War, Violence, Terrorism, and Our Present World: A Timeline of Modern Politics

By Hares Sayed

Why Are We Facing Never Ending Terrorism?

Political violence and terrorism have been, literally, bleeding humanity throughout the world. This book sheds light on terrorism, highlighting the causes of this evil, including religion, wealth disparity, poverty, dysfunctional government, and the crippling lending policies of international financial institutions.

In particular, it highlights one major gray area not discussed by conventional writers - theColonial Legacy.

This book highlights every aspect of political development from the birth of new nations to the race for supremacy. The impact of scarce mineral resources, the role of religions, the Shia-Sunni turmoil in the Middle East, and last but not least, the militarization processes are all discussed.

Greed allows terrorism to take root and to be nurtured. It leads the religious to be abused and innocent people to be victimized by war's profiteers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543419016

Hares Sayed

Mr. Hares Sayed, an engineer, is engaged with various civic and professional organizations and actively participates in activities related to economic development, and democratic processes and practices, especially in 3rd world countries.   He has authored many articles published in prestigious journals, and has spearheaded a technical handbook for the US Federal government.  He served as a Senior Consulting Advisor for USAID, led various professional organizations, and developed various capacity development programs for sustainable economic development for 3rd world countries.  He has traveled extensively to understand public perceptions of those countries related to their on-going crises. He is currently living in the Washington metro area.

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COPYRIGHT © 2017 BY HARES SAYED.

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Rev. date: 05/26/2017

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CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter I: War and Violence: A Historical Perspective

Chapter II: European Invasion and Colonization: India and Africa

Chapter III: Middle East and Global Politics

Chapter IV: Cold War—Third World and Gulf Countries

Chapter V: New vs. Old

Chapter VI: Militarization and Human Sufferings

Chapter VII: Terrorism and Present World

For my parents,

Late Sayed Alamgir and Halima Alamgir

My wife, Monwar Jahan

Preface

Political violence and terrorism are bleeding humanity throughout the world. This book tries to shed light on the causes of this evil. To clearly understand the genealogy of terrorism, it requires a thorough review of religion, ethnicity, dysfunctional governance, poverty, unemployment, and corruption, to name a few. It is also imperative to review the social and economic conditions of affected communities from a wider spectrum. Therefore, a brief discussion of pre-colonial and post-colonial periods, as well as impact of the cold war is included in this book. An analysis of all historical events will demonstrate that violence and terrorism only bring destruction and enmity; but that democracy and organized grassroots national movements for a better tomorrow can bring peace and harmony among people in any society.

One of the major issues behind the causes of all these evils remains unrealized and is not discussed by conventional writers—the Colonial Legacy. The legacy of colonialism is directly tied with uncontrolled greed for power and resources.

Based on reviews of historical literature and trends of ongoing conflicts, it becomes obvious that colonial powers were the precursors of much of the ongoing violence throughout the world. During the decolonization period, the colonial powers created many new nations with arbitrary boundaries, without regard to historic ethnic or sectarian rivalries between tribes who were put together in a new nation. Thus the seeds of violence were sown long ago and only now has the world started waking up to the devastating legacy of colonialism.

Over the decades, violence has been getting more lethal through the use of automatic weapons, sophisticated bombs, and even cheap chemical and biological agents. These weapons now have the capability to destroy entire civilizations. The rise of guerilla warfare and various types of terrorism is drastically changing the human fabric and the probable application of chemical and biological agents by faceless enemies might change the nature of wars in the future. The rise of various terrorist groups possessing lethal destructive capabilities has become a challenge to the world community. Trillions of dollars have been spent on security enhancements whereas vital social programs were cut, creating yet another unbearable social burden.

This book tried to analyze terrorism from a neutral viewpoint and highlighted every aspect of political development from the birth of new nations to the race for supremacy. Many historical documents and data were reviewed, and proper sources of these data are cited accordingly. Reviews of literature included intra- and inter-religion battles and wars, the Crusades, Jihads, colonial invasions, and the influence of petrodollars.

