TNI activities 1999

See also TNI Annual Report 1999

January

'The Inspection Panel of the World Bank' - TNI/Both Ends Political Café, in Amsterdam. Speaker from the Ministry of Foreign Affaires. 20 participants.

January

TNI Forum 'Globalisation, Social Movements & the New Internationalism', in TNI building, Amsterdam. Speaker Peter Waterman, recently retired professor at the Institute for Social Sudies, The Hague. Discussants are Ineke Zeldenrust (Clean Clothes Campaign), Gisela Dutting (Global Coalition for Women's Reproductive Rights) and Olivier Hoedeman (Corporate Europe Observatory). 20 participants.

February

Publication of the book The Politics of Civil Society Building. European Private Aid Agencies and Democratic Transitions in Central America by TNI fellow Kees Biekart.

February

Publication of the book Dark Victory. The United States, Structural Adjustment and Global Poverty, (updated 2nd edition) by TNI fellow, Walden Bello, with Shea Cunningham and Bill Rau, TNI / Food First/ Pluto Press, London.

February

Publication of the book Strengtening Civil Society in Burma TNI / Burma Centrum Netherlands, Silkwoorm Publishing, Thailand.

26-28 March

Conference: The Asia Crisis: A Change for Democracy and Human Rights TNI Asia Project Workshop: Strategy Session on the Asia-Europe Meeting. In Berlin, Germany.

May

TNI/IPS SEEN Project International Conference: 'Fossil Fuels and International Financial Institutions' in Celleno, Italy. Attended by 48 NGOs from 24 countries.

11-13 May

Hague Appeal for Peace The Hague. TNI holds workshops and panels on 'Conflict Prevention and the War on Drugs', 'Environmental Insecurity as a Source of Conflict', 'Nuclear Weapon Free Zones', 'The Effects of Globalisation on Peace and Human Rights' and 'EU-Asia Linking Arms'

May

'Debt and the New International Financial Architecture' - TNI / Both Ends Political Café, in Amsterdam.

May

TNI Annual Fellows Meeting in Amsterdam. The programme includes inputs on 'International Financial Crisis: What are the Alternatives?', 'WTO Ministerial Meeting', 'Breifing on the Day Chocolate Company', 'North South Citizens Agenda: Strategic Counters to Neo-Liberalism', 'Alternative Politics: What and Where?', 'Reflections on the Politics of Civil Society Building', 'The New Interventionism and the Future of the International System', 'Corporate Wars: Nigeria', 'War on Drugs in Latin America', 'Update on the South Asian Anti-Nuclear Movement'. 50 participants.

May

TNI Forum 'Prospects for Democratisation in Nigeria' at La Maison Africaine in Amsterdam. Chaired by Caroline van Dullemen, secretary to National Advisory Board on Conflict Prevention, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Development Co-operation. Speaker Oronto Douglas (IJAW Youth Movement/Chiccoco Movement for Democracy, Nigeria) and discussant Chudi Ukpabi, a Nigerian journalist based in Holland. 50 participants.

10 May

TNI with the Committee against Impunity in Chile organise the Forum "The Pinochet Trial. Developments in the Pinochet Case" at De Balie, Amsterdam. Speakers Saul Landau (TNI), Joan Garcés, Fabiola Letelier (Chile), Oscar Vallespier (Chile) and Jan de Kievid. 100 participants.

May

First TNI director (1973-75) professor Eqbal Ahmad passes away.

Tribute to Eqbal Ahmad

May

Publication of 'Drogas mascaras y juegos: Narcotráfico y conflicto armado en Colombia' (Narco-trafficking and Armed Conflict in Colombia) by Ricardo Vargas Meza. TNI / Acción Andina / Tercer Mundo Editores, Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia.

May

Publication of the report 'The Drug War in the Skies. The US Air-Bridge Denial Strategy: The Success of a Failure' by Theo Roncken (ed) with Thomas Kruse and Kathryn Ledebur. TNI / Acción Andina, Amsterdam.

May

TNI and Asia Project Partners' Lobby Tour. A joint delegation of Asian and European NGOs concerned with the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) undertake a five-country lobby tour of Eurpoe, organised by TNI.

June

'The European Investment Bank' - TNI/Both Ends Political Café, in Amsterdam. Speaker Jan Brussee, responsible for the EIB in the Dutch Ministry of Finance International Department. 20 participants.

June

Workshop on Neo-Liberalism, 'Anti-Neo-Liberalism on the Agenda', organised by TNI and XminY in Tilburg, Netherlands. 30 participants.

