Daniel Orr's Blog, page 87

August 30, 1998 – Second Congo War: The Congolese Army and its Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi from Rwandan forces

On August 30, 1998, forces of the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), together with their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies, recaptured the
town of Matadi
from Rwandan forces and the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) militia during
the ongoing Second Congo War.

(Taken from Second Congo War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)

By this time, Angolan forces also had come to the aid of Democratic Republic of the Cong (DRC) President Kabila’s beleaguered regime, entering through the Angolan province of Cabinda.  The Angolans took control of the Congo’s western region, including liberating the towns of Matadi and Kitona, and moved eastward to meet up with the Zimbabwean Army in Kinshasa.  More Zimbabwean forces began pouring in via Zambia into southern Congo, with the aim of securing Mbuji-Mayi, a diamond-rich mining town in Kasai-Oriental Province.  With military forces from Namibia deploying in the western Congo and those from Chad entering through the north, both in support of the Congolese government, and Burundi, backing the invaders, the conflict threatened to expand into a full-blown multinational war (in fact, the war has been called “Africa’s World War”).

With Kinshasa
secure by early September, the Angola-Zimbabwe-Congo coalition made plans to
launch an offensive into rebel-held territories further east.  Rwanda
and Uganda
had recruited extensively – some 100,000 new soldiers were brought to the
frontlines, greatly overmatching in numbers the combined Angolan-Zimbabwean
forces (the latter, however, consisted mainly of elite combat units).  Both sides of the conflict also increased the
strength of their battle tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, and warplanes.

In the following months, a number of indecisive battles took
place, as each side tried to expand its control in northern Katanga Province
and in central Congo.  In northern Congo,
the Ugandan Army organized the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, a proxy militia, to serve as its advance
force in its offensive into northeast Congo.

Background of the
Second Congo War The
First Congo War (previous article) ended when Laurent-Désiré Kabila took over
power in Zaire.  He formed a new government and named himself
the country’s president.  He renamed the
country the “Democratic
Republic of the Congo”.  President Kabila faced enormous problems: the
country’s infrastructure was in ruins partly because of the war but mainly
because of neglect by the previous regime; the economy was devastated; and most
of the people lived in poverty.

And these were the least of President Kabila’s
problems.  He was most concerned about
his tenuous hold on power.  He had merged
his rebel forces with the Rwandan Army, which produced tensions between the two
former enemies.  Furthermore, some
military officers remained loyal to ex-President Mobutu Sese Seko, the deposed
tyrant.

To consolidate power, President Kabila set up an
authoritarian regime, centralized power, and appointed relatives and friends to
top government positions.  His
administration was accused of nepotism, abuse of power, and corruption, and
President Kabila’s critics drew similarities between his government and the
former regime – implying that nothing had changed.

More crucial image-wise for President Kabila was the
ubiquitous presence in the Congo
of foreign troops, particularly those from Rwanda
and Uganda;
these countries had helped him win the First Congo War.  The Congolese people perceived the foreign
armies as holding real power in the country, with President Kabila merely
acting as a figurehead.  For this reason,
on July 14, 1998, President Kabila sacked his Armed Forces chief of staff, a
Rwandan, an act that began a chain of events that led to the Second Congo War.

On July 27, President Kabila ordered the Rwandan and Ugandan
Armies to leave the country.  A week
later, he terminated the appointments of all Tutsi public officials.  The Congolese people regarded the Tutsis as
foreigners, despite the fact that Banyamulenge Tutsis were long established in
the Congo’s
eastern provinces.

As a result of President Kabila’s edict, Uganda pulled out its forces from the Congo.  The Rwandan government also ordered its
forces to withdraw, not out of the Congo,
but to the remote, weakly defended Kivu Provinces in eastern Congo.  Rwanda believed that its security
concerns – the main reason for its involvement in the First Congo War – had not
been fully met.  In particular, the
Rwandan government noted that the Hutu militias had reorganized and once again
were carrying out raids into Rwanda.  Furthermore, the Banyamulenge Tutsis, who had
formed an alliance with Rwanda
during the First Congo War, requested the Rwandans to remain in the Kivu
Provinces.  The Banyamulenge’s
citizenship had been revoked by a new law, and the Congolese government ordered
them to leave the country.

Rwanda
and Uganda
organized the Banyamulenge into a proxy militia called the “Rally for Congolese
Democracy”, or RCD, whose aim was to overthrow President Kabila.  As in the First Congo War, Rwanda and Uganda used a proxy force to fight
their wars, as direct intervention by their armies was a violation of
international law.

August 29, 1943 – The Danish Navy scuttles its ships; in response, Germany dissolves the Danish government and imposes martial law

In the early morning of August 29, 1943, the Danish Navy scuttled many of its ships at the Copenhagen harbor to prevent them from falling into German possession. Just a few hours earlier, German forces had entered the city to take over Denmark and disarm the Danish military. Of the 52 vessels of the Danish Navy (2 were in Greenland), 32 were scuttled, 4 escaped to Sweden, and 14 were captured by the Germans. Danish military casualties were 23-26 killed and 40-50 wounded; 4,600 Danish personnel were interred. Germany had invaded Denmark in April 1940 but had allowed the Danish Navy to continue its maritime responsibilities which otherwise would have been taken up the German Navy, using much-needed manpower and resources that could be used elsewhere.