Before colonization, wars were not as lethal since they were fought by peasants without formal training, who used traditional weapons. Colonial powers initially sold some weapons to local rulers to safeguard those rulers against their opponents and in return achieved concessions of land, natural resources, and trading rights. Huge profit margins from trade and Industrial Revolution by the West made these imperial powers greedier. To conquer and rule, these colonial powers used various strategies including but not limited to luring one ruler against the other, using religion as a tool whenever necessary, exploiting family and court feuds, to name a few.

After the world wars, the geopolitical situation of the world split and divided into two camps each with its respective spheres of influence. The two spheres of influence started an armed race in the name of their ideologies. The decolonization movements thus erupted throughout the 3rd world countries.

During decolonization, imperial powers created new nations with opposing tribes in the same nation states. In the name of systematic transfer of power, the West delayed the independence with a goal to create puppet rulers to safeguard their interests. These new rulers never bothered to safeguard the interest of their nations. Rather, they started safeguarding their own interests and those of their old masters. This gave rise to discontent among the masses, especially the young generation and intelligentsia groups. The oppressed groups, who took arms for independence and better future, were disappointed as their hopes and dreams were shattered.

During the Cold War, the ideological war between the capitalist and communist worlds escalated. In the race for the creation of respective sphere of influence both capitalist and communist blocks created many political and armed groups. This cold war resulted in not only millions of dead and wounded, but it also created devastation in many parts of the world, displacing millions from their ancestral lands. It is to note here that all this chaos and wars took place in third world countries, a majority of whom had nothing to do with the underlying political and ideological battles.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the structured anti-Western political uprising diminished, and a rise of various independent cells without any central control or leadership spring up in many parts of the world without their being on the radar of anyone. On the other hand, people who once took arms for a better future lost hope as no democratic institutions developed in these countries. Puppet rulers, corruption, nepotism, massive unemployment, unequal distribution of wealth, and repression polarized the majority of these countries. Political assassinations, hijackings, bombings and kidnappings rose throughout the 3rd world.

Another important development of the last century was the creation and domination of petrodollar countries, where rivalry began between the United States and various former European Imperial powers. Large corporations joined the race with full force and backing from their home governments. U.S. corporations used the privileges of the 1941 Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials to any country whose defense, the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.

But now, there is not only the United States in the arena; there are many other powers vying for these resources and successfully started to infuse arms and ammunitions to various opposing groups, capitalizing on the existing ethnic, territorial, and religious divisions, making the territory a war zone. It led religion to be abused and innocent people to be victimized by war profiteers

In summary, greed is one of the major causes of such violence. It is interesting to point out here that in Hindu theology, one of the oldest theologies of the modern world, talks about six specific aspects of human behavior and they are lust, anger, greed, emotion, pride and jealousy. According to Hindu myth human beings are prisoner of these six internal enemies, who loot the spiritual heritage of human conscious – greed, jealousy and anger are responsible for division and violence. The pride of ones’ own history and heritage creates emotion to resist it physical enemies and ultimately raise all-out wars by defying the whole values of religions and humanity. The history of ongoing violence is not that different from these myths.

This book further identified that the prevalence of armed violence is associated with the new world order, as contrary to another conventional wisdom that religion is the cause of the present-day terrorism. Upon review of various materials, reports and news this book rather emphasizes that religion is not the sole cause of the terrorism rather it was and is being used by vested interest groups for their benefit. Free flow of arms in combination with business interest and availability of modern communication technologies made the situation more complex, giving these terrorist groups ability to internationalize their struggles. The western powers once assumed that terrorism and sporadic violence would be confined to the third world countries and in the Middle East alone. But with the Islamist terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and subsequent Western response as preemptive invasions, terrorism globalized and spilled over in many parts of the western world.

