War Has Changed Its Face

WAR has always been brutal. It has always ruined the lives of soldiers and has always brought suffering to civilians. But in recent years, war has changed its face. In what way?

Today’s wars are mainly civil wars​—wars between opposing groups of citizens of the same country. And civil wars often last longer, leave the population more traumatized, and destroy countries more thoroughly than wars fought between nations. “Civil wars are cruel, bloody operations that result in thousands of deaths, sexual assaults, forced exile and, in the most extreme cases, genocide,” notes Spanish historian Julián Casanova. Indeed, when atrocities are committed by neighbor against neighbor, the wounds may take centuries to heal.

Since the end of the Cold War, relatively few wars have been fought between national armies. “All but three of the major armed conflicts registered for 1990-2000 were internal,” reports the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Granted, internal conflicts may seem less threatening and may be largely ignored by the international media, but the pain and destruction caused by such hostilities are devastating all the same. Millions of people have died in internal conflicts. In fact, during the last two decades, nearly five million people lost their lives in just three war-torn countries​—Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan. In the Balkans, fierce ethnic fighting cost the lives of almost 250,000 people, and prolonged guerrilla warfare in Colombia has left 100,000 dead.

Nowhere is the brutality of civil war more evident than in its effect on children. During the last decade, over two million children lost their lives in civil conflicts, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Another six million were wounded. A growing number of children have been turned into soldiers. Says one child soldier: “They gave me training. They gave me a gun. I took drugs. I killed civilians. Lots. It was just war . . . I only took orders. I knew it was bad. It was not my wish.”

Many children in countries where civil war has become a way of life are growing up without ever having known peace. They live in a world where schools have been destroyed and where dialogue takes place through the mouths of guns. Says 14-year-old Dunja: “So many people have been killed . . . No longer can you hear the singing of the birds, only the sound of the children crying for a lost mother or father, a brother or a sister.”

 What Are the Causes?

What fuels the fires of such cruel civil wars? Ethnic and tribal hatred, religious differences, injustice, and political turmoil are all significant factors. Another root cause is greed​—greed for power and greed for money. Political leaders, often motivated by greed, stir up the hatred that fuels the fighting. A report published by SIPRI states that many participants in armed conflicts “are motivated by personal gain.” The report adds: “Greed is manifested in many forms, from large-scale diamond trading by military and political leaders to village-level pillage by youths with guns.”

The ready availability of cheap but lethal weapons adds to the carnage. About 500,000 deaths a year​—mainly women and children—​are attributed to so-called small arms. In one African country, an AK-47 assault rifle can be bought for the price of a chicken. Sad to say, in some places rifles are becoming almost as plentiful as these domestic birds. Worldwide there are now an estimated 500 million small arms and light weapons​—1 for every 12 persons alive.

Will bitter civil conflicts become the hallmark of the 21st century? Can civil wars be controlled? Will people eventually stop the killing? The following article will address these questions.

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The Tragic Toll of Civil Wars

In low-tech but brutal civil wars, 90 percent of the casualties are civilians rather than combatants. “It is clear that increasingly, children are targets, not incidental casualties, of armed conflict,” notes Graça Machel, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Expert on the Impact of Armed Conflicts on Children.

Rape has become a military tactic. In some war-torn areas, insurgents rape virtually every adolescent girl found in the villages they overrun. The goal of such rapists is to spread panic or to destroy family ties.

Famine and disease follow in the wake of war. A civil war means that few crops will get planted and harvested, few if any medical services will function, and little international aid will get to the needy. One study of an African civil war revealed that 20 percent of the casualties died from disease and 78 percent from hunger. Only 2 percent died as a direct result of the fighting.

On an average, every 22 minutes someone loses a limb or his life by stepping on a land mine. There are an estimated 60 million to 70 million land mines scattered about in over 60 countries.

People are forced to flee their homes. Around the world, there are now 50 million refugees and displaced persons​—half of them children.

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COVER: Boy: Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images

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Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images