Afghanistan, Culture

On the 1st, the Taliban regime began destroying statues around the country that bore human likenesses of divinity, including two famous statues of Buddha, 38 meters and 53 meters tall, at Bamiyan. There was sharp and widespread international condemnation of the decision. The Bamiyan statues were reportedly destroyed by the 12th (Reuters).

Israel

Forty people died in the Palestinian uprising this month (Reuters).

1 MARCH 2001

Israel

A car bomb killed one person near Umm al-Fahm (Reuters).

4 MARCH 2001

Israel

A Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and three Israelis in Netanya (Reuters).

7 MARCH 2001

Israel, Politics

Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Prime Minister. He leads a coalition of seven parties. Labor member Shimon Peres is Foreign Minister. Sharon said the government's first priority was to ensure security. He also said he would pursue resolution of conflicts with the Palestinians and Syrians (Reuters).

Diplomatic Affairs

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met US President Bush in Washington (Reuters).

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Politics

Wolfgang Petritsch, the international High Representative overseeing implementation of the Dayton treaty, removed Ante Jelavic from the three-person inter-ethnic Presidency of the country. Jelavic is leader of the main Bosnian Croat nationalist party, the HDZ (Reuters).

8 MARCH 2001

Italy, Politics

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi dissolved parliament (Reuters).

9 MARCH 2001

Israel, West Bank

About 15,000 Palestinians demonstrated against Israel in Tulkarm (Reuters).

Ukraine

There was a violent protest against President Leonid Kuchma by several thousand people in Kiev (Reuters).

10 MARCH 2001

Colombia

Paramilitaries murdered seven civilians in Yolombo (Reuters).

12 MARCH 2001

Uganda, Politics

A presidential election was held. President Yoweri Museveni defeated challenger Kizza Besigye with 69.3% of the vote to Besigye's 27.8%, according to the country's Electoral Commission. There were reports of widespread voting irregularities (Reuters).

Diplomatic Affairs

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. They discussed military sales to Iran and economic cooperation (Reuters).

Macedonia

Army forces claimed to have retaken Tanusevci, on the border with Kosovo, from ethnic-Albanian rebels (Reuters).

15-16 MARCH 2001

Middle East

A Russian airliner, a Tu-154 with over 150 passengers flying from Istanbul to Moscow, was highjacked and forced to fly to Medina, Saudi Arabia. There, the highjackers demanded that Russia end its military campaign in Chechnya. On the 16th, Saudi commandos stormed the plane. One highjacker and two hostages died; the remaining highjackers were arrested (Reuters).

17 MARCH 2001

Italy

There was a violent protest by several thousand people in Naples against a meeting of the Global Forum, a conference of political, finance and technology leaders who had gathered to discuss the role of the Internet in government (Reuters).

19 MARCH 2001

Diplomatic Affairs

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori met US President George W. Bush in Washington (Reuters).

20 MARCH 2001

Diplomatic Affairs

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met US President Bush in Washington. They discussed the Palestinian uprising (Reuters).

24 MARCH 2001

Russia

Twenty people were killed by a car bomb in Mineralnye Vody, in southern Russia (Reuters).

25-26 MARCH 2001

Asia & The Pacific, Diplomatic Affairs

Japanese Prime Minister Mori met Russian President Putin in Irkutsk, Russia (Reuters).

28 MARCH 2001

Israel

A suicide bomber killed himself and two Israeli teenagers at a bus stop in central Israel near the West Bank. The Hamas group claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israelis then conducted attack helicopter raids on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat's Force-17 security force. Targets included Force-17's Ramallah, West Bank headquarters and installations in Gaza (Reuters).

30 MARCH 2001

Yugoslavia, Civil Affairs

Former president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested and charged with diverting over $100 million in state customs funds to his Socialist Party while in power. He later denied the charges. Milosevic suggested that the charges referred to expenditures that did not appear in the state budget because they were used for funding pro-Serbian rebels in Bosnia and Croatia, as well as for funding sensitive state security organizations (Reuters).