YEAR IN REVIEW 2000: MILITARY-AFFAIRS

Military Affairs Few regions of the world were free of military conflict during 1999. In Europe the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which had won the Cold War without firing a shot, launched a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia in an effort to stop the government of Yugoslav Pres. Slobodan Milosevic from mistreating ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo. Russia once again engaged in military operations against the breakaway republic of Chechnya. India and Pakistan once more exchanged blows over Kashmir. The long-running civil wars in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka showed no signs of resolution. In Africa neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea disputed a border region, while Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo [Kinshasa]), and Sierra Leone all were battlegrounds during the year. In Latin America the civil war in Colombia dragged on, while in Asia there were skirmishes between the two Koreas, and a UN peacekeeping force was called in to curb the violence in the Indonesian province of East Timor. The UN Security Council also authorized a peacekeeping force for Sierra Leone and opened negotiations on a 15,000-strong force for Congo (Kinshasa).