[Mohoender]

On January 1, Austria, Finland and Sweden join EU while Germany’s government accepts to back the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft (Sudeten German Homeland Association) in its claim toward the Czech Republic. This claim, relatively moderate, calls for the complete revocation of the Beneš decrees which established the expulsion of Germans from Czekoslovakia after the war. Neverhteless, it slows down the adhesion process of the newly established Czech Republic to the EU and brings up worries among the Czech population. In the Balkan, the war contunue to heat up and reach a turning point when the Serbs occupy the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and kill around 8,000 men. Soon after, the Croatian forces launch “Operation Storm” and take over the Serb Krajina in Croatia, giving the initiative to the Bosniak-Croat alliance. Their forces even come to threaten the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka with direct ground attack. At last, on December 14, the Dayton Peace Agreement is signed in Paris and the conflict is brought to its end. Croatia is recognized by Serbia while the Republka Srpska is recognized as one of two main political-territorial divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the Middle-East, a most striking event takes place in Iraq. In January, the CIA manages to negociate a truce between Kurdish factions and makes contact with Iraqi officers planning an assassination of Saddam Hussein. Plans are made to link this assassination to a Kurdish offensive toward Northern Iraq. This is carried out in early March and Saddam is effectively killed with tank fire while the Kurdish forces make a swift move over Northern Iraq. Moving fast, the Kurds destroy three Iraqi Army divisions and capture 5,000 prisoners over only a few days. However, this isn’t fast enough and the power vacuum created by Saddam’s assassination allows for an all-out uprising by Shiites under leadership of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. Backed by Iran, its partisans make quick gains, securing the south and its oil fields as well as most of Baghdad. When December comes, the country is in a civil war opposing the Kurds and the Sunni to the Shiite. Meanwhile, on November 4, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

As most of the world’s attention is drawn toward the Balkan and the Middle-East, another major event takes place in Asia, it is known as the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis. It starts when Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui makes a speach, at Cornell, arguing in favor of Taiwan Independence. The PRC is furious with that declaration and launches several military exercises off the coast of Taiwan. These continue all year long up into 1996.

In Africa, the UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia ends in March and the country enters a period of chaos. In Algeria, the civil war that has started in 1991 becomes bloodier everyday. To the south, hope for peace vanishes when the governments of Mali and Niger fail to reach a peace agreement with the Tuareg Rebellion leading the way to a revived insurgency. Fighting has also increased in Angola where the conflict progressively spread to neighbouring countries bringing instability to the entire region. The situation also worsen in South Africa where ethnic unrest has kept growing since the revival of Apartheid. It turns to open violence but, as the West officialy condemn the repression, several government secretly back Hartzenberg’s government.

In Latin America, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) proves capable of resisting several offensives by government forces and a fair portion of Chiapas still escapes central control. Then, in the Andes a short conflict takes place between Ecuador and Peru: the Cenepa War. The conflicts ends after only a month but peace talks prove extremely difficult.