Northern Ireland
| Middle East
| Kosovo
| East Timor
Wars within borders. Ethnic and partisan hostility.
Reconciling with enemies close to home.
Northern Ireland
A Mural in Derry,
Northern Ireland
Photo By Jim Farrell |
Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, has long been divided by
religion. The majority of the people are Protestants, and because of their
history have ties to the rest of the United Kingdom. Almost all remaining inhabitants are
Roman Catholics, as are most of the people in the Republic of Ireland, which
comprises the rest of the Island. The conflict stems from the ideas that the
Protestant majority wants Northern Ireland to keep its status as a member of
the
United Kingdom, whereas the Catholics want it to become part of the Irish Republic. The
dispute between the two groups has led to riots, bombings, and other
instances of violence and terrorism, which are known as "The Troubles."
This often bloody rioting and numerous acts of terrorism, by extremist groups on both
sides, have disrupted life for both sides. And the violence between these
groups has been at the expense of thousands of civilian lives.
Earlier this century, guerrilla warfare broke out between the Irish rebels and British forces.
And even as a peace treaty was signed, many Roman Catholics refused to accept the
division of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In the last few decades, terrorist bombings by the IRA and related
separatist groups intensified in Northern Ireland and in Britain. These actions led to
violent responses by Protestant counter-terrorist groups. As a result of
the attacks from both sides, virtual war zones existed where Protestant and
Catholic neighborhoods bordered each other.
In the early nineties, there were signs of weariness over a conflict that clearly no one was winning. Then, on Aug. 31, 1994, a dramatic
breakthrough came when the IRA announced a "complete cessation of military operations"--the cease-fire that set the stage for peace negotiations.
Protestant paramilitary groups of Northern Ireland in response announced a cease-fire on October 13. The peace process had
begun, and almost four years later, in April, 1998, the Belfast Agreement was signed. Recent events have since shown that
this new peace is indeed fragile, and the future remains uncertain, but it
has a brighter outlook than before.
Middle East
In 1896 Theodor Herzl, an Austrian journalist, published
"Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish state). It argued that the only
solution to anti-Semitism would be the establishment of a Jewish nation, where
there would be no fear of persecution or hatred. After World War II, the
United Nations decided that this course of action was necessary and divided
the land of Palestine into two separate partitions; one Jewish and one
Palestinian. This was done despite enormous protest from the Arab community
and the Palestinians in particular. A year later, Zionist leader David Gurion
declared Israel an independent nation, and he was eventually named the first
Prime Minister. This act angered all neighboring nations and led to the
destabilization of the entire region. Words and threats soon became guns
and bombs, tanks and invasions.
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The search for peace in the Middle East began after a war resulting from an invasion of
Israel by its Arabian neighbors, and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians.
It has been a slow and troubled process, but one that has always moved forward
despite new difficulties at every turn. The first major breakthrough in this peace
process came from actions by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
They were able to come together and agree on a plan which would include Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip. For their efforts Arafat and Rabin, with Israeli Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres, were awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by an Israeli ultra nationalist
gunman. This act alone caused the peace process to falter and stop for some
time. Bombs and assassinations were again on the rise, and hope for peace
dimmed. Israel had to regroup and rethink itself as a nation before it
could continue. Relations worsened as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slowed down
any momentum Rabin and Arafat had achieved from the Oslo Accord. Violence once
again was on the rise as nationalists on both sides once again asserted their
beliefs that the other side was wrong and had no rights. However despite
the tensions, the process did move slowly forward. In 1997, after more
than 30 years of occupation, the West Bank city of Hebron was returned to
Palestinian control. This was the first act by Netanyahu's government toward
the forwarding of peace.
In December of 1998, the Israeli ruling body, the Knesset, dissolved the
existing government and called for early elections. Two months later
Netanyahu was ousted and former army chief Ehud Barak replaced him. In his new
role, Prime Minister Ehud Barak swiftly improved relations with the Palestinians
and promised to speed the peace process, and with President Bill Clinton and
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, vowed to finish the work of Yitzhak
Rabin. Since then Israel has turned over more than 7% of its land and nearly
200 Palestinian prisoners to the Palestinian authority, in compliance with the
Wye River Peace Accords. They are now working to complete the peace process
and establishing a final agreement in or around September of 2000.