Also on August 29, the Germans dissolved the Danish
government and imposed martial law throughout the country. The Danish cabinet tendered
its resignation, which was not accepted by King Christian, and so continued to
function until the end of the war.

The events were the culmination of the “August crisis”, where during the summer of 1943, the Danish population launched increasingly hostile civil unrest against the German occupation forces. Worker strikes, street demonstrations, and acts of sabotage as well as passive resistance were prevalent across the country. On August 28, Germany declared Denmark as “enemy territory” following the inability of German and Danish authorities to control the unrest.

On August 28, German authorities imposed censorship on public assemblies and strikes and curfew and introduced special military courts that imposed the death penalty for acts of sabotage. At the same time, an ultimatum was issued to the Danish government, which refused, leading to the German decision to declare Denmark “enemy territory” and to take over the administration of the country.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

After the German
invasion of Denmark On
April 10, 1940, German forces peacefully occupied Bornholm,
Denmark’s easternmost island
located in the Baltic Sea.  Two Danish-linked territories were seized by
the British: the Faroe Islands on April 12, and Iceland, a self-governing state
with the Danish king as its head of state, on May 10.  Greenland, a
Danish colony, took a different path in World War II.  Henrik Kauffmann, the Danish ambassador to
the United States, signed a
treaty with the U.S.
government that allowed American military bases to be constructed in the island
to protect it from German invasion.  At
this time, the United States
was still neutral and a non-belligerent in World War II.  The Danish government in Copenhagen, now controlled by the Germans as
a protectorate, rejected the treaty.

In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Denmark was
allowed to maintain much of its internal political and administrative duties,
King Christian X remained as the nation’s head of state, and the legislature,
police, and judiciary continued to function as before.  The Danish people generally were displeased
by the German occupation, but also accepted the reality of the situation,
especially after France’s
defeat only two months later, in June 1940.

By 1943, German-Danish relations had deteriorated, and Denmark’s
“politics of cooperation” ended, and the Danish people became hostile toward
the occupation forces.  Then when a spate
of strikes, civil unrest, and sabotages broke out, and an armed resistance
movement began to emerge, German authorities dissolved the Danish government,
declared martial law, and enforced anti-dissident measures, including press
censorship, banning strikes and mass assemblies, and imposing the death penalty
for saboteurs, as well as ordering the round up of all Jews for deportation.

August 28, 1990 – Gulf War: Iraq annexes Kuwait

On August 4, 1990, Saddam appointed a 9-member military
junta composed of Kuwaiti Army officers headed by Colonel Alaa Hussein Ali, to
lead the “Provisional Government of Free Kuwait”.  Then on August 7, Kuwait
was declared a republic (“Republic
of Kuwait”).  The next day, however, the Iraqi government
announced the political and territorial merger of Iraq
and Kuwait.  Three weeks later, on August 28, Iraq
declared a Kuwait Governorate, Iraq’s 19th province, under Governor Ali Hassan
al-Majid, Saddam’s first cousin (and also better known as heading the al-Anfal
campaign (1986-1989), where Iraqi forces violently quelled an uprising by Iraqi
Kurds during the Iran-Iraq War).

A few hours into the Iraqi invasion, the Kuwaiti government had appealed to the international community for assistance.  In a number of resolutions, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemned the invasion, demanded that Saddam withdraw his forces, and imposed economic sanctions on Iraq.  The Arab League, the regional body in which Iraq was a member, also condemned Iraq’s aggression.  On the invitation of Saudi King Fahd who felt that his country would be invaded next, the United States sent troops to Saudi Arabia.  The international community, and particularly the U.S. government, entered into negotiations with Iraq regarding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.  These talks subsequently broke down, leading to the Gulf War, where U.S.-led coalition forces attacked Kuwait to drive out the Iraqi Army.

(Taken from Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background On June 19, 1961, Kuwait gained its independence from Britain.  In 1963, Iraq, which by this time had become a republic and was presently governed by a military government under General Abd al-Karim Qasim, pursued its claim of ownership to Kuwait based on historical grounds, and threatened to invade.  Swift intervention by Britain and Arab countries, which sent military units to defend Kuwait, forced Iraq to back down.  Then in 1963, Iraq appeared to acquiesce, declaring that it recognized Kuwait.  But tensions remained throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which sometimes broke out into border clashes that included a more significant incident where Iraqi forces attacked and seized control of the Al-Samitah border outpost in Kuwait.  Subsequent mediation efforts by Saudi Arabia succeeded in persuading Iraq to withdraw from occupied Kuwaiti territory.

