STOCKHOLM, June 13: Africa and Asia were home to two-thirds of the world’s 24 major armed conflicts in 2001, cementing a 12-year trend since the end of the Cold War, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Thursday.

The only new conflict registered in the world last year was that between the United States and the al-Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks, which SIPRI described as “the most dramatic conflict developments of 2001”.

The attacks claimed more than 3,000 lives “in a matter of hours and changed the foreign policy agenda of the United States, the world’s leading actor.”

The total number of major armed conflicts around the world in 2001 was slightly lower than in 2000, when there were 25 major armed conflicts.

The war in Sierra Leone and the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia were the only conflicts in 2000 not on the list in 2001.

Major armed conflicts are defined as “a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory over which the use of armed force between the military forces of two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, has resulted in at least 1,000 battle-related deaths in any single year.”

There were a total of seven such conflicts in Africa last year, nine in Asia, three in the Americas, one in Europe and four in the Middle East.

SIPRI noted that eight of the 15 most deadly conflicts in 2001 had lasted eight or more years.

“One of the reasons for their endurance is the inability of either side to prevail by force. In the vast majority of these conflicts, rebels used a guerrilla military strategy,” it said.

They supported their military effort through the sale of minerals, timber and narcotics and through remittances from supporters abroad.

SIPRI said governments had trouble winning guerrilla wars militarily.

“It is difficult to use the military’s full strength against small and mobile opponents, and even a military victory does not solve the problem that led to the insurgency,” it said.

However, the institute noted, very few groups tried to win the loyalty of the population through political, economic or social programmes — which historically have been important elements of successful insurgencies.

While the general pattern of conflict worldwide in 2001 was consistent with previous years, the priorities of many states changed as a result of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

“The campaign against terrorism by the United States and its allies in the latter part of the year directly influenced a small number of conflicts and had a much wider indirect impact, the full effects of which remain to be seen,” SIPRI said.—AFP