Newspapers / The Warren Record (Warrenton, … / Feb. 10, 1982, edition 1 / Page 3
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'Hottest' Border Disputes Top Growing List Of Clashes WASHINGTON - Bord ers. Half the nations of the world are arguing over them - like neighbors fighting over international back fences. On the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula, half a dozen countries can't agree where to draw the lines between them. In a South American jungle, Vene zuela claims a chunk of Guyana that would shrink it by almost two-thirds. Along the longest mili tarized border in the world, the Soviet Union and China haven't straight ened out all of their 4,150 miles of icy differences. In the Bay of Bengal, a new island that popped up between India and Bangla desh after a storm 11 years ago created a still-unset tled conflict. And in Europe last year, the King of Spain didn't go to the British Royal Wedding because of the 277-year-old dispute over the Rock of Gibraltar. With 167 independent nations now competing for Earth's land, the number of border and territorial disputes has escalated steadily since World War n. "There's no escaping it," one geographer said. "There are even disputes about the disputes - and not just on land." Bound ary conflicts are fast moving offshore as future rights to the sea are staked out. Many of today's border clashes are consid ered "dangerous" because the world's superpowers have taken sides in them. The 10 "hottest" are scattered over three con tinents, according to a National Geographic News Service survey of some of the nation's leading politi cal geographers and U. S. government authorities. From more than 25 serious disputes cited by the experts, the 10 were judged most likely to erupt or to have far-reaching world impact. Five are in Asia, four in Africa, and one in South America. By region, they are: ISRAEL-ARAB NEIGH BORS - War over what Israel's shape on world maps would be started the day after the Jewish state was proclaimed in 1948. Since then Israel and its Arab neighbors have fought four bitter wars. Today's explosive situa tion stems specifically from the Six Day War of 1967 when Israel captured Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, Syria's Golan Heights, and Jor dan's West Bank and its sector of Jerusalem. Israel has resisted re treating to its pre-1967 borders and recently form ally annexed the Golan Heights. Declaring its perpetual sovereignty over the Syrian land, it still holds to its schedule to evacuate the last section of the Sanai in April. On the other fronts, the Israeli occupied territories re main powder kegs in the complex Middle East crisis. IRAN-IRAQ - The an cient Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet and flow to the sea through a short stretch of waterway that sepa rates two old enemies and has become the flash point of their border clashes. Who should control the Shatt al Arab - Iraq's only outlet to the Persian Gulf and Iran's only sea access for its huge oil refinery at Abadan? Iraq reopened the old dispute in 1980 by termi nating a 1975 agreement that had split the Shatt al Arab down the middle' giving shared sovereignty to the two hostile nations. In the 1975 pact, Iraq had given up its sole control of the waterway, which had been secured by a 1937 boundary settlement put ting the Shatt al Arab inside its borders. Iran had never accepted that ruling. INDIA-PAKISTAN - Rivalry over treasured Kashmir has figured in three wars and countless skirmishes between India and Pakistan. The Kashmir dispute erupted soon after British rule ended in 1947, and predominantly Hindu India and Moslem Pakis tan were created. Wedged between the two, Kashmir, with a majority Moslem popula tion and a Hindu ruler, could have joined either of the new countries or elected independence. When the maharajah hesi tated, some of the Mos lems, backed by armed Pakistani tribesmen, re volted. To stop the invad ers, the maharajah offered to accede to India in exchange for military aid — a move Pakistan oppos ed. In 1949 the United Nations established a cease-fire line that divided the state, leaving the Vale of Kashmir and a majority of the population under Indian control. GREECE-TURKEY - A cease-fire line cuts across the island of Cyprus, dividing its capital, Ni cosia, and its population of Greeks and Turks. With Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south, there is still no permanent solution to the stalemate. Before Cyprus won inde pendence from Britain in 1960, the Turks favored partitioning the Mediter ranean island. The Greeks, who make up nearly 80 percent of the population, sought political union with Greece. In 1974 Turkey invaded the island following a Greek Cypriot coup. To protest the invasion, Greece pulled out of NATO and did not rejoin until 1980. Greece is once again threatening to with draw, a move that could make it less