Afghanistan

Early in the month, the Americans launched Operation Avalanche, a major sweep against the Taliban in the eastern and southern parts of the country. About 2,000 US troops plus Afghan forces took part (Reuters).

2 DECEMBER 2003

Venezuela

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez announced that their recent campaign collected 3.6 million signatures supporting a referendum on Chavez's rule, which would exceed the 2.4 million -- 20% of registered voters -- required under the constitution. The National Electoral Council now must verify the validity of the signatures and decide whether a vote will be held in March or April 2004. The government accused the opposition of fraud but said it would respect the decision of the Council (Reuters).

5 DECEMBER 2003

Russia

An apparent suicide bombing of a commuter train near Chechnya killed at least 40 people and injured over 150. The Chechen rebels denied involvement (Reuters).

7 DECEMBER 2003

Russia, politics

General elections were held. United Russia won 37.1% of the vote, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) won 12.7%, Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) won 11.6%, and Motherland won 9.1%. The US and the OSCE expressed concern that United Russia had unfair access to state resources during the campaign (Reuters).

Diplomatic affairs

Zimbabwe said it was leaving the Commonwealth. A recent summit of the group had decided to extend Zimbabwe's suspension over its government's activities against the political opposition (Reuters).

Philippines

The government said its security forces had captured Ghalib Andang, a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, on Jolo (Reuters).

8 DECEMBER 2003

Greece

Fifteen members of the November 17 terrorist group were convicted of a range of crimes including murder. Mastermind Alexandros Giotopoulos faced multiple life sentences for involvement in 19 murders. Dimitris Koufodinas, the main hitman, was found guilty of nine murders. Giotopoulos and Koufodinas were later sentenced to life imprisonment (Reuters).

9 DECEMBER 2003

Diplomatic affairs

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, while on a visit to the US, met President Bush in Washington. They discussed Taiwan, trade and other issues. Bush said, "We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo, and the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose" (Reuters).

Russia

A suicide bombing in Moscow killed six (Reuters).

11 DECEMBER 2003

United States, military research

The fifth test was conducted in efforts to develop a sea-based ABM system. A Standard Missile-3 SAM fired from the cruiser Lake Erie off Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands successfully intercepted a dummy warhead outside the atmosphere during its descent (Reuters).

Haiti

Thousands of students and others demonstrated in Port-au-Prince against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Reuters).

12 DECEMBER 2003

Canada, politics

Prime Minister Jean Chretien resigned and Paul Martin was sworn in as his replacement (www.rulers.org).

14 DECEMBER 2003

Iraq

US forces captured Saddam Hussein near Tikrit. President Bush said, "The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq. We still face terrorists who would rather go on killing the innocent than accept the rise of liberty in the heart of the Middle East. Such men are a direct threat to the American people, and they will be defeated" (Reuters).

Turkey, Cyprus

Elections were held for the 50-seat assembly. The result was evenly split between parties favoring and opposing the UN's plan for reunifying the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus (Reuters).

Pakistan

A bomb exploded near President Pervez Musharraf's motorcade near Rawalpindi. He was not hurt (Reuters).

14 DECEMBER 2003-4 JANUARY 2004

Afghanistan

A Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) was held to draft a new constitution. It calls for a strong president; there is no mention of Sharia law (Reuters).

18 DECEMBER 2003

Pakistan, foreign policy

President Pervez Musharraf offered to drop Pakistan's long-standing demand to implement UN resolutions calling for India and Pakistan to withdraw their troops from Kashmir and for Kashmiris to vote to stay with India or join Pakistan.1

Diplomatic affairs

Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (Reuters).

Israel

Prime Minister Sharon said work would speed up on the barrier through the West Bank being constructed to prevent infiltration of Palestinian militants into Israel. He said Israel was committed to the US-backed 'road map' but would give the Palestinians only months to "uproot terrorist groups" before taking unilateral steps to ensure its security. These steps would involve shifting settlers and soldiers away from Palestinian population centers. "Obviously, through the disengagement plan, the Palestinians will receive much less than they would have received through direct negotiations as set out in the road map", he said. Sharon said anything Israel did would be in close coordination with the US, and that Israel would keep its commitments under the 'road map' (Reuters).