Kosovo
In the summer of 1998, in response to the Kosovo Liberation Army's guerrilla campaign
for independence from Serbia, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic launched an offensive
against the region's ethnic Albanian majority. Serb forces attacked the
civilian population, destroying villages and driving hundreds of thousands of
Kosovar Albanians from their homes. Civilian casualties and the mounting
refugee crisis prompted NATO countries to threaten military action against
Milosevic. In October, under threat of NATO air strikes, a
cease-fire agreement was forged. But in January the threat of conflict had
resurfaced, and the
massacre of 45 civilians in Racak by Serb forces signaled the
failure of the cease-fire. After Milosevic refused to accept the February and
March peace plan supported by the west and the KLA, he escalated the crisis by launching
a large-scale
offensive in Kosovo. Stopping that offensive was the principal objective of
NATO's air strikes.
Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the core of the former Yugoslavia. Because 90
percent of its population are of Albanian rather than Serb origins, the region
enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in the old Yugoslavia. President Milosevic
built his political power on
nationalist promises of a "Greater Serbia" and after failing in
Bosnia and Croatia, losing Kosovo might be a death blow to his domestic
political standing. As a result he revoked Kosovo's autonomy in 1989. As the site of an historic defeat
by the Ottoman empire in the 14th century, Kosovo has great emotional
significance to Serbian nationalists. This loss of autonomy sparked the current conflict, as the
territory's ethnic-Albanian majority sought to restore their cultural rights.
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has radicalized the conflict by taking up
arms and demanding full independence in the face of Serb determination to hold
on to the province.
The Serbs' campaign to eliminate the KLA has driven hundreds of thousands of
ethnic-Albanian from their homes, creating an unavoidable humanitarian
catastrophe and a potential continent-wide refugee problem. The conflict had
threatened to draw in neighboring Albania and Macedonia, as well as more
distant powers such as Russia and Iran, which may cause a larger more global
conflict. NATO also opposes independence for Kosovo because this may spur
independence rallies elsewhere and further destabilize an extremely volatile region.
The U.S. and its NATO then want only a full restoration of Kosovo's autonomy within the former Yugoslavia.
European allies want the U.S. to be part of the peacekeeping mission, but U.S.
military commanders are skeptical about putting personnel at risk in a
situation where the warring factions have shown little enthusiasm for a
Western-authored peace plan. And there's a fear that, like in Bosnia, once the
troops go in they'll have no easy way out.
East Timor
East Timor is located on the island of Timor on the
southern edge of the Indonesian archipelago. When Indonesia became an
independent state in 1949, East Timor remained part of Portugal for a time and
then withdrew. It was at that time Indonesia offered to peacefully annex the
small nation, but its offer was rejected. The people of E. Timor declared an
independent Democratic Republic of East Timor. On the 7th of December 1975,
Indonesian troops invaded, just nine days after independence.
At that time it was reported that Australian journalists received radio
broadcasts from East Timor saying, "The Indonesian forces are killing
indiscriminately. Women and children are being shot in the streets. We are all
going to be killed . . . This is an appeal for international help. Please do
something to stop this . . . " Thousands were killed while resisting this
hostile invasion. Thousands more were hunted down and killed afterwards. And
many more died of starvation and disease in the incarceration camps the
Indonesians placed them in. Despite UN demands of withdrawal, Indonesia had
remained in control.
After the collapse of the Indonesian authoritarian government in 1998, the new
Indonesian President, B.J. Habibie offered East Timor limited autonomy. Later in
January, it was announced that if autonomy was rejected, then independence would
follow. "We don't want to be bothered by East Timor's problems
anymore," Habibie said. But the fear among the East Timor citizens is that
those who favor autonomy would form militias and attack and kill
pro-independence leaders, with weapons supplied by the Indonesian military. And
they were right.
The vote took place on the 31st of August 1999. It was reported by the UN
observers that 98% of eligible voters turned out for the polls and 78% chose
independence. It was at that time that anti-independence militia groups began
ransacking the countryside murdering and displacing thousands. Australia has led
an international call to the UN for intervention and support for humanitarian
aid to the people. An international peacekeeping force led by the Australians
has been formed and is going in armed. The US has begun to pledge support for
such intervention and is conducting food drops. President Clinton has said that
the US would supply planes and pilots to transport foreign troops and help with
logistics, communications and intelligence.
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