Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, numbered RTT 95-10039 and dated October 1995, presents the proceedings of a conference held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored the conference. In it, academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials examined ethnic conflict by region, covering Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. The report also discusses what these conflicts mean for US policy. It does not deal with UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena.
“The Advance”17 pages
Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268 Djibouti and Somalia Although Djibouti and Somalia lie on the African con- tinent, they are not, by regional definition, African states. The situation in Somalia has been summarized. In Djibouti, two dominant ethnic groups, the Afars (or Danakil) and the Issas, have a history of conflict. The Issas, who constitute about one-third of the total popu- lation of about 500,000, inhabit the southern third of the country. They spill over into Somalia (where they number about 60,000) and Ethiopia (some 250,000). In Djibouti, they constitute the majority. The Afars inhabit the northern two-thirds of Djibouti; they form about one-fifth of the total population. Their domain extends into Eritrea as well as Ethiopia, where they number some 600,000. Five other main ethnic groups make up the rest of the population. Power in Djibouti has resided with the Issas, who dominate the armed forces. In 1991, a guerilla move- ment arose in Afar territory, culminating in December in the notorious Arhiba massacre in Djibouti City, when government troops killed numerous Afars. Although efforts were made (with French involve- ment) to defuse the situation, things remained violent and tense in 1993. Some observers suggest that the independence of Eritrea will impel a reorganized Ethi- opia to involve itself in Djibouti’s affairs. Rwanda and Burundi This country lies between countries in which some of- Africa’s bloodiest ethnic conflict has taken place, Uganda and Burundi. In Uganda, the Baganda were at the center of the strife; in Rwanda and Burundi, the long—term issue is between the Tutsi (Watusi) and the Hutu. During four months in 1972, more than 100,000 Hutus were killed by the minority Tutsi in Burundi. Ethnic strife in October 1993 and April 1994 added more than 600,000 to the death toll. Historically, the Tutsi were smaller in number, but stronger in terms of power, than were the Hutu. The Tutsi, organized into kingdoms, acquired land and subjugated the Hutu. Social standing more than tribal origin distinguished Hutu from Tutsi. Repression, rebellion, and chaos followed independence, with the Hutu staking their claim to power and privilege and the Tutsi fighting to retain it. The conflict always had a lower profile in international affairs than the Amin episode and its excesses in Uganda, but its costs were nevertheless enormous. The latest phase began in late 1990, when a contingent of Tutsi refugees in exile in Uganda invaded northern Rwanda. The (Hutu) Habyarimana government responded not only by sending a defending army but also by arresting and executing Tutsis in the country. The Tutsi force, under the banner of the Rwanda Patri- otic Front, survived an early setback and moved toward the capital, Kigali. According to correspon- dents on the scene, external forces also played a role in the conflict. The French helped the Kigali govem- ment, and there were reports of Ugandan support for the rebels. French support was based, reportedly, on the Francophone nature of Rwanda’s upper crust; the Tutsi had been “ang1icized” in Uganda, and there were French fears of Francophone loss in the event of Tutsi success. All this became moot in April 1994 following the death of Rwanda’s President in a suspicious plane crash at Kigali Airport. Hutu militias embarked on an orgy of (apparently planned and premeditated) murder of Tutsis and “moderate” or “collaborationist” Hutus. The ensuing refugee flow carried as many as 2 million Rwandans into Zaire and Tanzania; as many as 600,000 were killed. In March 1995, Tutsi in Burundi attacked Hutu, and the cycle of violence retumed to this country. No end to this tribal conflict is in sight. Angola The disastrous and continuing conflict in Angola was an ethnic conflict magnified by strategic forces, and in the aftermath of the Cold War it continued unabated. Dominant in the ethnic jigsaw of Angola have been the Mbundu in the east, the Ovimbundu of the center and west, the Bakongo of the north, and the Ovambo of the south. Luanda, the capital, lies in the Mbundu heartland. In the anticolonial struggle, each ethnic group formed its own movement: the Mbundu- dominated MPLA in the Luanda hinterland, the Bakongo-run FNLA, and Ovambo-Ovimbundu UNITA of the south. In the postindependence civil war, the FNLA was quickly ousted, and a prolonged 78 Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.