This book is organized in various chapters, and those include War and Violence, which discusses the severity of some major wars, where fatalities exceeded millions of lives in each case. It summarizes some of these events briefly to raise a sense of urgency so that everybody stands unitedly against war and destruction, as the violence is not the answer for any positive social change.

The European Invasions in Asia and Africa discusses the strategies used by the Western Imperial powers to colonize these vast populations. In Africa, which possesses over two hundred thousand years of rich history and civilization were declared primitive and backward by the Western world. The seeds of the inferiority complex were sown as soon as the colonial process began. Several famous wars and battles fought between the colonizers and colonies are included here to show the birth of sporadic but heroic uprisings. These uprisings further prove that the Westerners’ supposition about their superior race has no validity. But one of the major challenges in colonial societies identified by scholars is the loss of self-esteem by colonial countries. Therefore, the colonialism can be viewed as the final nail in the coffin to the colonial psyche. This lack of self-confidence and perceived belief of inferiority are hindering the progress and development in many countries. This chapter highlights the major colonial strategies and their impacts; and some of the major resistances to demonstrate that they had lots of history and pride both in science and technologies, reading and writings, agriculture and finance, arts and civilization through the millennia in which they shaped not only their own rich civilizations but also enriched the wider world.

The Middle East chapter contains the most debated issue of the present decade. Therefore, detailed discussions on pre and post-World War conditions, as well as its political developments of the Gulf region have been included in this chapter. From Ottoman Arabs to Great Arab Revolution; oil resource and its strategic location; European and U.S. involvements; and later the Soviet Union’s involvement in the Middle East are highlighted. The chapter contains a detailed discussion on the Shia–Sunni divide, Islamic Revolution of Iran, and Iraq–Iran war to provide a good understanding of the complexities of the Arab land and its mind.

The causes, impacts and the aftereffect of the philosophical difference are included in the chapter Cold War. The third world countries had no benefit in the race between the capitalist and communist philosophies, but they suffered the most. The only positive outcome of the cold war is the independence of new countries in Asia and Africa from the barbaric colonial rules. But in this process, millions of innocent lives were lost, and trillions of dollars infrastructure destruction crippled the third world.

The chapter New vs. Old highlights the shattered dreams of the general masses after the independence, especially in African subcontinent. It is found that these countries achieved their geographical independence only, not the political independence. The old colonialism changed its structure and mode of operation and became much stronger, both economically and technologically. On the other hand, these colonial states became weaker pawns in the world economy.

Militarization discusses why and how the western world militarized the Middle East. As a race for profit various arms manufacturers are dumping their arms and in the process, are supporting the corrupt and dictatorial governments. Billions of dollars are being spent every year for this arms race but the livelihood of affected countries is deteriorating, employment opportunities are shrinking and giving rise of public discontents. Oil interest, arms sale, and patronizing autocratic and unpopular rulers of the region remain as the main goals of the West further antagonizing the general masses.

The final chapter Terrorism defines the term terrorism, history, and causes of terrorism including the social factors contributing to its rise. This also includes some discussions on how the terrorist cells build their nests and prosper and the western perception regarding the followers of Islam. The majority of the research findings show that the root causes of terrorism have no relevance with religion, rather it is directly associated with the social and political situation of any given society. After reviewing all known causes of terrorism, it was found that the colonization, and business interest and their impacts serve as a most influential cursor for the rise of today’s’ terrorism, and is often ignored by media. It is true that to win the terrorism, the foremost important initiative of the world should be the separation of religion from the equation and control illegal arms transfers.

It took several years to go over the enormous pile of literature and fact checking, visiting many parts of the world to understand the sentiment of common people regarding the evolving changes in world politics. I remain very grateful to many historians and scholars for their scholarly publications on issues discussed in this book. I remain indebted to one of the politician-cum-engineer Mr. Sultan Hassen Ali, for his kind support in every aspect of this composition. His insight on African political development during and after colonial Africa and all initial editing and some fact checking helped me enormously to put together this book. Mr. Ahmed Eyow’s final phase of editing give a new charm to this publication. My sincere appreciation also goes to Monwar Jahan, my spouse, to encourage me in writing this book and accompanying me during my historical search for the truth around the world.

