Africa: At the Brink of Chaos
Africa is plagued by genocide, egregious human rights violations, internal strife, unstable governments, and a general lack of economic initiative, but the continent possesses abundant natural resources. These resources and imperial competition to control them continue to cause conflict.
Algeria and Sudan were plunged into decades of internal turmoil. Civil war causes many of Sudan's difficulties. Since before the last British Governor-General Lord Kitchener left in 1913 and declared that "The British army performs extremely well except when our enemies shoot back at us", the southern Dinka people have revolted against the northern Sudanese. This prolonged unpleasant situation has placed Sudan on par with primitive states that exist in perpetual anarchy and lack developed economies. Sudan suffers the normal effects of warfare: The society exists at minimal standards. But there is another dimension. Many states send weapons to the various groups involved in the Sudanese war. Most influential among these is Iran. Iran has lent covert and overt support to any group seeking to establish an Islamic republic. Several former Soviet republics seeking an easy source of capital also sell Sudan weapons. Anarchy prevails. An Islamic or neo-Marxist government is an improvement to the complete absence of government Sudan has now. No Sudanese parties seem to support democratic capitalism in the Western sense. More discouraging to Sudan's prospects is the potential that the conflict could easily spread to Ethiopia or Egypt. The consequences of the roughly drawn state and ethnic boundaries could plunge much of northern Africa into the sort of chaos that is so rampant in central Africa.
Algeria's problems stem from another source. Unlike Sudan, Algeria was a French possession. France preferred a very direct manner of controlling its colonies. That caused many of the difficulties in Algeria. During the 1950s indigenous Algerians rebelled against France and destroyed the Fourth French Republic. General Charles DeGaulle seized power and solved the crisis, but Algerians were not pleased with life after independence. With French troops withdrawn, the stage was set for a new Algerian crisis. Enter here radical Islamic organizations. The leading party in Algeria is the Islamic National Front (FIS). The FIS envisions creating an Algerian constitution strongly influenced by the Iranian model: theocracy rather than democracy. Supporting the FIS is the armed SIG militia. In 1991 the FIS won Algeria's first free elections since independence. Vigorously opposing the FIS, the government nullified the results and refused to resign. The SIG attacked innocent people on trains, crash landed plane loads of hostages, waged classic terror campaigns, and demanded the elections be rescheduled or the previous results be deemed legal. The Algerian government rejected these proposals. The SIG then took its campaign abroad and bombed the Parisian railways. Anti-immigrant sentiments became quite fashionable in France. The SIG made no clear demands and had no precise complaint of France. They simply attacked at will to impede progress towards a settlement. One SIG leader fled to the US. When France requested his extradition, the US replied that the man had Parliamentary immunity.
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