Meanwhile, Iraq also had a long-standing border dispute with Iran, its eastern neighbor, which broke out in September 1980 into total war (the Iran-Iraq War, separate article) following the success of the Iranian Revolution that transformed Iran into a fundamentalist Islamic state.  Iran’s new Islamic government then called for the overthrow of “un-Islamic” Arab monarchies, alarming Gulf state monarchical governments including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, which gave large financial assistance in the form of loans to Iraq.  By this time, Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein.  Iraq-Kuwait relations improved dramatically, and Kuwait’s $14 billion loan to Iraq allowed the Iraqi Army to reverse its losses against Iran and take the initiative.

By the war’s end in August 1988, Iraq was in deep financial crisis,
with its oil industry severely affected by the widespread destruction of oil
infrastructures.  Before the war, Iraq was awash
in cash, holding some $35 billion in foreign reserves, but by 1988, was mired
in $80 billion in foreign debt to various Western and Arab countries.  Then in negotiations with its Arab creditors,
the Iraqi government declared that its loans must be written off on the grounds
that Iraq singlehandedly
stopped Iran’s hegemonic
ambitions and thus prevented the overthrow of the various Arab governments in
the Middle East.  Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s Foreign Minister, remarked thus, “How can
these amounts be regarded as Iraqi debts to its Arab brothers when Iraq made
sacrifices that are many times more than those debts in terms of Iraqi
resources during the grinding war and offered rivers of blood of its youth in
defense of the (Arab) nation’s soil, dignity, honor, and wealth?”

Furthermore, Kuwait
exceeded its oil production quota imposed by the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), causing a glut in the international market and
driving down oil prices.  The Iraqi
government complained that the low world prices meant lesser revenues, and
therefore lower capacity for Iraq
to repay its loans and restore its war-damaged oil infrastructures that were
needed to rebuild the country.

Another source of dispute was the Rumalia oil field, located
between Kuwait and Iraq and inside both countries’ territories, in
which Iraq accused Kuwait of using an oil extraction technique
known as slant drilling in order to pump out oil inside Iraq.  The Iraqi government demanded payment for the
“stolen” oil.  Kuwait vehemently denied the
accusation.

With economic troubles mounting, Saddam began to believe
that a conspiracy stirred up by neighboring countries was aimed at undermining
his country.  Consequently, the Iraqi
leader turned his appeals for financial reprieve into open threats, at one
point remarking (in reference to Iraq’s request for more loans),
“Let the Gulf regimes know, that if they will not give this money to me, I will
know how to get it.”

On July 16, 1990, on Saddam’s orders, units of the
Republican Guard, Iraq’s
elite force, deployed along the border with Kuwait.  By the following day, the arrival of more
units increased Iraqi strength to 10,000 troops and 300 tanks.  And by July 25, Iraq had massed some 30,000 troops
(in four divisions) and over 800 tanks along two fronts on the border.

United States
intelligence detected this military movement, which later was disseminated by
the U.S.
media.  On July 25, 1990 April Glaspie,
the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq,
in a meeting with Saddam, indicated that the U.S. government was aware of the
Iraqi military’s deployment and that this was a cause for concern.  However, Ambassador Glaspie also said the United States has “no opinion on Arab-Arab
conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait”,
a remark that has since generated controversy among political analysts, one
point being that the United States
would not intervene militarily if war broke out between fellow Arab Iraq and Kuwait.

During the closing week of July 1990, with mediation efforts
by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Kuwaiti and Iraqi representatives held
talks in Riyadh and Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, which also
failed to reach a settlement despite Kuwait
agreeing to pay $9 billion of the Iraqi government’s demand of $10 billion for Iraq’s
purported revenue losses in the Rumalia oil field.

August 27, 1928 – Interwar period: Fifteen countries sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which rejects war as an instrument of foreign policy

On August 27, 1928, fifteen countries signed the agreement known as the “General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy”, more commonly known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Its secondary name stems from its authors, U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand. The instrument, first agreed to in August 1928 by the United States, France, and Germany, was joined within a year by 62 countries, including Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, and China. The instrument’s objective was for signatory states not to use war to resolve “disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them”, and states that fail to adhere would be “denied of the benefits furnished by the treaty”.  The pact went into effect on July 24, 1929.

The Kellogg-Brian Pact failed in its objective: militarism grew in the 1930s, leading to the outbreak of World War II toward the close of the decade.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Post-World War I Pacifism Because World War I had caused considerable toll on lives and brought enormous political, economic, and social troubles, a genuine desire for lasting peace prevailed in post-war Europe, and it was hoped that the last war would be “the war that ended all wars”.  By the mid-1920s, most European countries, especially in the West, had completed reconstruction and were on the road to prosperity, and pursued a policy of openness and collective security.  This pacifism led to the formation in January 1920 of the League of Nations (LN), an international organization which had membership of most of the countries existing at that time, including most major Western Powers (excluding the United States).  The League had the following aims: to maintain world peace through collective security, encourage general disarmament, and mediate and arbitrate disputes between member states.  In the pacifism of the 1920s, the League resolved a number of conflicts (and had some failures as well), and by mid-decade, the major powers sought the League as a forum to engage in diplomacy, arbitration, and disarmament.

