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News of the World
While bloody wars broke out in Kosovo and Chechnya, the possiblity of peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland grew more palpable.
Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
Years of unrest in Yugoslavia's province
of Kosovo erupted into
war in the spring of 1999. Formerly an autonomous province in
Tito's Yugoslavia, Kosovo was stripped of self-rule in 1989 by
President Slobodan Milosevic. A Serbian ultra-nationalist,
Milosevic began systematically repressing Yugoslavia's
non-Serbs, including the 90% of Kosovo's population that is
Muslim and ethnic Albanian. As one after another of the Balkan
states broke free from Yugoslavia and Serbian hegemony, the
secessionist longings of Kosovo, the poorest of the Balkans,
were largely discounted by the international community. In 1996
the Kosovo Liberation Army, a militant secessionist movement,
began attacking Serbian authorities in Kosovo; by March 1998,
the Yugoslavian army and Serbian militias had brutally clamped
down on the region, massacring civilians as well as KLA
guerrillas, and deporting hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Albanians. After months of fruitless diplomacy by the West,
NATO began Operation Allied Force on March 24, 1999,
launching air strikes against Belgrade that continued for 78
consecutive days.
Weeks of daily bombings destroyed significant Serbian military
targets, yet Milosevic showed no signs of relenting-in fact, he
stepped up efforts to empty the province of its ethnic Albanians.
Not only did it seem that NATO's actions exacerbated the
violence in Kosovo, but its reluctance to send in ground troops
to support the air war struck many as naive and
shortsighted-while NATO fought in the air, the annihilation of
Kosovars and the region was proceeding on the ground. NATO
countries, however, feared that the inevitable casualties of a
ground war in a remote corner of the Balkans would dampen the
resolve of public opinion. Aided at the end by a strong KLA
offensive and Belgrade's apprehension of a future ground war,
NATO's hesitation over deploying ground troops ultimately paid
off. Milosevic finally agreed to sign a UN-approved peace
agreement on June 9.
Since then a five-nation peace-keeping force has occupied the
territory, and a staggering 860,000 refugees have begun
returning to the ruins of Kosovo. The political status of Kosovo
remains uncertain, as does the status of Milosevic, who, after
turning his beleaguered country into a pariah state, remains in
power while an unpromising lot of fractious opposition leaders
fight among themselves.
Although the initial reason for NATO's involvement in Kosovo
was the prevention of a wider Balkan war, once the extent of
Serbian atrocities became known, NATO's stated purpose
became the prevention of a human rights calamity-making
Kosovo one of the rare recent conflicts in which humanitarian
concerns have superseded realpolitik.
Although the initial reason for NATO's involvement in Kosovo
was the prevention of a wider Balkan war, once the extent of
Serbian atrocities became known NATO's stated purpose
became the prevention of a human rights calamity-making
Kosovo one of the rare recent conflicts in which humanitarian
concerns have superseded realpolitik.
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NATO Rallies for Kosovo
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
Russian President Boris Yeltsin's increasingly
erratic behavior led
to his dismissal and appointment of three prime ministers in 1999.
After sacking Yevgeny Primakov in May and
Sergei Stepashin in
August, Yeltsin settled on Vladimir Putin, whom he installed as a
strongman to crush the resurgence of guerrilla warfare by Islamic
militants in Chechnya. Just three years after the bloody 1994-96
Chechen-Russian war ended in devastation and stalemate, the
fighting started again, erupting first in Chechnya's neighbor
Dagestan in August. After several terrorist bombings in Moscow
and other cities in September that were assumed to have been planted by Islamic militants, Russia again
turned its ire on Chechnya, launching air strikes and following with ground troops.
By the end of Nov., Russian troops had surrounded Chechnya's capital, Grozny, and a
bout 215,000 Chechen refugees had fled to neighboring Ingushetia. Russia maintained that a political solution
was impossible until Islamic militants in Chechnya had been vanquished. In Dec. the Kremlin
issued an ultimatum that all residents of Grozny must evacuate the city by Dec. 10 or else
face the military consequences. An estimated 10,000-40,000 civilians were virtually
trapped in the city, fearful of fleeing Grozny amid the constant barrage of shelling.
The ultimatum was eventually softened, in part because of the West's strong condemnation of Russia's handling of
Chechnya. At its summit in Dec., the EU declared that ``the European Council does not question the right of Russia to preserve its territorial integrity nor its right to fight terrorism. However, the fight against terrorism cannot ... warrant the destruction of cities, nor that they be emptied of their inhabitants, nor that a whole population be considered as terrorists.'' Yet Russians themselves remained overwhelmingly in favor of the assault on Chechnya. Yet Russians themselves remained overwhelmingly in favor of the assault on Chechnya, demonstrated by the strong showing for the pro-government Unity party in December's parliamentary
elections.
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Russian Roulette
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
The disputed region of Kashmir has been
at the root of chronic
antagonism between Pakistan and India, and their enmity has
grown potentially more dangerous now that both have
demonstrated nuclear weapon capabilities. Insurgent
forces-which Pakistan claims are autonomous Kashmiri
"freedom fighters"-made incursions into Indian-controlled
Kashmiri territory in May 1999. According to New Delhi, these
troops were in fact Pakistani army regulars and Muslim
mercenaries, a view shared by most of the world. India fought
back with air strikes and ground troops, and by August Pakistan
retreated.