I hope that the readers find this book as a useful tool to understand the political development of the present world and I will remain ever grateful for their critics.

CHAPTER I

WAR AND VIOLENCE:

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

War, terror, and violence have become common characteristics of the present world. From the beginning of the history of humanity, battles and wars took a significant part of its history. Over the centuries, war has become much more sophisticated and lethal to the point where it now has the capacity to destroy the world by banishing the whole human race. In addition to war, there exists various types of armed violence, from the national struggle to religious and cultural conflicts making the world more violent and some war/conflict-ridden areas became unbearable for human habitation. Whatever the causes may be, these cannot be supported by any normal human being. The supporters of violence and wars are basically suffering from some mental disorders and most of the cases, this group’s brain chemistry is somehow twisted, and they do think only for their personal benefit rather than their society. And most interestingly, at least 95 percent of this violence is attributed to the uncontrolled greed for wealth and power by only a fraction of a percent of the world population.

The picture of human sufferings is hard to comprehend sitting outside the war-ridden hotspots. But seeing various reports on human sufferings of present day, it is easy to understand the pain of such atrocities. Syria is just one example of a country where a proxy war has been ongoing for several years and where unbelievable human carnage has occurred. The British Broadcasting Corporation in its report dated March 11, 2016, under the banner, Syria: The story of the conflict, writes,

More than 4.5 million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict, most of them women and children. Neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history. About 10 percent of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe, sowing political divisions as countries argue over sharing the burden.

A further 6.5 million people are internally displaced inside Syria; 1.2 million were driven from their homes in 2015 alone.

About 70 percent of the population is without access to adequate drinking water, one in three people are unable to meet their basic food needs, and more than 2 million children are out of school, and four out of five people live in poverty.¹

It is just one heartbreaking report, and many such reports can be found on the web and media as the war, strife, conflicts and violence are ongoing in many parts of the world. In recent histories, due to wars and armed conflicts millions of peoples have been killed, wounded and/or displaced from their lands. Many of these displaced refugees lost their livelihoods and belonging and became dependents on others. Many families who were affluent and employed lots of people at their businesses have suddenly become completely helpless and dependent on others for their livelihood and shelter at refugee camps. The living condition at the refugee camps is devastated and suffering from lack of modern amenities they once enjoyed. Moreover, due to lack of healthcare and poor sanitary conditions, many refugee camps are susceptible to the outbreak of deadly diseases, costing lots of lives. Their children are deprived of education—with no hope and or future. These children and youths are vulnerable and might be easy prey to criminal and terrorist groups. This phenomenon is common in many parts of the world destabilized by wars, violence, and or ethnic cleansing.

On the other hand, social unrest and chaos is triggered at countries and localities where these refugees are settled. High unemployment rate and deterioration in law and order are often the byproducts of housing large numbers of refugees in camps at the receiving countries.

During and after the wars countries put numbers of casualties, the devastation caused to their economy and infrastructures. But in most of the cases, we forget to estimate the impacts of wars on human suffering, psychological and individual financial devastations. Many soldiers and innocent people who did not perish are either wounded or mentally destabilized. Homelessness and deterioration in law and order situation are on the rise. Corruption becomes rampant in affected countries with little hope of a return to normalcy.