In September 1926, Germany
ended its diplomatic near-isolation with its admittance to the League of Nations. 
This came about with the signing in December 1926 of the Locarno
Treaties (in Locarno, Switzerland),
which settled the common borders of Germany,
France, and Belgium.  These countries pledged not to attack each
other, with a guarantee made by Britain
and Italy
to come to the aid of a party that was attacked by the other.  Future disputes were to be resolved through
arbitration.  The Locarno Treaties also
dealt with Germany’s eastern
frontier with Poland and Czechoslovakia,
and although their common borders were not fixed, the parties agreed that
future disputes would be settled through arbitration.  The Treaties were seen as a high
point in international diplomacy, and ushered in a climate of peace
in Western Europe for the rest of the
1920s.  A popular optimism, called “the
spirit of Locarno”,
gave hope that all future disputes could be settled through peaceful means.

In June 1930, the last French troops withdrew from the Rhineland, ending the Allied occupation five years
earlier than the original fifteen-year schedule.  And in March 1935, the League of Nations
returned the Saar region to Germany
following a referendum where over 90% of Saar residents voted to be
reintegrated with Germany.

In August 1938, at the urging of the United States and France, the Kellogg-Briand
Pact  (officially titled “General Treaty
for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy”) was signed, which
encouraged all countries to renounce war and implement a pacifist foreign policy.  Within a year, 62 countries signed the Pact,
including Britain, Germany, Italy,
Japan, the Soviet Union, and
China.  In February 1929, the Soviet Union, a
signatory and keen advocate of the Pact, initiated a similar agreement, called
the Litvinov Protocol, with its Eastern European neighbors, which emphasized
the immediate implementation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact among themselves.  Pacifism in the interwar period also
manifested in the collective efforts by the major powers to limit their
weapons.  In February 1922, the five
naval powers: United States,
Britain, France, Italy,
and Japan
signed the Washington Naval Treaty, which restricted construction of the larger
classes of warships.  In April 1930,
these countries signed the London Naval Treaty, which modified a number of
clauses in the Washington
treaty but also regulated naval construction. 
A further attempt at naval regulation was made in March 1936, which was
signed only by the United States, Britain, and France, since by this time, the
previous other signatories, Italy and Japan, were pursuing expansionist
policies that required greater naval power.

An effort by the League of Nations and non-League member United States to achieve general disarmament in
the international community led to the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1932-1934,
attended by sixty countries.  The talks
bogged down from a number of issues, the most dominant relating to the
disagreement between Germany and France, with the Germans insisting on being
allowed weapons equality with the great powers (or that they disarm to the
level of the Treaty of Versailles, i.e. to Germany’s current military
strength), and the French resisting increased German power for fear of a
resurgent Germany and a repeat of World War I, which had caused heavy French
losses.  Germany,
now led by Adolf Hitler (starting in January 1933), pulled out of the World
Disarmament Conference, and in October 1933, withdrew from the League of Nations. 
The Geneva
disarmament conference thus ended in failure.

August 26, 1922 – Turkish War of Independence: The Turkish Army launches the “Great Offensive” to eject Greek forces from Western Anatolia

On August 26, 1922, the Turkish Army launched its long awaited
counter-attack against the Greek forces. Holding a 3:1 numerical and
considerable material advantage, the Turkish forces easily overpowered and
expelled the Greek Army from Anatolia. On
September 9, the Turkish Army reached the Aegean cost with the recapture of Smyrna (present-day Izmir).
On September 18, Erdek and Biga were taken, which ended the fighting. By then,
Greek forces had ceased to be an effective fighting unit, and demoralization and
dissension had forced a hasty, disorganized retreat. In the aftermath, the
Greeks withdrew from western Anatolia.

Partition of Anatolia as stipulated in the Treaty of Sevres.

The Greco-Turkish War formed one part of the Turkish War of
Independence.

(Taken from Turkish War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Rise of the Turkish Independence Movement
Under the armistice agreement, the Ottoman government was required to disarm
and demobilize its armed forces.  On
April 30, 1919, Mustafa Kemal, a general in the Ottoman Army, was appointed as
the Inspector-General of the Ottoman Ninth Army in Anatolia,
with the task of demobilizing the remaining forces in the interior.  Kemal was a nationalist who opposed the
Allied occupation, and upon arriving in Samsun
on May 19, 1919, he and other like-minded colleagues set up what became the
Turkish Nationalist Movement.

Contact was made with other nationalist politicians and
military officers, and alliances were formed with other nationalist
organizations in Anatolia.  Military units that were not yet demobilized,
as well as the various armed bands and militias, were instructed to resist the
occupation forces.  These various
nationalist groups ultimately would merge to form the nationalists’ “National
Army” in the coming war.  Weapons and
ammunitions were stockpiled, and those previously surrendered were secretly
taken back and turned over to the nationalists.

On June 21, 1919, Kemal issued the Amasya Circular, which
declared among other things, that the unity and independence of the Turkish
state were in danger, that the Ottoman government was incapable of defending
the country, and that a national effort was needed to secure the state’s
integrity.  As a result of this circular,
Turkish nationalists met twice: at the Erzerum Congress (July-August 1991) by
regional leaders of the eastern provinces, and at the Sivas Congress (September
1919) of nationalist leaders from across Anatolia.  Two important decisions emerged from these
meetings: the National Pact and the “Representative Committee”.

