Terp, Holger: Danish Peace History - Det danske Fredsakademi

The summits between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were seen as the end of
history, where nuclear war and weapons had been defused by international treaties.
The No to Nuclear Weapons split over the position to the Gulf war.
With the active participation in the Gulf war and by the creation of the
inappropriately named Danish international Brigade (all the soldiers are Danes and
they can be used wherever the US government wants them), the military policy was
acceptable to the voters, according to several opinion polls during the late 1990s.
The disenfranchised peace movements began a long, but difficult successful campaign
to aid draft evaders and deserters from the former Yugoslavia (Serbia and
Montenegro) in Denmark 195 , while Danish racism was growing. The successful
campaign against Danish export of naval ships and naval ship technology to Indonesia
was begun by the Danish chapter of the WRI. Also Danish shipping companies worldwide
transport of arms was stopped, after it was discovered, that the shipping
companies were subsidised by low insurance premiums, funded by the partly state
owned Foundation for War Insurance of Ships 196 , established during World War One
which permitted them to bid more competitively internationally. During the budget
negotiations of 1997, the politicians were asked to privatize the foundation, which they
did and Danish shipping companies no more transport arms, supported by the state.
The small peace movement became invisible in the media, though it had political
success while the Danish governments acted as being a local American state by
rearming and participating in the Gulf war.
The Danish peace and disarmament activist Ulla Røder, is a fine sample of Denmark’s
commitment to international solidarity, when the need is seen. She began her peace
work protesting against the French nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, became
secretary for the Danish Peace Commission and later a member of the Trident
Ploughshares 2000 197 .
The Danish Peace Commission’s members came from the Danish chapter of Artists for
Peace, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Pugwash
Conferences of Sciences and World Affairs, War Resisters’ International and the
Danish organisations: the Conscientious Objector’s Union, the Peace Tax Foundation,
Women for Peace and other organisations.
The war against terrorism and the US war against Iraq created many new Danish
campaigns against the war and also a new umbrella organisation the Danish Peace
Council was created in February 2003.
195
Hvidbog udgivet af Kampagnen til støtte for desertører og militærnægtere fra det tidligere
Jugoslavien, 1996.
196
Krigsforsikringen for danske skibe. The last known case of Danish cargo ship carrying ammunition is
Karin Cat, foundered south of Sicily on February, 18 2003. Danish Maritime Authority: Casualty
Report: The Foundering of Karin Cat 18 February 2003. File. No. 01.40.01. - 22 pp.
197
Zelter, Angie: Trident on Trail: The case for people’s disarmament. Glasgow, 2001.