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Kosovo Draws Attention While Other Conflicts Rage Conflict in Yugoslavia makes headlines, but other major wars continue in Africa and Asia, mostly ignored by the world press. By GSReport Start Date: 4/10/99 Based on mainstream media coverage, it would be easy to assume that the conflict in Yugoslavia is the singular focus of hostility in the world today. That is hardly the case. Mostly missing from the news is any mention of the ongoing U.S. and British campaign over the "no-fly zones" of Iraq, but that campaign continues much as it has since the brief intensification of bombing last December. As recently as April 10, according to Reuters, U.S. warplanes attacked an Iraqi air defense site in the southern no-fly zone after being fired upon, then returned safely to base. On April 8, U.S. Navy planes struck a missile site in southern Iraq which the United States said posed a danger to ships in the Gulf. The pattern is monotonously familiar: Iraq sends a jet aloft, or "paints" an Allied jet with ground radar, and the Allies drop bombs. It is a classic case of "low intensity warfare" designed to degrade and demoralize Iraqi forces and, if possible, destabilize the regime of Saddam Hussein. There are, in fact, growing signs that such destabilization is occurring. The West has, in effect, targeted Saddam for termination by slow stages. Meanwhile, conflicts have flared in several other regions of the world. A military coup occurred in the African nation of Niger on April 9, where President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara reportedly died in a hail of gunfire as he attempted to flee his own bodyguards at the airport in the capital city of Niamey. Mainassara himself had seized power in a coup three years ago by ousting the country's first democratically elected government. Tanks and troops briefly filled the streets of Niamey on April 9 but reportedly returned to barracks after Mainassara's death. The prime minister, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said that Niger's National Assembly had been dissolved and all political activity temporarily suspended, but that a government of national unity would be formed in a few days. The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea continues, now in its eleventh month. It has become one of the bloodiest African conflicts in recent memory. "The worst war in the world is going on here, but the attention is on Kosovo," Eritrean soldier Ali Hamid told an Associated Press reporter recently. By some estimates, nearly half a million soldiers are dug into fortifications on both sides of the sixty-mile front. Tens of thousands have probably been killed, though casualty figures are hard to verify. "Ethiopian soldiers are dying like in a holocaust," said Eritrean soldier Sayed Mohamedbirhan. "I feel bad because we are neighbors, and in the future, we'll have to work together to develop." The two countries are fighting over disputed areas on their 620-mile border that were not clearly demarcated in 1993 when Eritrea, a country of 3.5 million, gained independence from Ethiopia, with a population of 60 million. Equally bloody is the fighting in Angola, where a civil war between UNITA rebels and government forces has reportedly killed 10,000 people in the last four months, 4,000 of them innocent civilians. An estimated 10 percent of Angola's population -- some 1.2 million people -- have been displaced by the fighting, many of whom are in danger of starvation. The World Food Program in early April made an urgent appeal to both sides to accept the creation of humanitarian aid corridors through which agencies can reach those cut off from food. The Angola civil war has gone on, with only a few brief suspensions, since 1975. In Indonesia, several different conflicts continue to rage. On the island of Ambon and several others nearby, bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians have killed more than 250 people since January. At least 60 were reported killed in clashes during the first week of April. More than 13,000 people in the area have fled their homes, seeking protection in government installations. Meanwhile, ethnic clashes on the island of Bornea left an estimated 200 dead during the month of March. The violence in Indonesia comes amid its worst economic crisis in decades, further fueled by the political uncertainty that has followed the resignation of authoritarian President Suharto last May. Revolutionary conflict also continued on the Indonesian island of East Timor, where rebels have been fighting for independence. Indonesian troops and pro-Indonesian paramilitary fighters reportedly massacred dozens of innocent civilians in early April, according to Carlos Belo, the island's Catholic Bishop. The terror comes as East Timor anticipates a U.N. monitored referendum in July, which could determine whether the island of 800,000 inhabitants will become an autonomous state within Indonesia or secure full independence.
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