The aftereffect of wars includes human suffering, such as war veterans, wounded fighters and civilians, famine, disease, and in some cases epidemics. Countries like the USA, which is the largest economy in the world, has more than 22 million War Veterans with an expenditure of about $152 billion a year,². still there are many veterans who are receiving support from various types of organizations. Homeless and drug addicted veterans are still found living on streets in large U.S. cities. Many of these returned soldiers are suffering from various types of mental disorders, flashbacks, panic attacks, nightmares, to name a few, which are commonly known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This type of psychiatric breakdown remains as one of the most disastrous and costly aftermaths of wars when expressed in human terms. Wikipedia cited a study on the Costs of War from the Brown University researchers that projected that the cost of caring for veterans of the War on Terror would peak thirty to forty years after the end of combat operations. The report further predicts that medical and disability costs would ultimately be between $600 billion and $1 trillion.³

Based on a Congressional mandate, a study on psychological effect among Vietnam Veterans found, among Vietnam veterans, approximately 15% of men and 9% of women were found to have PTSD at the time of the study. Approximately 30% of men and 27% of women had PTSD at some point in their life following Vietnam. In examining the mental health condition of Persian Gulf War veterans, it was found that rates of PTSD stemming from the war range anywhere from almost 9% to 24%. In the Iraq and Afghan Wars, after deployment, approximately 12.5% had PTSD, a rate greater than that found among these soldiers before deployment.⁴

Setting aside civilian suffering and comparing only the suffering of military veterans among countries, many nations do not have any such organized structure for addressing the needs of their Veterans and lack even minimum support programs for them. The most devastation in any war occurs to innocent people, who are not party to the conflict. This includes elderly, women and children. These are the most deprived groups in any war zone, and not much help is provided to them when war breaks out. Genocide, murder, torture, rape, even enslavement are few unspeakable atrocities committed in wars.

Wars are nothing new in the history of humanity as we witnessed hundreds of such atrocities throughout the history. War and its consequences such as ethnic cleansings created one of the most disturbing images in the history of modern warfare.

Displacement of people from the war-torn areas is increasing every day and most of the cases, about 85 percent of the exodus, are voluntary. The killing, rape, human right violation, ethnic cleansing during and after the wars become the worst nightmare and dominating headlines in media. And still, we are not proactive enough to resolve the matter. Major Powers sometimes use these volatile situations for their own economic and strategic interests creating a total disrespect to the world community.

The casualties and human sufferings of major wars and conflicts are cited in this chapter to create a sense of urgency. To keep the chapter within the limit, only some major devastating events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, where more than a million lives perished are included in this chapter. Most of the cases, power struggles among autocrats and big profits by arms manufacturers and arms dealers are responsible for such atrocities.

World War I: 1914-1918

World War I was a global war centered in Europe that began in 1914 and lasted until 1918. This war was one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Although it was difficult to estimate the exact number of casualties, but based on various statistics the casualties ranges from nine million to fifteen million. In this war, at least two million died from diseases, and six million went missing and presumed dead. About two-thirds of the military death in World War I was in the battlegrounds, and the rest succumbed to death due to wounds and diseases. Infrastructure destruction exceeded trillions of dollars, and millions became homeless and refugees. After war effects included famine and epidemics and loss of productivity. The World War I changed the political history of the world. All major economic powers took part in the war and after the war four major imperial powers—German, Russian, Austro–Hungarian, and Ottoman empires ceased to exist. The maps of Europe, Asia, and Africa were redrawn with the creation of several independent countries. Imperial powers lost their strength, and nationalist movements throughout the world surfaced.

The world community formed the League of Nations with the aim to policing all nations so that such war does not repeat. Weak states of nations, unprecedented sanction on Germany and its humiliation gave rise of fascism contributing the World War II.

World War II: 1939-1945

World War II was a global war, where more than thirty countries and one hundred million people were directly involved. In this war, major participants made their entire economic and scientific capabilities available for the war effort and ignored the difference between the armies and civilians. This war not only used massive bombing on enemy positions but also used strategic bombing on enemy industrial and population centers tested and used nuclear weapons for the first time in human history. The death toll was estimated to be between forty million to eighty million, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.⁵ This war was initiated to establish superiority over other powers by Adolf Hitler.

