2004-9-12
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
Researchers have hopeful news for the international community. A
new study shows that fewer wars were reported around the world last
year. A second study reports that last year's agreements for
non-nuclear weapons sales dropped in value. And a third study
reports the number of people seeking asylum decreased during the
first half of this year.
We begin in Sweden. The Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute has recorded major decreases in armed conflict worldwide.
The non-governmental organization counted nineteen major armed
conflicts during two thousand three. A record thirty-three wars were
reported for nineteen ninety-one. That was after the Soviet Union
fell apart.
The Stockholm study says three new wars started last year. The
United States led a coalition to invade Iraq, and two new conflicts
started in Africa. One was in Liberia. The other was in the Darfur
area of Sudan. The Swedish organization said wars already in
progress included the separatist conflict in the Russian republic of
Chechnya, and the continuing conflicts in the Middle East and Indian
Kashmir.
The second study measured the value of weapons transfer
agreements in two thousand three. The Congressional Research Service
of the United States Library of Congress said world arms sales last
year dropped to about twenty-five thousand million dollars. The
agency says this was the third straight year that world arms
agreements decreased in value.
The report also says the United States continues to be the
world's largest arms seller. The United States made agreements
valued at fourteen and one-half thousand million dollars. That is
almost fifty-seven percent of all weapons agreements worldwide.
Russia made arms-transfer deals worth about four and one-half
thousand million dollars. The agreements were about seventeen
percent of total arms sales for the year.
Finally, the United Nations reported the average number of people
seeking asylum in more than twenty-four industrial nations for six
months. The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said the
monthly average for the first half of this year was the lowest since
nineteen eighty-seven. France, the United States, Britain, Germany
and Austria provided asylum for many refugees during that period.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by
Jerilyn Watson. This is Gwen Outen.