Natural Law Party calls on government to stop using destructive approach to try and resolve Kosovo crisis

1 April 1999

The Natural Law Party has urged the government to stop using its destructive approach to deal with the Kosovo crisis and to use instead a proven technology to create peace.

Dr Geoffrey Clements, leader of the Natural Law Party, said there are two main points to emphasise. First, a violent approach leads only to further violence - as has become clear in recent days. Second, it is imperative to evaluate what is actually the cause and then implement a solution that is reliable and effective.

"As stated in the UNESCO charter: Wars begin in the minds of men. The presence of high levels of stress and incoherence in society inevitably leads to violence, social disintegration, and war. Therefore, peace can be effectively created only if the stress and incoherence that are the underlying cause of conflict are neutralised."

Dr Clements described the practical solution proposed by the Natural Law Party. "Our solution is to use a technology of consciousness that creates coherence in the collective consciousness of society - the opposite of the stressful state that gives rise to conflict and war.

"Implementing this new technology means establishing a group of 10,000 experts in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying programme. Forty-two scientific studies have emphatically demonstrated that this technology systematically and promptly reduces stress and tension and creates the integrated and coherent state of collective consciousness that alone can be the foundation for peace and national integration. This technology quickly creates a 'field effect' in collective consciousness and neutralises the clouds of negativity and stress that lead to war.

"The cost is minimal. The present NATO budget for its war machinery is estimated to be $2,000m a week. For less than a tenth of one per cent of this amount a group of 10,000 experts in Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying can be set up and maintained. NATO can therefore continue to spend 99.9% of its budget in the same way. The allocation of just 0.1% of the expenditure to a proven peace technology will bring a rapid and permanent peace to the Balkans. We therefore urge Mr Blair and his NATO colleagues to re-evaluate their failed logic."

Dr Clements referred to the opinion poll published in the Sunday Times on 28 March showing that while the majority of people in Britain support the NATO military action, most people also believe it will not help to create peace in Kosovo.

"This poll reflects the bankruptcy in the strategy of the NATO nations. It is an act of desperation, of last resort. It is supported because it appears - falsely - to be the only approach left, but no-one believes it will work.

"The NATO military action is flawed on all counts: * Violence begets violence. According to the age old principle, 'As you sow, so shall you reap,' violence inevitably returns to the aggressor. * As the military action causes increasing death and suffering, the attitude of President Milosevic and the people of Yugoslavia is inevitably hardening, and aggression against the people of Kosovo is escalating to a level where there will no longer be any ethnic Albanians remaining in Kosovo. The situation is already being described as the worst humanitarian disaster in Europe since World War Two. Wider instabilities in the region - political, ethnic and economic - are already being exacerbated and may spill over into further violence and conflict. * Tensions on a world scale, between NATO and other major world powers, are also being aggravated and could create a serious rift in international relations."

Dr Clements emphasised that it is imperative to implement an effective solution immediately. In Britain and throughout Europe the Natural Law Party has already begun a campaign to encourage individual citizens everywhere to practise Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying, either on their own or in groups, in order to create an influence of positivity and coherence in collective consciousness, even if governments have not yet responded to the Natural Law Party's proposal.

"If the British government or any NATO government had the courage to try out our proposal, the Kosovo crisis could be resolved very quickly and peace could be established on a permanent basis," Dr Clements concluded.