Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, dated October 1995, contains the proceedings of a conference on ethnic conflict held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored it. Academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials presented papers on ethnic and territorial conflict in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. They also discussed what these conflicts mean for US policy. The document contains no UFO material.
“Nevers”25 pages
C00123268 economic slowdown has also been attended by cause of conflict often is religious, as is the case in increasing ethnic strife. Even during the expansion of Sudan today and has been in Chad. This should not the 1980s, African economies lagged; with the world imply that religion is the sole incentive, but it does economy slowed down, African economies deterio- dominate here. In the case of Sudan, fear of Khar- rate. Economic growth provides opportunities and toum's imposition of sharia criminal law upon Chris- lessens frustrations. In Africa, the opposite situation tian and animist southerners is a catalyst for conflict. prevails. A second form of conflict may be designated as tribal and is exemplified by what is happening today in This is not the place to recapitulate the historical Liberia. With a population well under 3 million, geography of black Africa, but its outlines-West Liberia incorporates more than a dozen major ethnic Africa's cultural flowering, that region's ancient groups, including the Kpelle (about 20 percent of the savanna states, the arrival and diffusion of Islam, the population), Bassa (14 percent), Grebo (9 percent), European colonial intervention, the imposition of the Gio (8 percent), Kru (7 percent), and Mano (7 per- boundary framework, contrasting colonial policies cent). In 1990 the country collapsed into civil war, in and practices, and the rise of African nationalism- which tribal loyalties were paramount. Tens of thou- must be kept in mind, for they are etched on cultural sands were killed, and nearly 1 million refugees landscapes, and they still influence interethnic rela- streamed across Liberia's borders. tions today. A third kind of ethnic conflict has strategicorigins: it No African region has been immune from costly eth- may have started as a tribal struggle but has worsened nic conflict. In West Africa, the most destructive con- by external interests. In early 1995, one of these con- flict since the Biafra War has ravaged Liberia. In flicts had recently abated: the war between Popular Equatorial Africa, southern Chad and the southern Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and Sudan have been engulfed by war. In the Horn, Soma- National Union for the Total Independence of Angola lia has become synonymous with ethnic strife, and (UNITA) forces in Angola. A fourth form of conflict Ethiopia and Eritrea witnessed years of tribal fighting. may be categorized as reformist. This has its origins in In East Africa, Uganda has been a caldron of ethnic the political transformation of a state. For example, in conflict, and today Rwanda and Burundi continue to Kenya during the runup to independence, the Mau suffer. And in southern Africa an uncertain truce has -Mau rebellion was essentially a Kikuyu movement quieted decades of war in Angola, while ethnic strife aimed not only against whites but also against "collab- is at least temporarily quiescent in South Africa. orators." In fact, many more Africans than Europeans lost their lives during that period, and animosities This incomplete summary of current and recent ethnic between Kikuyu and non-Kikuyu endured after inde- conflict notwithstanding, some African countries have pendence. The first clashes in Liberia involved the achieved ethnic accommodation against great odds. ouster of the Americo-Liberian elite by the so-called Africa is divided into more than 1,000 ethnolinguistic aborigines, as the indigenous peoples of Liberia were domains, creating cultural mosaics that make the called. In Zimbabwe, Mashona/Matabele conflict former Yugoslavia look uncomplicated by compari- arose in similar context. son. Political geographers often point to India as mira- cle of multicultural stability, but Nigeria's continuity In Africa today, the geographic dimension of ethnic may be a greater achievement still. Senegal, Tanzania, conflict is this: religious strife affects principally the Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia are other success northern cultural transition zone; reformist conflict stories. prevails in the south; and tribal war not directly related to external influences afflicts the central zone, most severely in Rwanda and Liberia. Persistent stra- A Typology of Ethnic Conflict in Africa tegic conflict has devastated Angola and, while quies- cent at present, still looms in Mozambique. Ethnic conflict in Africa has variable roots, suggesting a typology that may help assess it. Along the Islamic/ non-Islamic transition zone in the north, the ultimate 75
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.