The National Pact set forth the guidelines for the Turkish
state, including what constituted the “homeland of the Turkish nation”, and
that the “country should be independent and free, all restrictions on
political, judicial, and financial developments will be removed”.  The “Representative Committee” was the
precursor of a quasi-government that ultimately took shape on May 3, 1920 as
the Turkish Provisional Government based in Ankara
(in central Anatolia), founded and led by
Kemal.

Kemal and his Representative Committee “government”
challenged the continued legitimacy of the national government, declaring that Constantinople was ruled by the Allied Powers from whom
the Sultan had to be liberated.  However,
the Sultan condemned Kemal and the nationalists, since both the latter effectively
had established a second government that was a rival to that in Constantinople.

In July 1919, Kemal received an order from the national
authorities to return to Constantinople.  Fearing for his safety, he remained in Ankara; consequently, he
ceased all official duties with the Ottoman Army.  The Ottoman government then laid down treason
charges against Kemal and other nationalist leaders; tried in absentia, he was
declared guilty on May 11, 1920 and sentenced to death.

Initially, British authorities played down the threat posed
by the Turkish nationalists.  Then when
the Ottoman parliament in Constantinople
declared its support for the nationalists’ National Pact and the integrity of
the Turkish state, the British violently closed down the legislature, an action
that inflicted many civilian casualties. 
The next month, the Sultan affirmed the dissolution of the Ottoman
parliament.

Many parliamentarians were arrested, but many others escaped
capture and fled to Ankara
to join the nationalists.  On April 23,
1920, a new parliament called the Grand National Assembly convened in Ankara, which elected
Kemal as its first president.

British authorities soon realized that the nationalist
movement threatened the Allied plans on the Ottoman Empire.  From civilian volunteers and units of the
Sultan’s Caliphate Army, the British organized a militia, which was tasked to
defeat the nationalist forces in Anatolia.  Clashes soon broke out, with the most intense
taking place in June 1920 in and around Izmit, where Ottoman and British forces
defeated the nationalists.  Defections
were widespread among the Sultan’s forces, however, forcing the British to
disband the militia.

The British then considered using their own troops, but
backed down knowing that the British public would oppose Britain being involved in another
war, especially one coming right after World War I.  The British soon found another ally to fight
the war against the nationalists – Greece.  On June 10, 1920, the Allies presented the
Treaty of Sevres to the Sultan.  The
treaty was signed by the Ottoman government but was not ratified, since war
already had broken out.

In the coming war, Kemal crucially gained the support of the
newly established Soviet Union, particularly in the Caucasus
where for centuries, the Russians and Ottomans had fought for domination.  This Soviet-Turkish alliance resulted from
both sides’ condemnation of the Allied intervention in their local affairs,
i.e. the British and French enforcing the Treaty of Sevres on the Ottoman Empire, and the Allies’ open support for
anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War.

August 25, 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Start of the 87-day Battle of Vukovar

On August 25, 1991, some 36,000 troops of the Yugoslav Army, aided by Serb paramilitaries, launched an attack against the lightly-armed 1,800 Croatian National Guard fighters in Vukovar in eastern Croatia. Supported by air, armored, and artillery units, the Yugoslav-Serb forces broke through on November 18, 1991 after an 87-day siege and offensive. Vukovar was subjected to intense shell and rocket bombardment and was completely destroyed. For the Yugoslav Army, the battle was won at great cost, with 1,100 killed and 2,500 wounded, and the loss of 110 tanks and armoured vehicles and 3 planes. Croatian casualties were 900 killed and 800 wounded. Some 1,100 civilians also perished.

In the aftermath, several hundred Croatian soldiers and
civilians were executed, and 20,000 residents comprising the non-Serb
population were expelled from the town. Vukovar was thereafter annexed into the
self-declared Republic
of Serbian Krajina.

Yugoslavia

(Taken from Croatian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background By the late 1980s, Yugoslavia was faced with a major political crisis, as separatist aspirations among its ethnic populations threatened to undermine the country’s integrity (see “Yugoslavia”, separate article).  Nationalism particularly was strong in Croatia and Slovenia, the two westernmost and wealthiest Yugoslav republics.  In January 1990, delegates from Slovenia and Croatia walked out from an assembly of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the country’s communist party, over disagreements with their Serbian counterparts regarding proposed reforms to the party and the central government.  Then in the first multi-party elections in Croatia held in April and May 1990, Franjo Tudjman became president after running a campaign that promised greater autonomy for Croatia and a reduced political union with Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Croatians, who comprised 78% of Croatia’s population, overwhelmingly supported
Tudjman, because they were concerned that Yugoslavia’s
national government gradually had fallen under the control of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest and most
powerful republic, and led by hard-line President Slobodan Milosevic.  In May 1990, a new Croatian Parliament was
formed and subsequently prepared a new constitution.  The constitution was subsequently passed in
December 1990.  Then in a referendum held
in May 1991 with Croatian Serbs refusing to participate, Croatians voted
overwhelmingly in support of independence. 
On June 25, 1991, Croatia,
together with Slovenia,
declared independence.

