Kosovo: the ethics of intervention

The ethics of Nato's intervention in Kosovo is the focus of a meeting in Zurich of European and Swiss politicians, security and human rights experts.

The ethics of Nato’s intervention in Kosovo is the focus of a three-day meeting in Zurich of European and Swiss politicians, security and human rights experts. The Hannah Arendt annual conference is named after a German political philosopher prominent during and after the Second World War.

Nato was forced into action because of the “denial of basic human rights by the Yugoslav government to the Kosovar people, and the impotence of the United Nations to do something about it,” said professor Kurt Spillmann of Zurich’s Federal Institute of Science and Technology, and one of the organisers of the event.

Also taking part are Joachim Gauck, who is leading Germany’s investigation into the role of the secret service in the former East Germany, and Switzerland’s Gret Haller, the former ombudsmann for human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Professor Spillman said one of the aims of the conference was to raise awareness among the public of the importance to understand the issues facing democracy and the institutions to defend it.

“Politics concerns each and everyone of us as we have to be concerned with the questions and ambiguities that confront us,” he said.

swissinfo and agencies