The World Today

Colombia is caught in a war without principles, which might produce peace without honour. Drug dealing organisations have amassed enormous wealth and power – much of it now legitimate. The state is failing and armed groups are creating terror at the expense of human rights. Real change is needed – not more military aid or intervention.

The Western Sahara conflict, unresolved for over two decades, must qualify as the world’s most neglected. It has been relegated to the background by higher profile disputes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Angola and Somalia. The recent referendum in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which led to it being granted independence by Indonesia, as well as current political changes in Morocco, should focus international attention on the similar case of Western Sahara.

Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950 by Anthony Clayton Published by UCL Press, 1999.

Angola Unravels by Alex Vines Published by Human Rights Watch, 1999

The lucky hosts of successful international events see their names attached to the outcome for years to come: the Rio earth summit and the Uruguay round of trade talks, for example. For the moment, Seattle will be associated with tear gas and the failure to agree on new trade negotiations. As the talking moves into the new millennium, Montreal and Bangkok have their chance to associate themselves with positive change in the way the world does business.

Only seven years ago Mozambique was the poorest country on earth, devastated by a civil war that claimed an estimated one million lives and displaced some five million people. In that war the basic infrastructure of the country – its communications, commerce and health facilities – were destroyed.