Croatian Serbs (ethnic Serbs who are native to Croatia) numbered nearly 600,000, or 12% of Croatia’s
total population, and formed the second largest ethnic group in the
republic.  As Croatia
increasingly drifted toward political separation from Yugoslavia, the Croatian Serbs
became alarmed at the thought that the new Croatian government would carry out
persecutions, even a genocidal pogrom against Serbs, just as the pro-Nazi
ultra-nationalist Croatian Ustashe government had done to the Serbs, Jews, and
Gypsies during World War II.  As a
result, Croatian Serbs began to militarize, with the formation of militias as
well as the arrival of armed groups from Serbia.

Croatian Serbs formed a population majority in south-west Croatia
(northern Dalmatian and Lika).  There, in
February 1990, they formed the Serb Democratic Party, which aimed for the
political and territorial integration of Serb-dominated lands in Croatia with Serbia
and Yugoslavia.  They declared that if Croatia wanted to secede from Yugoslavia, they, in turn, should be allowed to
separate from Croatia.  Serbs also interpreted the change in their
status in the new Croatian constitution as diminishing their civil rights.  In turn, the Croatian government opposed the
Croatian Serb secession and was determined to keep the republic’s territorial
integrity.

In July 1990, a Croatian Serb Assembly was formed that
called for Serbian sovereignty and autonomy. 
In December, Croatian Serbs established the SAO Krajina (SAO is the
acronym for Serbian Autonomous Oblast) as a separate government from Croatia in the regions of northern Dalmatia and Lika. 
Croatian Serbs formed a majority population in two other regions in Croatia, which they also transformed into
separate political administrations called SAO Western Slavonia, and SAO Eastern
Slavonia (officially SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western
Syrmia).  (Map 17 shows
locations in Croatia
where ethnic Serbs formed a majority population.) In a referendum held in
August 1990 in SAO Krajina, Croatian Serbs voted overwhelmingly (99.7%) for
Serbian “sovereignty and autonomy”.  Then
after a second referendum held in March 1991 where Croatian Serbs voted
unanimously (99.8%) to merge SAO Krajina with Serbia, the Krajina government
declared that “… SAO Krajina is a constitutive part of the unified state
territory of the Republic
of Serbia”.

August 24, 1941 – Hitler orders the discontinuation of the T4 euthanasia program for the mentally and physically ill

On August 24, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered the cessation of the T4 euthanasia program for the mentally and physically ill in response to protests in Germany led by the Bishop of Munster, Clemens von Galen. Pope Pius XII had earlier denounced the program, stating in December 1940 that it violated Divine Law and that the “killing of an innocent person because of mental or physical defects is not allowed”. Despite the official cessation in August 1941, the program continued to be performed until Germany’s defeat in 1945. Its implementation had begun in September 1939.

T4 (later given the name “Aktion T4” after the war) was Nazi Germany’s program of mass killing the severely mentally and physically ill people in psychiatric hospitals in Germany and occupied territories, Austria, Poland, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (present-day Czech Republic). The reasons for its implementation were eugenics, reduce suffering, racial purification, and cost savings for the government.

In the latter stages, patients were killed en masse with
cyanide poison in gas chambers.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Genocide and slave
labor Because of the failure of Operation Barbarossa and succeeding
campaigns, Germany
was unable to implement the planned mass-scale transfer of targeted populations
to the Russian interior.  Elimination of
the undesired populations began almost immediately following the outbreak of
war, with the conquest of Poland.  The killing of hundreds of thousands of
civilians occurred in hundreds of incidents of massacres and mass shootings in
towns and villages, reprisals against attacks on German troops, scorched earth
operations, civilians trapped in the cross-fire, concentration camps, etc.

By far, the most famous extermination program was the
Holocaust, where six million Jews, or 60% of the nine million pre-war European
Jewish population, were killed in the period 1941-1945.  German anti-Jewish policies began in the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at the
outbreak of war.  Jews were rounded up
and confined to guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains to
concentration and labor camps.  By
mid-1942, under the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews were
transported to extermination camps, where they were killed in gas
chambers.  Some 90% of Holocaust victims
were Jews.  Other similar exterminations
and repressions were carried out against ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles,
and other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), as well as communists and other political
enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself, a clandestine
program implemented by German public health authorities under Hitler’s orders,
killed tens of thousands of mentally and physically disabled patients,
purportedly under euthanasia (“mercy killing”) procedures, which actually
involved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses of medication,
and through starvation.

