West Bank
The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13
September 1993, provided for a transitional period not exceeding
five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain
powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as
part of the interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza
Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994
Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in
additional areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28
September 1995 Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997
Protocol Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23
October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm
el-Sheikh Agreement. The DOP provided that Israel would retain
responsibility during the transitional period for external and
internal security and for public order of settlements and Israeli
citizens. Direct negotiations to determine the permanent status of
Gaza and West Bank began in September 1999 after a three-year
hiatus, but were derailed by a second intifada that broke out in
September 2000. In April 2003 the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia)
presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005
based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states,
Israel and a democratic Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent
status agreement has been postponed indefinitely due to violence and
accusations that both sides have not followed through on their
commitments. Longtime Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT died in
November 2004 and Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA President in January
2005, bringing hope of a turning point in the conflict. Israel and
the PA agreed in February 2005 to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments,
focused on security issues, in an effort to move the peace process
forward. Progress has been slow because of different interpretations
of the verbal agreement by the two sides.
Western Sahara
Morocco virtually annexed the northern two-thirds of
Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976, and the rest of
the territory in 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A
guerrilla war with the Polisario Front contesting Rabat's
sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire; a UN-organized
referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed.
World
Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating
world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of
vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology,
from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to
the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western
alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living
standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased
concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages
of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air
pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate
emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's
population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2
billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in
1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued
exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes
(e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even
more lethal weapons of war).
Yemen
North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern
port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became
South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a
Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of
Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of
hostility between the states. The two countries were formally
unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist
movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and
Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.
Zambia
The territory of Northern Rhodesia was administered by the
[British] South Africa Company from 1891 until it was taken over by
the UK in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s, advances in mining
spurred development and immigration. The name was changed to Zambia
upon independence in 1964. In the 1980s and 1990s, declining copper
prices and a prolonged drought hurt the economy. Elections in 1991
brought an end to one-party rule, but the subsequent vote in 1996
saw blatant harassment of opposition parties. The election in 2001
was marked by administrative problems with three parties filing a
legal petition challenging the election of ruling party candidate
Levy MWANAWASA. The new president launched an anti-corruption
campaign in 2002, which resulted in the prosecution of former
President Frederick CHILUBA and some officials of his administration.
Zimbabwe
The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South
Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that
favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally
declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and
demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority
in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla
uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as
Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister,
has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has
dominated the country's political system since independence. His
chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an
exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in
widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international
condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure
his reelection. Opposition and labor strikes in 2003 were
unsuccessful in pressuring MUGABE to retire early; security forces
continued their brutal repression of regime opponents. The ruling
ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds
majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to
amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had
been abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on
Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization
program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or
businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition,
according to UN estimates.
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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@2030 Airports - with paved runways
Afghanistan total: 11 over 3,047 m: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 914 to 1,523 m: 1 under 914 m: 1 (2006)