The Pakistani military, deeply unhappy with Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif's handling of the Kashmir crisis as well as other
issues, deposed him on Oct. 12, and Gen. Pervez Musharraf took control. The Pakistani public, accustomed to military rule
for 25 of the nation's 52-year history, generally viewed the coup
as a positive step, and hoped it would bring a badly needed
economic upswing.
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Kashmiri Shell Game
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
A Portuguese colony for 400 years until abruptly abandoned in
1975, East Timor was seized within a year by Indonesia. The
Indonesian occupation led to widespread repression and the
deaths of an estimated 200,000 Timorese, earning Indonesia a
global reputation for human rights abuses.
In February 1999, former Indonesian president Suharto's successor, B. J. Habibie, unexpectedly announced his willingness
to hold a referendum on East Timorese independence, reversing
25 years of Indonesian intransigence. As the referendum on
self-rule drew closer, fighting between separatist guerrillas and
pro-Indonesian paramilitary forces in East Timor intensified. The
U.N.-sponsored referendum had to be rescheduled twice
because of violence. On Aug. 30, 1999, 78.5% of the
population voted to secede from Indonesia. In the days following
the referendum, pro-Indonesian militias and Indonesian soldiers
retaliated by razing towns, slaughtering civilians, and forcing a
third of the population out of the province.
Despite repeated assurances that Indonesia would restore order,
Habibie and the powerful head of the military, Gen. Wiranto,
were either unwilling or unable to stop the bloodbath. The
rampage was primarily carried out by paramilitary forces who
had been trained and armed by the military and then allowed to
run amok (a word that is in fact derived from Indonesian). The
U.N.'s lack of foresight exacerbated the violence: after
encouraging the populace to exercise their rights by participating
in a free and democratic election, the U.N. failed to make
provisions for protecting them from the inevitably brutal
aftermath. Only after enormous international pressure did
Indonesia finally allow a hastily assembled peacekeeping force
into East Timor on Sept. 12.
Led by Australia, the international force followed the precedent
set in Kosovo: it intervened in the plight of a backwater region
for no larger motive than humanitarian and democratic ideals.
Australia in particular had much to lose by going against its
Indonesian neighbor. The stance of the 1999 peacekeepers was
a far cry from 1976, when the U.S. and other nations stood by
while East Timor was invaded by Indonesia, an important
Western ally and trading partner.
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Nightmare in East Timor
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
Negotiations to implement the 1998 landmark Good Friday Agreement progressed until the
crucial moment when the embryonic Northern Irish coalition
government was to convene for the first time: July 16, 1999. The sudden impasse was the
result of Sinn Fein's insistence that the I.R.A.
would only begin
giving up its illegal weapons after the formation of the new
government, while Unionists demanded disarmament begin first.
Subsequent talks on the agreement, which would have ended
three decades of direct rule from London, seemed to go nowhere,
despite the last-ditch intervention of former Sen. George
Mitchell, who helped engineer the Good Friday Agreement.
Finally, at the end of Nov., David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists,
abandoned the seemingly sacrosanct "no guns, no government" position, and took a difficult leap of faith in
agreeing to form a government prior to Sinn Fein's disarmament. If the IRA did not begin the destruction of
their weapons by Jan. 31, 2000, however, the Ulster Unionists threatened they would withdraw from the
Northern Irish Parliament, shutting down the new government. With this compromise in place,
the new government was quickly formed, and on Dec. 2, 1999, the British government formally
transferred governing power to the Northern Irish parliament. Whether the new government is to
survive is now depends on whether the Republicans keep their end of the bargain.
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Making Good on the Good Friday Agreement
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
The stalemated Middle East peace talks that faltered under
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived with the
election of the Labour Party's Ehud Barak, who managed to
forge a broad, stable coalition government. At his inauguration
(July 6, 1999) Prime Minister Barak announced that "nothing is
more important in my view than . . .putting an end to the
100-year conflict in the Middle East." By this he meant not only
peace with the Palestinians, but with Syria as well. Barak also
promised to end the low-grade war that has barraged Southern
Lebanon since 1985, which has been fueled by Syrian-backed
Hezbollah guerrillas. In Sept. 1998, Israel moved ahead with the 1998 Wye
Accord, ceding an additional 7% of territory to the Palestinians.
No thaw with Syria seemed forthcoming until Dec., when
Israeli-Syrian talks resumed after a nearly four-year hiatus. From Syria's
point of view, normalization of relations between the two countries would largely
depend on Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which was territory that Israel
had captured from Syria during the Middle East war of 1967. From Israel's point of view,
relinquishing the Golan Heights, which served as a buffer zone between the two nations,
could not occur without a guarantee of Israel's national security.
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New Israeli P.M. Renews Middle East Peace Talks
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
The Asian financial crisis seemed to stabilize by 1999, although
recovery will require patience: the World Bank estimated that the
four largest economies affected (Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia,
and the Philippines) will yield an average annual growth rate of
just 2.8% until 2007. Meanwhile, economic troubles have
migrated to South America. In Jan. 1999, Brazil was hit hard,
dragging down other Latin American economies with it. But
Brazil's President Fernando Cardoso responded quickly with
belt-tightening measures that produced short-term misery but
presumably long-term stability and growth. Venezuela resorted
to a more unorthodox approach, permitting their newly elected
left-wing president, Hugo Chavez, to replace the existing
democratically elected congress with his own supporters, and to
assume near-dictatorial powers in an effort to reform of the ailing
economy.
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South America Inherits Asia's Woes
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Kosovo | Russia | Kashmir | East Timor | Northern Ireland | Middle East | South America | Top
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