Chapter 2 deals with the issue of conflict and violence, which is by far the biggest cause of displacement throughout the world. This chapter focuses largely on maps, asking the students to identify war zones throughout the world that they may be familiar with. Therefore, this lesson would be ideally suited to a Geography class. The final section of the chapter also asks the students to look at the international pages of a newspaper and to locate an article dealing with a war zone, and then to analyse that conflict.

The students are presented with a map of the world and asked to work in small groups to identify as many war zones as they are familiar with. The teacher can use the map provided or any atlas or map that may be available to the students – the bigger and more detailed the map the better.
Allow the students ten minutes to discuss the topic in small groups and then ask each group to reveal their findings to the rest of the class. A brief discussion may then follow on one or two conflict zones that the class wish to discuss in more detail.

Below is some information on ten major current or recent conflict zones in the world.

Sudan – In neighbouring Sudan, Africa's longest-running civil war has pitted the Muslim north against Christians and animists in the south, leaving some two million people dead. However, after years of negotiations the Sudan government and rebels have finalised a deal to try to end the fighting. Apart from an 11-year period from 1972-1983, Sudan has been at war continuously since independence in 1956. In 1983, the government dominated by northern Arabs tried to impose Islamic Sharia law across Sudan, even in areas where the majority is not Muslim. This exacerbated a rebellion that had begun in the south, which is inhabited by black African Christians and those who practise traditional religions.

Darfur Region of Western Sudan - The world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, is currently unfolding in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Some one million people have fled their homes and at least 10,000 people have been killed. More than 100,000 refugees have sought safety in neighbouring Chad. Pro-government Arab militias are accused of ethnic cleansing and even genocide against the region's black African population. The conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, claiming that the region was being neglected by Khartoum. The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs. Historically, there has long been tension between the two communities over land and grazing rights.

Liberia – Liberia is a nation that has experienced a number of civil wars over the last decade. The most recent, in 2003, pitted two rebel groups against the government of Charles Taylor, who was forced to flee the country. A large UN force is currently keeping the peace in what is a transition period from war to peace and the rule of law. The country however, is still far from stable with a large amount of guns and other weapons still controlled by the former rebels and government supporters. The conflict destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and led to the displacement of over one million people (from a population of less than 3.5 million). On top of this figure are hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled to neighbouring countries, many of whom have yet to return.

Burundi – The killing of Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Michael Courtney, in December 2003, was a serious blow to hopes of peace in Burundi, a country that has experienced a decade of civil war. However, the recent signing of a peace agreement between the largest Hutu armed group, CNDD-FDD, and the government has provided hope that the conflict may be coming to an end. Despite peace agreements, the country has remained highly unstable and crippled by violence. Nearly 300,000 Burundians remain displaced within their own country, housed in over 200 sites, with a further 300,000 Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries, the vast majority of whom are located in Tanzania.

Democratic Republic of Congo – As in neighbouring Burundi, recent peace efforts have given hope that civil war may be coming to an end. The most recent conflict in the DRC dates back to 1998 when a rebel uprising, backed by Ugandan and Rwandan troops, sparked the beginning of five years of intense warfare. Many other neighbouring countries entered the conflict, either in support of or against the Kinshasa government, depending on where their own national interest lay. The vast mineral wealth of the DRC ensured that many countries became involved with their own economic and political interests in mind. Five years of conflict left over two million people dead and countless numbers of individuals displaced. Peace agreements have meant that all foreign armies have withdrawn from DRC and that a power sharing government has been put in place. However, several parts of the country are still plagued by conflict and violence and an uprising in the Eastern city of Bukavu in June 2004 revealed how divided and unstable the country still is.

Latin America
Colombia - Colombia has suffered greatly from the effects of over 40 years of civil conflict. Following the failure of a peace deal between the Colombian government and the main armed opposition group, FARC, violence has intensified throughout the country and the population has been left open to increasingly serious abuses at the hands of the various armed groups. Forced displacement in Colombia is alarming: neighbouring countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama have all been receiving an increased number of refugees over the past year or two and many more Colombians are becoming displaced within their own country. The very harsh military response to the rebels on the part of the Colombian government has only added to the suffering of the civilian population. With a near total lack of human rights protection in many parts of the country, it is estimated that as many as two million people could be displaced as a result of the conflict.

