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.
“Terry”12 pages
C00123268 Djibouti and Somalia episode and its excesses in Uganda, but its costs were Although Djibouti and Somalia lie on the African con- nevertheless enormous. tinent, they are not, by regional definition, African states. The situation in Somalia has been summarized. The latest phase began in late 1990, when a contingent In Djibouti, two dominant ethnic groups, the Afars (or of Tutsi refugees in exile in Uganda invaded northern Danakil) and the Issas, have a history of conflict. The Rwanda. The (Hutu) Habyarimana government Issas, who constitute about one-third of the total popu- responded not only by sending a defending army but lation of about 500,000, inhabit the southern third of- also by arresting and executing Tutsis in the country. the country. They spill over into Somalia (where they The Tutsi force, under the banner of the Rwanda Patri- number about 60,000) and Ethiopia (some 250,000). otic Front, survived an early setback and moved In Djibouti, they constitute the majority. The Afars toward the capital, Kigali. According to correspon- inhabit the northern two-thirds of Djibouti; they form dents on the scene, external forces also played a role about one-fifth of the total population. Their domain in the conflict. The French helped the Kigali govern- extends into Eritrea as well as Ethiopia, where they ment, and there were reports of Ugandan support for number some 600,000. Five other main ethnic groups the rebels. French support was based, reportedly, on make up the rest of the population. the Francophone nature of Rwanda's upper crust; the Tutsi had been "anglicized" in Uganda, and there were Power in Djibouti has resided with the Issas, who French fears of Francophone loss in the event of Tutsi dominate the armed forces. In 1991, a guerilla move- success. ment arose in Afar territory, culminating in December in the notorious Arhiba massacre in Djibouti City, All this became moot in April 1994 following the when government troops killed numerous Afars. death of Rwanda's President in a suspicious plane Although efforts were made (with French involve- crash at Kigali Airport. Hutu militias embarked on an ment) to defuse the situation, things remained violent orgy of (apparently planned and premeditated) murder and tense in 1993. Some observers suggest that the of Tutsis and "moderate" or "collaborationist" Hutus. independence of Eritrea will impel a reorganized Ethi- The ensuing refugee flow carried as many as 2 million opia to involve itself in Djibouti's affairs. Rwandans into Zaire and Tanzania; as many as 600,000 were killed. In March 1995, Tutsi in Burundi Rwanda and Burundi attacked Hutu, and the cycle of violence returned to This country lies between countries in which some of- this country. No end to this tribal conflict is in sight. Africa's bloodiest ethnic conflict has taken place, Uganda and Burundi. In Uganda, the Baganda were at Angola the center of the strife; in Rwanda and Burundi, the The disastrous and continuing conflict in Angola was long-term issue is between the Tutsi (Watusi) and the an ethnic conflict magnified by strategic forces, and in Hutu. During four months in 1972, more than 100,000 the aftermath of the Cold War it continued unabated. Hutus were killed by the minority Tutsi in Burundi. Dominant in the ethnic jigsaw of Angola have been Ethnic strife in Octbber 1993 and April 1994 added the Mbundu in the east, the Ovimbundu of the center more than 600,000 to the death toll. and west, the Bakongo of the north, and the Ovambo of the south. Luanda, the capital, lies in the Mbundu Historically, the Tutsi were smaller in number, but heartland. In the anticolonial struggle, each ethnic stronger in terms of power, than were the Hutu. The group formed its own movement: the Mbundu- Tutsi, organized into kingdoms, acquired land and dominated MPLA in the Luanda hinterland, the subjugated the Hutu. Social standing more than tribal Bakongo-run FNLA, and Ovambo-Ovimbundu origin distinguished Hutu from Tutsi. Repression, UNITA of the south. In the postindependence civil rebellion, and chaos followed independence, with the war, the FNLA was quickly ousted, and a prolonged 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 78
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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.