likely to accept the status quo on Cyprus. The two countries also are currently tangling over valuable air and sea rights in the Aegean. CHINA-VIETNAM Since the end of hostilities in South Vietnam, Vietnam has clashed with its neigh bore, fighting battles along borders with both China and Kampuchea (Cam bodia). In early 1979 Chinese troops attacked northern provinces of Vietnam as "punishment" for Viet namese provocations along their common bor der, according to Beijing. The Chinese attack was also considered a retalia tion for Vietnam's over throw of China's ally in Kampuchea. Accusing each other of trying to change the border between them, China and Vietnam also have compet ing claims to the Spratly and Paracel island groups in the South China Sea. where there are prospects for oil. ETHIOPIA-SOMALIA - Ethiopia's furnace - hot Ogaden region has been the home of countless generations of Somali nomads. And neighboring Somalia has gone to war at least twice to aid guerrillas trying to turn the desert land into a new Somali nation. Backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba. Ethiopia has so far successfully resisted giving up the Ogaden, which represents about one-fifth o» its territory "id is strategic ally located in the Horn of Africa. The boundary conflict has its roots in late 19th-century colonialism, which divided the Somali tribal lands into five parts, ceding the Ogaden to ' Ethiopia. Independent since 1960, Somalia has sought the unification of all territories traditionally oc cupied by Somali tribes, including about 20 percent of what is now Kenya. LIBYA-CHAD - Plagu ed with internal tribal strife since its indepen dence from France in 1960, Chad is currently torn apart by at least three bands of rebel forces, the strongest headed by its former defense minister Hissene Habre. Neighboring Libya, un der the regime of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, has had designs on the vulner able country since 1973 when it occupied Chad's 60-mile-wide Aozou Strip along their common bor der. Two years later Libya announced that it was annexing the strip, which is believed to be rich in uranium. In late 1980, Libya in tervened in Chad's worsen ing civil war - sending in troops to back the govern ment in power. Afterward Qaddafi announced a "merger" of the two countries, a move that angered much of Africa. Libya pulled its troops out last November, but appar ently not from the disputed Aozou Strip. MOROCCO - WESTERN SAHARA — A 9-foot-high sand wall stretches 400 miles across the desert to defend Morocco's claim to Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony on Africa's west coast. Completed last year, the giant sand dune — rein forced with a series of forts - is a pivotal factor in the intensified war with the Algerian and Libyan-back ed guerrillas who want an independent western Sa hara republic. Some of the fiercest fighting in the six-year struggle between Moroccan troops and the native Polisario Front occurred last year. Morocco has sought to absorb the territory, which is rich in phosphates, since Spain relinquished it in 1976. A large imperial state in pre-colonial times, Mo rocco contends the colony is its rightful heritage. NAMIBIA • SOUTH AFRICA-ANGOLA - Out side of South Africa itself, mineral-rich Namibia stands as the last major colonial African territory dominated by whites. Although It is on the verge of independence, its north ern frontier is still war torn. South Africa, which was given custody of neighbor ing Namibia (then South west Africa) under a 1920 League of Nations man date, refused to give up control despite a 1966 United Nations order re voking the mandate. In recent years. South Africa has launched mas sive raids into Angola, Namibia's northern neigh bor, where Namibian guer rilla forces trying to oust South Africa are based. Last year South Africa and the guerrilla South west Africa People's Organization agreed to the terms of a U.N. proposal that could lead to Namibian independence in 1983. But still a thorn in Namibia's side is the key Atlantic coast enclave of Walvis Bay, which would remain under South Afri can control. Located west of the Namibian capital, this seaport and fishing center was administered by South Africa prior to the 1920 mandate and is claimed as its own. ARGENTINA - CHILE -For the first time in centuries, the Pope had to step into a South American land dispute in late 1978 to stop a near-war over the ownership of three tiny islands at the south ernmost tip of the contin ent. Inhabited only by a handful of fishermen and insignificant in them selves, the islands may be stepping stones to deep-sea oil and mineral rights, and to claims to Antarctic ter ritory The century-old tug of war between Argentina and Chile over the Beagle Channel boundary line is the final frontier conflict (Continued on page 6)
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