Subscribe? Become a Patron!
No end to bombings, violence and strife throughout the world, this February 15, 1998.
Thirteen explosions rocked a southern India town yesterday killing at least 32 people and injuring 120 shortly before a Hindu nationalist leader was to address an election rally police said The bombings sparked clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs and police were ordered to shoot to kill the rioters in Coimbatore 2400 kilometres south of New Delhi said police Commissioner Nanjil Kumaran No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts but authorities suspected a radical Muslim group If the attacks were election-related they would be the worst outbreak of violence in what has been so far an unusually peaceful campaign for parliament in India The explosions occurred over 90 minutes at a busy market two restaurants a bakery and a private residence Three of the blasts were car bombs said police.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan began a campaign to end the crisis over UN weapons inspections, calling his peace mission a “sacred duty”. Events outside Iraq added to the urgency. Washington advised the families of U.S. diplomats to leave neighbouring Kuwait and Israel and sent 750 more troops to Kuwait to bolster that country’s defence. Annan said he was “reasonably optimistic” he could pull the Persian Gulf back from the brink of war. “I hope I will leave Baghdad with a package acceptable to all,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, greeting Annan at Saddam International Airport in an olive-green uniform, said he shared Annan’s optimism. He said they would have “constructive discussion.” Annan’s mission, expected to last two or three days, is seen as a last effort to resolve the four-month crisis over UN inspections of sites, Iraq considers sensitive, such as President Saddam Hussein’s presidential compounds. Washington has threatened to attack should diplomacy fail to open the sites to inspectors who are checking to see if Iraq has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.
And the ouster of a military junta in Sierra Leone by a Nigerian-led peacekeeping force demonstrates that Africans can take care of problems on their own without intervention from outside the continent, analysts said Tuesday. Although the mission was accomplished last week with force and not diplomacy, its supporters say the goal of the military campaign was honorable and rare: to restore, not to overthrow, an elected African government But skeptics are still wary of the role of Nigeria Africa’s most populous nation, with more than 100 million people in the peacekeeping operation. They ask if what Nigeria really wants is to occupy tiny, cash-strapped Sierra Leone and pillage its remaining resources, chiefly its diamonds. There is also concern that Nigeria might get bogged down in the West African nation as it struggles to restore law and order and disarm remnants of rebel factions reportedly scattered throughout the country.
And that’s a small slice of what happened elsewhere in the world, this February 15, 1998 as reported by The BBC World Service Newshour.
