World at war

January 1, 2000 was a "triple" beginning - a new year, a new century, and a new millennium. Yet there remained much unfinished business from the last year, the last decade, indeed the entire 20th century.

Statistics reveals that there are still more than three dozen major conflicts raging in the world. The increase was most noticeable in Asia, where Indonesia was riven by internal strife and groups of Islamic militants became active against the governments of the Central Asian republics that emerged after the demise of the Soviet Union. Overall, the increase in major wars worldwide was quite sharp.

Four conflicts in 1999 stood out above all others. Russian forces were deeply mired in Chechnya. Promises of crushing the independence-minded republic with minimum Russian casualties seem to be crumbling as the battle for the Chechen capital of Grozny dragged on for a long period.

In Africa, armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo quieted for a while as the opposing factions regrouped after the August signing of the Lusaka cease-fire. At one point the fighting had drawn in the military forces of eight other African nations: Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Chad, Sudan (all supporting Laurent Kabila), Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi (all supporting rebels). In November the cease-fire was declared "dead" by one of the insurgent groups seeking to overthrow Kabila, and fighting began to escalate again.

The other two wars nominally ended before the beginning of 2000, but they actually have continued in other ways and at lower intensities. The first was the 78 day aerial bombing campaign led by NATO against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to compel the end of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. In spite of the 50,000 strong peacekeeping force now in Kosovo, ethnic hatreds continue to boil over in random killings - this time of the Serb and other minorities by ethnic Albanians. Recent reports also suggest that the Federal Yugoslav authorities are forming special action units to destabilize Montenegro, Yugoslavia's smaller republic whose leadership opposed Belgrade's policy in Kosovo. Still in Africa, the end of 1999 brought a coup in that overthrew the increasingly autocratic president, Henri Belie. Many western nations suspended aid, but the population seems to have welcomed the bloodless change of power.

Many of the remaining wars seem to roll on from year to year with only the cost in human lives and resources changing, sometimes precipitously as in Sri Lanka's civil war. Others, such as the Indo-Pakistani confrontation in Kashmir, capture headlines with dramatic events in the region - such as the surprise infiltration of 600 men into Kashmir from Pakistan in summer 2000 or the hijacking of an Air India jet at the end of the year by five men that India said were Pakistanis. There are still many hot spots that could break out again into bigger conflagrations.

Only when all parties in a conflict feel they have something to gain or, less often, when a factional leader is willing to trust an opponent, can progress be made. Usually, an outside mediator is required for success.

Exercise 1. Read the words and word combinations and give their Russian equivalents:

conflicts raging; riven by internal strife; minimum casualties; dragged on; cease-fire; opposing factions; ethnic cleansing; to oppose smb’s policy; bring a coup; to suspend aid; precipitously; hijacking; to capture headlines with dramatic events; hot spots; conflagration; an insurgent group; to continue at lower intensity; aerial bombing campaign.