19 DECEMBER 2003

Libya, military affairs

Libya said it would abandon its WMD programs and allow unconditional inspections. It revealed that it had given US and British officials access to its research in preceeding months. It appeared at the time that Libya had an ambitious nuclear weapons development program in violation of its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to US and British officials, it had some chemical weapons stocks, but there was no direct evidence of any biological weapons programs.2

Libya's decision demonstrated a desire to improve relations with the US and western Europe. It also led to discoveries about a nuclear arms supply network apparently run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Khan. Khan later confessed to selling nuclear materials to North Korea, Iran and Libya, though many think he could not have done so without the cooperation of many in the Pakistani political and military leadership.

In March 2004 US officials revealed details of the Libyan program. They said the Libyans first met Khan in Istanbul in the late 1990s. The Khan network was soon providing a variety of goods and services, from centrifuges to on-site training, and eventually became the principal supplier of technology, equipment and know-how. Libya was apparently in the early stages of producing weapon-grade fissile material, and could have eventually produced enough for several nuclear weapons per year.

The Khan network stretched across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. According to IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei, it was a "supermarket" for countries wanting nuclear weapons. US officials said there are other nuclear suppliers as well.3

Iraq

A bomb destroyed the Baghdad office of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) (Reuters).

22 DECEMBER 2003

Iraq

Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum said restarting the pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean coast was part of a plan to raise exports to two million BPD in the first quarter of 2004, compared with the current 1.6 million BPD through the south. The northern pipeline carried 800,000 BPD before the US invasion.4

Israel

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was attacked by a crowd of Palestinians in a Jerusalem mosque after a meeting with Prime Minister Sharon (Reuters).

25 DECEMBER 2003

Israel

An airstrike killed Meqled Hmaid, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, in Gaza. The same day a suicide bombing by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) killed four people near Tel Aviv (Reuters).

Pakistan

Suicide bombers used two cars to attack President Pervez Musharraf's motorcade in Rawalpindi. Musharraf was not hurt (Reuters).

26 DECEMBER 2003

Iran

A major earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck in Kerman province in the southeast. The city of Bam in particular was devastated. Over 30,000 people were killed and 90 percent of Bam's buildings were destroyed (Reuters).

27 DECEMBER 2003

Iraq

There were suicide attacks on occupying forces in Kerbala (Reuters).

28 DECEMBER 2003

Serbia and Montenegro, politics

Parliamentary elections were held for the Republic of Serbia's 250-seat National Assembly. The Serbian Radical Party (SRS) won 82 seats, up from 23 seats. When combined with the 22 seats of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS, former president Slobodan Milosevic's party), the anti-reform parties now have over 100 seats. Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Democratic Party (DS) won 53 and 37 seats respectively. The new G-17 Plus won 34 seats. The Serbian Renewal Movement and New Serbia (SPO-NS) pro-monarchy alliance led by Vuk Draskovic and Velemir Ilic won 22 seats, up from eight (IFES, Reuters).

Guatemala, politics

In the runoff for the presidential election, Oscar Berger defeated Alvaro Colom 54.1% to 45.9%. Berger promised to pursue prosecution of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, improve security and promote investment (Reuters).

31 DECEMBER 2003

Iraq

A car bomb killed five Iraqis in Baghdad (Reuters).

Notes

1. Sheikh Mushtaq, "Some Kashmiris Relieved, Others Upset at Pakistan Move", Reuters, 19 December 2003.

2. Tabassum Zakaria, "Secret U.S. Trips to Libya Led to Weapons Pledge", Reuters (www.reuters.com), 20 December 2003.

3. Adam Entous, "Libya Paid Pakistani $100 Million in Nuclear Deals -- US", Reuters (www.reuters.com), 15 March 2004.

4. Nadim Ladki, "Two U.S. Soldiers and Iraqi Killed Amid Economic Push ", Reuters (www.reuters.com), 22 December 2003.