This war also notable for systematic elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, communists, homosexuals, disabled and mentally challenged populations of other groups lived in German and German-occupied territories. The then German government passed the infamous Nuremberg Laws of 1935 to exclude Jews from civil society. Jews were transported to various concentration camps. The transportation system they used was freight train with hundreds of Jews in each wagon in almost airtight systems without any heating and air-conditioning systems and toilet facilities. Transportation of Jewish in freight trains without any food or drinks was so harsh that could be treated as death chambers. If they survived the journey, they were systematically fed various animal feeds, and various lethal experiments were carried out, and later a majority of them were killed in gas chambers. This target genocide is the most heinous atrocities the world has ever seen. In this preplanned genocide, approximately eleven million people with over one million Jewish children were killed.⁶ About 42,500 facilities were used as concentration camps, where Nazis used various types of techniques to kill these innocent people.

In addition to infrastructure destruction, famine and epidemics, the World War II also altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, with the demise of European Imperial powers and rise of two superpowers: The USA and the Soviet Union. A new rigorous organization was born naming the United Nations (UN) to foster international cooperation to prevent future conflicts, but many opine that the UN is also failing to meet its intended goals.

Both World Wars were for the establishment of supremacy by some autocratic nations and race for arms sales.

Mexican Revolution: 1910–1920

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle in Mexico with the uprising against the autocrat leader that started in 1910 and lasted until about 1920. The primary causes of this revolution were the dictatorship-like rule of Porfirio Diaz for over thirty years, exploitation and poor treatment of workers, and great disparity between rich and poor. This armed conflict is often termed as one of the famous upheavals of the twentieth century. From 1.9 to 3.5 million Mexicans perished in this revolution.⁷

Greek Genocide: 1914–1923

The Greek genocide, the part of which is known as the Pontic Genocide, is the history of a systematic ethnic cleansing. The Christian Ottoman Greek population was systematically eliminated from its historic homeland. It was instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire showing the cause of national security and followed by successive governments after the fall of the empire and that included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary and arbitrary expulsions of Greek minority. The estimated of the death toll of this genocide was approximately1.5 million.⁸

Armenian Genocide: 1915–1923

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust. This is also termed as the Great Crime,⁹ when the Ottoman government systematically exterminated its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland, the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. The genocide was conducted in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert by military escorts. Based on historical records, these deportees were deprived of food and water and were subject to robbery, rape, and massacre.¹⁰,¹¹,¹² The total number of Armenians killed as a result of this genocide has been estimated between 1 and 1.5 million.

Russian Revolution: 1917–1922

The Russian Civil War (November 1917–October 1922) was a war between the Russian Empire and communist-led Red Army with support from German empire. The Red Army defeated the Imperial army and their associates under the banner of White Army. Russian emperor along with his whole family was captured and butchered. Pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire, Finland and Poland got independence. The death toll of the Russian Revolution estimated between five to nine million.¹³ The purpose of this revolution was to establish the Communist form of government.

Spanish Civil War: 1936–1939

The Spanish Civil War was among the Republicans and the Nationalists. The Republicans were loyal to the democratically elected Spanish Republic government and the Nationalists, a rebel group, which was led by General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists prevailed, and the country was ruled by Franco for about thirty-six years ending 1975. The war became notable for its atrocities committed by both sides. Fatality accounted between half a million to one million.¹⁴ This civil war was nothing but an internal power struggle.

