiduciary Herbert Batliner on the foundations set up for the CDU, his relationship with Helmut Kohl and accusations of money laundering made against the principality:

“I have nothing to do with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and I maintain no business relations with it. The CDU doesn’t appear in my records as the party to a contract or as a beneficiary of a foundation, not in one single case … Weyrauch and Lüthje were individuals. How were we supposed to know that there was a party behind them? … I can only say that Helmut Kohl never approached me about a donation and that we never talked about an account or a foundation in Liechtenstein either. … If the CDU opens an account you don’t automatically suspect some criminal background. That isn’t money laundering.”

Network Attacks

Report about the hacker attacks against Internet companies.

“Prudish and Somewhat Bigoted”

Youth exchange programmes: More and more teenagers want to spend a year at school in the United States, to get to know the country. But many have a nasty surprise. America is very different from Hollywood television series. Now a law is supposed to improve the way these pupils are looked after. Its key element is regulations governing the selection procedure for the host families and the type of care given abroad.

“Living in the Ruins”

Space travel: An American businessman wants to save the rickety “Mir”. Cosmonauts are soon to set off to the deserted space station once again. The American businessman who has been instrumental in the surprising attempt at resurrecting of the Russian space craft is Walt Anderson, head of the holding company “Gold & Appel”. He has promised the operators of the Mir 21 million dollars, seven million of which have already been transferred. The benefactor Anderson has planned a great deal more. The Mir is, he says, ideally suited for manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs and for carrying out repairs – a kind of pit-stop for passing satellites. In addition, after some refurbishing the Mir could serve as a hotel for well-to-do adventurers. In other words, all seems set for a happy end – but for the fact that a year and a half ago the Russians committed themselves to giving up the Mir for good, so as to concentrate entirely on the construction of the ISS in collaboration with NASA.

“Russia’s Godfather in New York”

Literature: “The Tsar of Brooklyn”, the debut novel by Swiss writer Ulrich Schmid, is a clever thriller set in New York and Moscow – and at the same time a meticulous portrait of post-Soviet society in present-day Russia. “The Tsar of Brooklyn” tells the story of disintegration: the capitulation of the protagonist Sasha before the reality of post-Communist Russia. Only after losing all his ideals and with his personality shattered is the young journalist ready to cope with the criminal everyday life in his home country – a realistic reversal of the classic middle-class Bildungsroman and one that is in keeping with the times.

“The Unholy Alliance”

Heretics: 400 years ago, philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. His vision of an endlessly living universe continues to meet with rejection among the Roman Catholic church and prevailing science alike. The incumbent Pope has declared the year 2000 to be a jubilee year, a Holy Year; among other things its purpose is to “purify memory”. While natural philosophers like Galileo Galilei have been “rehabilitated”, the animosity of the Catholic church towards Giordano Bruno has never been revoked or even moderated. Giordano Bruno’s infinite universal soul space is not an integrable quantity, either for the church or for the natural sciences; because contemporary cosmology fervently propagates totally dead space surrounding us, space devoid of life and therefore also lacking a universal soul. This is the secret axis of the anti-Bruno coalition between Christians and mainstream cosmologists: both of them are united by the ideologically motivated conviction of the non-existence of a universal soul, that is the omnipresence of life.

“Making Appointments on the Internet”

Soccer: The German national team’s international game next week in Amsterdam is a first test for the police as it prepares for the European championships in June. Experts warn against a “new generation of hooligans who are particularly ready to resort to violence”, and politicians are determined to restrict civil rights. When the law is changed at the beginning of April, the ideal of a European Union without frontier posts will no longer exist – at least not for a certain target group: hooligans. The amended passport law is to prevent Germans who are prepared to resort to violence from doing similar damage during the European Championships in Belgium and Holland in July as they did two years ago during the World Championships in France. Never before has a major soccer event been so overshadowed by the minority of fans for whom rioting and fighting are more important than the game itself. Four months before the first kick-off, a veritable hooligan hysteria has broken loose. Warlike announcements by the international hooligan scene, threatening to use the games as a setting for the “biggest battle in soccer history”, are spreading a sense of terror.