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Ch3, page 72, Contemporary Conflict Resolution by O.Ramsbotham
Before concluding this chapter we must briefly note human and material cost of contemporary violent conflicts. At least 28 million people have been killed in more than 150 major armed conflicts fought mainly in the Third World since 1945; another estimate puts the total at 40 million civilian and military deaths.
The propotion of civilian casualties has risen from only 5 per cent of total casualties in the First World War, to 50 per cent by the Second World War, to 80-90 per cent by the end of the century, of whom the majority are women and children[...].
Beyond the toll of direct combat-related deaths, civil wars increase infant and adult mortality, as a result of disease, famine, displacement and the collapse of health and other services. The indirect deaths usually outweights the direct effects of war.
At their peak in 2000, internal conflicts generated 21 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced people. Since then, ”fortunally”, the number of refugees has fallen with the number of internal conflicts, to 17 million at the end of 2003.
In African countries, like Angola, Eritrea, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan, up to half or more of the total population have been forced to flee at some point. In southern Sudan, where one in five people are estimated to have died as a result of the war, 80 per cent of the population was displaced at one time or another.
All of this is compunded by the length of time that certain classes of conflict last – in some cases an average of 25 years. Whole generations have no other experience than war.
Det är när jag läser sånt här i min väldigt, väldigt deprimerande studentlitteratur som jag funderar på att slopa journalistiken och fortsätta att läsa om fredliga lösningar istället, någonstans i världen... jag menar, man borde väl kunna göra lite nytta någonstans, eller hur? Fler borde kunna göra det...