Korean War: 1950–1953

The Korean War was the war between two Koreas: South Korea and North Korea. In this war, United States took side with the South Korea and China and the Soviet Union took side the North Korea. This was a proxy war between the leftwing powers, such as the Soviet Union and China and the Western powers led by the USA. The war was the direct impact from the division of Korea at the end of World War II and notable for the development of Cold War immediately after it. The fatality was in between 400,000 and 4.5 million.¹⁵

Sudanese Civil War: 1955–2005

The Sudanese Civil War (1955–2005, except for a brief eleven years’ ceasefire) was a conflict between the northern and the southern region of Sudan that demanded representation and more regional autonomy. Between one and two million people died over the years of war. The war caused a severe famine and diseases, and about four million people were displaced. Among the death, about 80 percent were innocent people. This civil war got prominence due to the intervention by the West. The Southern Sudanese rebel leaders received logistical support, including arms, training, and other support from the USA, Uganda, Eretria, and Ethiopia. At last South Sudan got independence in 2011, but the civil war is continuing.

Nigerian Civil War: 1967–1970

The Nigerian Civil War was an ethnic conflict caused by the attempted secession of South East part of Nigeria and established a new state Republic of Biafra with the support of Israel, France, Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa, Vatican City, Gabon, Haiti, Nigeria and some other countries.

According to Mark Curtis (2010), the formerly secret files on the Nigerian civil war in the late 1960s show very clear British complicity in the Nigerian government’s aggression against the region of Biafra, where an independence movement was struggling to secede from Nigeria. This brutal civil war resulted in between one and three million death.¹⁶

Bangladesh Genocide: 1971

The Bangladesh genocide began at the midnight of March 25, 1971, as West Pakistan military crackdown named Operation Searchlight¹⁷ on innocent Bangalees on the Eastern wing of Pakistan to suppress their calls for self-determination.¹⁸ This led to a full out war and lasted until December 16, 1971, and concluded with the Independence of Bangladesh. During the nine-month long Independence War the Pakistani military, paratroops, and their local allies killed about three million people and raped between two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand Bangladeshi women in a systematic campaign.¹⁹,²⁰,²¹

There is an academic consensus that the events which took place during the Liberation War of Bangladesh were genocides.²² This genocide attributed to control of power by the minority Pakistanis over the majority Bangalees.

Cambodian Genocide: 1975–1979

The Cambodian Genocide is a dark history of Cambodia, which was carried out by the Communist Khmer Rouge (KR) regime. The KR had planned to institute agrarian socialism, a blend of Stalinism and Maoism. Forced relocation from urban centers, torture, mass executions, forced labor, and malnutrition led to the deaths of about two million Cambodians. Both United States of America and the Soviet Union sided with opposing factions. On January 2, 2001, the Cambodian government passed legislation to try a limited number of the KR leadership. Trials began on February 17, 2009.²³ On August 7, 2014, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were convicted and received life sentences for crimes against humanity during the genocide. This genocide was the effect of the ongoing cold war.

Afghan War: 1979–1992

The war in Afghanistan began in April 1978, when the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) took power in a military coup. In December 1979, the Soviet invaded Afghanistan to replace the existing Afghan government. Afghanistan’s resistance forces, known as the Mujahedeen, fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Afghan Mujahedeen received material supports from the United States, which was managed through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Saudi Arabia. After ten years of intense fight, the Soviet Union had to withdraw its troops in February 1989. But the Soviet-backed Afghan communist regime survived for three more years until the fall of Kabul in 1992. The casualty of this war varies from 1.5 million to 2 million. The most discussed part of this war was the formation and the rise of al-Qaida terrorist group.²⁴,²⁵

Iraq–Iran War: 1980 to 1988

The Iraq-Iran War was a proxy war between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq. It started in 1980 and ended in August 1988, making it the twentieth century’s longest conventional war. ²⁶,²⁷ The war began as Iraq invaded Iran via air and land on September 22, 1980, based on a long-disputed border issue as well as instigation by the Saudi Arabia and its allies. Several proxy forces participated in the war, and the major players were Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq siding with Ba’athist Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish militias siding with Iran. The United States, Soviet Union, and other Western powers provided support to Iraq, and Israel was helping Iran. This war fatality varies between half a million to two million.²⁸ Due to the complexity of this war, a detailed discussion is provided in a subsequent chapter.

