Word: tribalized
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...crises in the Persian Gulf area. The threat to the U.S. is not so clear cut as a Soviet invasion of the oilfields. Hardly anyone expects that. Instead, the U.S. faces the same kind of challenges in Southwest Asia that have frustrated Washington for several years: local revolts, radicalism, tribal rivalries, religious extremism and instability bordering on anarchy. The oilfields of the Persian Gulf are in jeopardy not so much because of Soviet tanks in Afghanistan as because of local outbreaks like the dissident Arab invasion of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Iranian militants' seizure...
When the bullets run out, he will return to Peshawar to scrape up some more. Men like Janeb Gul are driven by a profound spirit of tribal vengeance that is almost as old as the Hindu Kush. Unfortunately, that same spirit has also kept the rebels from working well together. Liberation fronts and organizations for Afghan unity dissolve as quickly as they are formed. Intertribal conflicts are equally intense. One rebel leader is notorious for eliminating rivals by sending them on deadly undercover missions to Kabul. Complains the Pakistani director of the Commission for Afghan Refugees: "Everyone claims...
Pakistan will also need aid to cope with the unending tide of refugees crossing the mountain passes from Afghanistan. There are now about 450,000 refugees in the Northwest Frontier province alone, many of whom are being sheltered by their tribal cousins in the area, but the countrywide total is expected to reach 1 million by April. This huge population of uprooted peoples represents a threat both to the Soviets and to Zia. The bitterly anti-Communist refugees have no love for the new regime in Kabul; the Pushtun tribesmen in the province have long chafed under Islamabad...
Much of the increase is simply the result of the rise in population, but Anglican Barrett reckons that two-fifths of the total are converts. He sees "a grassroots turning away from local tribal religions to a universal religion." Besides Christianity, of course, there is a second universal religion in Africa-Islam-and Barrett figures its continent-wide increase at 4,784,000 people a year, of whom 6% are converts from other faiths. All of the church groups are prospering, he reports: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, "African Independent" and heterodox sects like the Jehovah's Witnesses...
Another uncertainty within the Patriotic Front was the apparent inability of the two key figures, Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, to agree on a political alliance for waging the electoral campaign. The pragmatic Nkomo, who represents the minority Ndebele tribal groups, is seeking total unity among the guerrilla factions. The left-leaning Mugabe, backed by the far more numerous Shona, sees a chance of winning outright a parliamentary majority and is reluctant to commit himself to any power-sharing scheme. In fact some observers believe this very issue caused a recent falling out between Mugabe and Tongogara, who had been...