June

Publication of the report 'The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade', by Ricardo Vargas Meza, TNI / Acción Andina / WOLA, Washington DC.

August

TNI Fellow Phyllis Bennis accompanies the first group of US Congressional staffers to Iraq, to report back to their bosses on the impact of US policy in Iraq on the humanitarian crisis facing Iraqi civilians and on the effect of depleted uranium. Report from Congressional Staffers' 1999 trip to Iraq

September

'Evaluating Dutch Co-Financing of the World Bank 1975 - 1996' - TNI / Both Ends Political Café, in Amsterdam. Speakers Paul Wind of the World Bank and Bert van Selm of the IMF Interim Committee. 25 participants.

September

TNI/Food First Forum 'The Impact of the World Trade Organisation Negotiations on Small Farmers World-Wide' in Amsterdam. With Dr Peter Rosset, director of Food First (Washington). 15 participants.

September

TNI co-organises an East Timor Solidarity Demonstration at Museum Square in Amsterdam. 100 participants. A well-attended pressconference is organised immediately afterwards.

October

TNI/XminY Forum 'Storms in the Eye of the Tiger: Popular Movements and Their Role in the Democratisation Processes in Southeast Asia' at De Balie, Amsterdam. Chaired by Welmoed Koekebakker of KIT (Amsterdam) and with speakers from East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 150 participants.

October

Publication of the report 'Een Verkeerde Stap in de Foutieve Richting (A Wrong Step in the Wrong Direction): Forwarding Operating Locations op Aruba en Curacao' by Tom Blickman, TNI, Amsterdam.

October

TNI/Acción Andina/WOLA Conferences 'Counter Narcotics Policy and Prospects for Peace: Eradiction and Alternative development in Southern Colombia' organised by WOLA and the George Washington Universtity in Washington DC, USA. Attended by high-level officials, including from the United Nations Drugs Control Programme and the Colombian government. A press breifing for the Spanish-language media held prior to the meeting attracts substantial media attention. 150 participants.

October

TNI Energy Project/SEEN Lobby Trip. Participation in the NGO activities at the Fifth Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty in Bonn, Germany, and post-conference lobbying activities directed at the EU.

October

The second TNI and Asia Project Partners' Lobby Tour. Eight countries are being visited, and meetings are being held with representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament on issues related to the ASEM.

11-13 November

TNI's 25th Anniversary 'Festival of Ideas'. To honour this, TNI organises At the Edge: Towards a 21st Century Internationalism at De Balie, Amsterdam. In addition to the extensive programme literary salons are being held, Susan George's book 'The Lugano Report' is launched and a Temporary Autonomous Zone is set up for activist groups to present themselves and their issues. International media coverage. 350 participants.

11-12 November

An Afternoon with Ariel Dorfman and The Pinochet Case: Implications for International Human Rights Law TNI Festival of Ideas, Balie, Amsterdam

November

TNI Film Festival. As a part of the Festival of Ideas celebrations, the Cavia Filmhuis in Amsterdam hosts the two-week filmfestival 'Imagining the Left: Films by Saul Landau'. Total audience of 300 people.

November

Publication of the book 'Fumigación y conflicto: Politícas antidrogas y deslegitimación del Estado en Colombia' (Fumigations and Conflict: Anti-Drug Policies and the De-legitimation of the Colombian State), by Ricardo Vargas Meza, with a foreword by TNI fellow Martin Jelsma. TNI / Acción Andina with Tercer Mundo Editores, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

9 December

Spanish lawyer Juan Garcés is presented in the Swedish parliament the 1999 Right to Livelihood Award, better known as the alternative Nobel Prize. Garcés is being awarded this distinguished prize for being the driving force behind Spain's efforts to bring general Pinochet to justice in a Spanish court for the human rights violations under his 1973 to 1999 Chilean dictatorship. Acceptance speech

Juan Garcés at IPS, October 1999. Photo by Mariël Otten

December

TNI / Acción Andina Conference "Drug Trafficking, Illicit Cultivation and the Peace Process' in Bogotá Colombia. 80 invited participants, including representatives of various governmental agencies as well as NGOs and representatives of peasant and indigenous communities in the northern and central regions of Colombia.

December

A second TNI / Acción Andina Conference and fieldtrip in Florencia, Colombia. About two thirds of the 70 participants are peasant and settler representatives. The Conference is followed by a field trip into the demilitarised FARC-controlled zone in southern Colombia.

Annual Report 1999
Festival at the Edge Website