Rwandan Genocide: 1994

The Genocide of Rwanda was one of the most brutal genocides in recent history, where mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by Hutu majority took place. In an approximate one-hundred-day massacre an estimated five hundred thousand to one million Rwandans were killed.²⁹ During the colonial rule, Belgium was providing support to minority Tutsis and denied any political rights to the majority Hutus. Tutsis were seen as the elite members of society. After the Rwandan Independence, in 1963, Tutsis were discriminated against and went into exile in Uganda. In 1990, when the Tutsis returned to Rwanda the civil war broke out, which led to this massacre.

Congo War: 1996–1997

The Congo War was a foreign invasion of Zaire led by Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda that replaced a decades-long U.S. supported dictator with a rebel leader. The dictator formed an authoritarian regime, gained vast personal wealth, and enjoyed considerable support from the United States due to his anticommunist stance.

There were several reasons for this war that includes corruption, nepotism, elimination of opponent political leaders, and economic downturn. On the other hand, Rwanda was governed by a Hutu-backed government, and Hutu militia led genocide in Rwanda against Tutsi minorities. In one hundred days genocide several hundred thousand Tutsis and its sympathizers were killed. Due to genocide, rape and abduction of Tutsis about 1.5 million Tutsis crossed the border and settled in eastern Zaire. Again and again, the Hutu militiamen with support from other groups continued atrocities on ethnic Tutsis. The genocide ended when Hutu government in Kigali was overthrown. During the Congo wars, an estimated 2.5 to 5.4 million were massacred.³⁰

FAMINE

It will be incomplete if we keep our discussions on wars alone. Another issue is famine, which deserves a closer look to understand the human sufferings caused by man-made actions. A famine is caused by a widespread shortage of food either due to droughts, flood, bad food productivity, natural calamity and/or due to war and political actions. The impact of famine is widespread from malnutrition, starvation, diseases, and death. There are several worst famines are cited here, and the reasons for such famine also described along with the number of deaths in each occurrence. War and political actions will be found as direct and or indirect causes for these famines. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (1999) in his publication, Development as Freedom, argued, It is not surprising that no famine has taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy—be it economically rich (as in Western Europe or North America) or relatively poor (as in post-independence India, or Botswana or Zimbabwe).³¹ Dr. Sen (1981) in his Essay in another publication, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, further argues, Contrary to conventional belief, most famines aren’t created by food shortages. Harvest failures, reductions in food imports, droughts, etc., are often contributing factors—but far more important are the social systems that determine how a society’s food is distributed. Absolute scarcity—insufficient food to feed everyone—is extraordinarily rare. Vastly more common is for an adequate supply of food to be beyond the reach of those who need it most.³²

A review of each case of these famines further confirms Dr. Sen’s argument that war and political actions had direct and or indirect impacts for these famines.

Bengal Famine 1770

1770 Bengal Famine, also known as Chiattorer (76) Monnontor (famine) based on Bengali calendar 1176, was also termed as manmade famine that killed about one-third of the population of Bengal.³³ The famine occurred mainly in the territory of Bengal, and during that time it was ruled by the East India Company. This famine led territory included modern day Bangladesh, West Bengal, and parts of Assam, Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand. In the seventeenth century, the then-English East India Company had been given a grant of the town of Calcutta by the Mughal emperor and the Company betrayed the terms of their right, overthrew the ruler of Bengal and plundered the Bengali treasury.

The subsequent treaty allowed them the taxation right, and the Company became the de facto ruler of Bengal. For company’s benefit peasants were forced in shifting from staple crops to cash crops. The company forced peasants for very lucrative Indigo and opium cultivation, on top of that they increased taxation un-proportionately on conventional farming to attract more Indigo and poppy farming. As a result, farmers were unable to grow staple crops.³⁴,³⁵

In basic term, the famine was the direct result of the company’s inhumane policies. As a trading body, the Company worked for maximizing its profits from land tax and trading tariffs. All agriculture