Some 12-15 million slave laborers, mostly civilians from
captured territories in Eastern Europe, were rounded up to work in Germany,
particularly in munitions factories and agriculture, to ease German labor
shortage caused by the millions of German men fighting in the various fronts
and also because Nazi policy discouraged German women from working in
industry.  Some 5.7 million Soviet POWs
also were used as slave labor.  As well,
two million French Army prisoners were sent to labor camps in Germany, mainly to prevent the formation of
organized resistance in France
and for them to serve as hostages to ensure continued compliance by the Vichy government.  Some 600,000 French civilians also were
conscripted or volunteered to work in German plants.  Living and working conditions for the slave
laborers were extremely dire, particularly for those from Eastern
Europe.  Some 60% (3.6
million of the 5.7 million) of Soviet POWs died in captivity from various
causes: summary executions, physical abuse, diseases, starvation diets, extreme
work, etc.

August 23, 1939 – Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact; World War II begins just over a week later

On August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the “Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”, where both sides agreed not attack the other or be alliance to or assist the enemy of either side. The treaty became known in the West as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, so named for the foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov of the Soviet Union and Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany.

The treaty included a secret protocol that delineated each side’s spheres of influence in the regions between them: Poland, Romania, the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Finland. The non-aggression treaty was made public, but the secret protocol became known only at the end of World War II from the German copy of the document found in Nazi archives. The treaty ended when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

The treaty allowed Germany
free rein to attack Poland
on September 1, 1939, launching what would unexpectedly become the global World
War II.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Background to the German Invasion of Poland Britain and France, which had pursued appeasement toward Hitler, had become wary after the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia, which had a non-ethnic German majority population, which was in contrast to what Hitler had said that he only wanted returned those German-populated territories.  Britain and France were now determined to resist Germany diplomatically and resolve the crisis through firm negotiations.  On March 31, 1939, Britain and France announced that they would “guarantee Polish independence” in case of foreign aggression.  Since 1921, as per the Franco-Polish Military Alliance, France had pledged military assistance to Poland if that latter was attacked.

In fact, Hitler’s intentions on Poland was not only the
return of lost German territories, but the elimination of the Polish state and
annexation of Poland as part of Lebensraum (“living space”), German expansion
into Eastern Europe and Russia. 
Lebensraum called for the eradication of the native populations in these
conquered areas.  For Poland specifically, on August 22,
1939 in the lead-up to the German invasion, Hitler had said that “the object of
the war is … to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of
Polish descent or language.  Only in this
way can we obtain the living space we need.” 
In April 1939, Hitler instructed the German military High Command to
begin preparations for an invasion of Poland, to be launched later in the
summer.  By May 1939, the German military
had drawn up the invasion plan.

In May 1939, Britain
and France held high-level
talks with the Soviet Union regarding forming a tripartite military alliance
against Germany, especially
in light of the possible German invasion of Poland.  These talks stalled, because Poland refused to allow Soviet forces into its
territory in case Germany
attacked.  Unbeknown to Britain and France,
the Soviet Union and Germany
were also conducting (secret) separate talks regarding bilateral political,
military, and economic concerns, which on August 23, 1939, led to the signing
of a non-aggression treaty.  This treaty,
which was broadcast to the world and widely known as the Molotov Ribbentrop
Pact (named after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop), brought a radical shift to the European power
balance, as Germany was now free to invade Poland without fear of Soviet
reprisal.  The pact also included a
secret protocol where Poland,
Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Romania
were divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

One day earlier, August 22, with the non-aggression treaty
virtually assured, Hitler set the invasion date of Poland for August 26, 1939.  On August 25, Hitler told the British
ambassador that Britain must
agree to the German demands on Poland,
as the non-aggression pact freed Germany from facing a two-front war
with major powers.  But on that same day,
Britain and Poland signed a mutual defense pact, which
contained a secret clause where the British promised military assistance if Poland was attacked by Germany.  This agreement, as well as British overtures
that Britain and Poland were willing to restart the stalled talks
with Germany,
forced Hitler to abort the invasion set for the next day.

August 22, 1910 – Japan incorporates Korea

On August 22, 1910, Japan
annexed Korea
with the signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. The annexation was the
culmination of Japan’s gradual
domination over Korea over
the years following a bilateral treaty in 1905 where Korea
became a protectorate of Japan,
and another treaty in 1907 where Korea
ceded administration of its internal affairs to Japan.

The 1910 annexation became effective on August 29, which included the first article: “His Majesty the Emperor of Korea makes the complete and permanent cession to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan of all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea”.  The Korean crown later denounced the treaty, saying it had been signed under duress.

The annexation came following Japan’s victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War for control of Korea and southern Manchuria.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century -Twenty Wars in Asia)

Aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War Despite its defeat, Russia continued to be regarded as a major European power.  Russia’s greatest loss was its prestige, as it had been humiliated by a tiny Asian nation, and one that had only recently modernized.  The Russian monarchy was weakened politically by the war and from the internal unrest in 1905, but survived twelve more years in power.  In March 1917, following another revolution amid the Russian defeats in ongoing World War I, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate the throne, and the Russian monarchy came to an end.

In Japan,
the immediate effect of the war was outrage and frustration by the Japanese
people, who believed that their nation had been deprived of greater benefits
from the war, particularly war reparation and more territory.  Protest demonstrations broke out in the
cities, which sometimes degenerated into violence and riots.  People were angry at their own government for
agreeing to the treaty, and also at U.S. President Roosevelt, whom they accused
of siding with the Russians during the negotiations.