Asia
Aceh – Indonesia – The Indonesian army stepped up its military operations against the separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in May 2003, declaring Martial Law and embarking on a large-scale military operation, following the breakdown of peace negotiations between the two sides. As a result of the conflict well over 100,000 people became displaced, taking refuge in North Sumatra. The period of Martial Law came to an end in May 2004, easing the military restrictions somewhat, though the conflict is not yet over. This was the latest episode in a conflict that has been on-going at different levels of intensity since the 1970s and at least 10,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the decades-long conflict. Persistent abuses of civilians by troops and police have alienated much of the local population.

Sri Lanka – The people of Sri Lanka, who have experienced the effects of a brutal war for two decades, are now living in a state of neither peace nor war. Over two years since a cease-fire was announced in the long-running civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan army, as many as 400,000 people remain displaced within the country. The peace, established in February 2002, has brought many positive results to a country that has been devastated by conflict, with greater freedom of movement for citizens as well as increased levels of economic growth. However, the reluctance of so many people to return to their homes, several violations of the cease-fire and a breakdown in peace negotiations all remain serious causes for concern. One of the main challenges now facing the country is the rebuilding of schools and other education infrastructure.

Middle East
Afghanistan - The Afghan people have endured tremendous suffering through nearly three decades of war. Throughout the 1980s Islamic factions waged a guerilla war against the communist dictatorship that had been in place since 1978. However, it was only in 1990 that the Islamic Holy Warriors (mujahideen) actually expelled the communist dictatorship and put the country into the hands of warlords (despite a central government being established). Civil war persisted through the early 1990s and in 1996 the Taliban movement seized power of the country. The country became a theocratic dictatorship.

In 2001 a popular uprising followed the US led invasion and the dictatorship fell. Afghanistan got a transition governement and in 2004 a new constitution was accepted, paving the way for nationwide presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in june 2004. Despite these steps towards stability, the government's power was of litte consequence outside of Kabul, with warlords still powerful. Reports in 2007 stated that the Taliban have an increasing presence in the country, with the number of rebel attack up 300 percent 0n 2006. These decades of violence have seen tens of thousands of Afghans perish, with many millions more forced to flee the country.

Iraq  - The human cost of the invasion of Iraq by US and British forces, in order 'to disarm Iraq of WMDs, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people', can only be guessed at. Generous conservative estimates count about 30,000 casualties, although a more accurate figure would be 100,000 and upwards. Somewhere in the region of 4.2 million Iraqis have lost their homes since 2003, roughly 16% of the population, with 2.2 million of these people forced to flee the country.

The fallout from the US invasion has left the internal security of the country in a frgile condition. Commentators state the nation is in a constant state of civil war, with tensions between Sunni and Shi'a factions heightened. Up to 5 million children have been orphaned and the rebuilding process is likely to take generations. Rumblings of a fix coming from a new US administration are optimistic at best and western solutions may not work in this Middle Eastern society.

Europe
The Balkans – A series of very violent and destructive wars in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s resulted in a loss of life not experienced in Europe since the second World War. Statistics released by UNHCR in 2003 drew attention to the still massive amount of refugees and displaced people living in Southeast Europe, or the former Yugoslavia. Though the conflict in the former Yugoslavia has now come to an end and media attention has long since passed on to other areas of the world, there are still over one million people who remain displaced in the region. The statistics revealed that over 600,000 displaced people lived within Serbia and Montenegro, having fled their homes in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo during the series of conflicts that engulfed the region over the past decade. The figure for refugees and displaced people living in Bosnia and Herzegovina is 386,210; in Croatia, 23,520; and in Macedonia, 8,690.
Source – JRS Archives

Activities
The above information is designed to assist the teacher in answering questions that the students may have on various conflicts throughout the world.
When completing the final exercise of the chapter, the students might want to choose their own article or the teacher could choose and allocate articles of his/her choice to the students, using the above information to help explain the conflict to the students.

Younger students may instead be given a map with the conflicts already identified (as shown in Chapter 2), which they can use to see if they can name the countries in which they are taking place.