However, for Japan,
the long-term effects of the war were much more favorable, as it became the
supreme power in East Asia, and its status as
an equal of the major European powers was strengthened.  In August 1910, Japan
abrogated Korea’s nominal
independence (long recognized by the major powers) and annexed Korea,
generating no response from the European powers.  Japan then continued to expand
militarily.

Japan’s
victory in the Russo-Japanese War also dashed the then prevailing notion that
Caucasians were military superior to Asians. 
Japan’s feat also
gave hope to the colonized peoples of Southeast Asia
(e.g. Vietnamese, Indonesians, Filipinos, etc) who were aspiring for
independence from their European and American colonial masters.

August 21, 1982 – 1982 Lebanon War: Multinational Forces (MNF) arrive in Beirut to enforce a ceasefire and oversee the withdrawal of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

(Taken from 1982 Lebanon War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

On August 18, 1982, after a seven-week siege of the Lebanese capital Beirut, Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to a ceasefire, which was made about through mediation efforts of U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib.  The ceasefire contained the following stipulations: an end to the war, departure of all foreign forces from Lebanon, and establishment of a Multinational Forces (MNF) to enforce the ceasefire.  On August 21, 1982, the MNF, which ultimately consisted of contingents of the armed forces of the United States, France, Italy, and Britain, arrived in Beirut.  With security protection provided by the MNF, over 6,000 PLO fighters left Beirut and transferred to Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Greece, and Tunisia. The operation was carried out over 15 days starting on August 27, with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat leaving on August 30 aboard a merchant ship bound for Tunisia.

The Israeli government put pressure on new Lebanese
president, Bachir Gemayel, to enter into a peace treaty with Israel.  President Gemayel refused, as the Lebanese
Civil War was still ongoing and the continued presence of the Syrian Army
threatened the local political and security climates.  On September 14, President Gemayel was
assassinated.  The next day, Israeli
forces occupied Muslim-dominated West Beirut,
and blocked off escape routes from the area. 
A Christian militia associated with the assassinated president entered
the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps (supposedly to arrest PLO fighters who
still remained in the city) and carried out widespread violence against the
residents.  Various estimates put the
number of casualties for the attacks at between 800 and 3,500 persons
killed.  In December 1982, the United
Nations General Assembly, voting 123 – 0 (with 22 abstentions and 12
non-voting), condemned the attacks, calling them “genocide”.

The massacre was denounced also in Israel.  A fact-finding investigation by the Israeli
government (called the Kahan Commission) determined that Israel’s Defense
Minister, the armed forces chief of staff, and Director of Military
Intelligence, were negligent in their duties to prevent the killings.  Because of foreign and local pressures,
Israeli forces withdrew from Beirut, and the
MNF, which had left Lebanon
on September 11, 1982 after the PLO withdrawal, returned to Beirut for peace-keeping duties.  Ultimately, however, the MNF would leave Lebanon permanently in March 1984 following bomb
attacks on the U.S. Embassy and on the American and French MNF barracks, all in
Beirut.

Israeli Occupation of
South Lebanon By the summer of 1983, Israel
continued to occupy central Lebanon.  In January 1985, Israel
withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon,
leaving a small force in South Lebanon to protect, together with Israel’s
Christian ally, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a narrow strip of land that the
Israelis called the “security zone”.  The
Israelis and SLA installed check points and outposts in strategic areas along
the security zone to cut off guerilla infiltration routes from South Lebanon
into northern Israel.

In 1985, a Palestinian armed group called Hezbollah was
formed in South Lebanon in opposition to the occupation and with the intent of
driving away the Israelis from Lebanon.  Hezbollah grew rapidly and filled the armed
void left by the PLO by attacking Israeli forces and their allies in South
Lebanon as well carrying out cross-border attacks in northern Israel.

In July 1993, a Hezbollah rocket attack in Israel and the killing of five Israeli soldiers
prompted Israel to launch a
major offensive in South Lebanon (called
Operation Accountability).  In a scorched-earth
campaign, the Israelis destroyed thousands of homes, turning some 300,000
Lebanese civilians into refugees.  Then
again in April 1996, in response to Hezbollah artillery attacks in northern Israel, Israeli forces launched air strikes and
artillery bombardment (Operation Grapes of Wrath) on Hezbollah targets in South Lebanon.

After 15 years, Lebanon’s civil war ended with the
Lebanese government’s implementation of the Taif Agreement.  Local public opinion mounted in Israel against the continued occupation of South Lebanon.  In
May 2000, Israel withdrew
its forces from South Lebanon in compliance
with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 425.  As a result, Hezbollah gained full control of
South Lebanon and continued to launch attacks on Israel.

After the civil war, Lebanon began the task of
rebuilding its devastated economic and social infrastructures.  Local and international pressures mounted
against the continued military and political control of Syria on Lebanon’s internal affairs.  Then in April 2005, in compliance with UNSC
Resolution 1559, Syria
withdrew its forces from Lebanon.