1. In the description of the mass murders of Christians in Nigeria's Benue and Taraba states, the word "Muslims" is carefully avoided, but the Nigerian Army committing them is mainly Muslim, while the Tiv tribe and other victims mentioned are designated as Christians — both Catholic and Protestant. In previous issues we mentioned how Muslims were killing Christians in the northern Kano province — probably causing even more casualties and damage. Obasanjo, himself a Christian, will lose the support of his co-religionists if he cannot give them security. But he appears to have no stomach for creating a Christian armed force to save them and also seems afraid to appeal to the United States for help — an appeal Washington would do well to heed. (See Nigeria section).

2. The so-called Saudi Arabian initiative for an Arab-Israeli settlement came when (a) the United States was seriously concerned about Saudi connections with Islamic terrorism and its financing; (b) the Palestinian Al-Aqsa intifada was defeated, discredited and desperate. It may prove the correctness of Ariel Sharon's modus operandi but offers Israel very little. "Normalization" sounds good, but... Israel has a peace treaty with Egypt requiring it, yet anyone in Egypt promoting normalization is persecuted by the authorities and in Egyptian schoolbooks Israel does not exist on the map. The Saudi version is unlikely to prove better. On the other hand, withdrawal to the 1967 lines after Arab aggression was defeated twice — in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 — is unthinkable security-wise, quite besides encouraging terrorism by creating the impression that the intifada defeated Israel. The time has come for the Arabs to pay the territorial price for losing wars they started like everyone else does. The time has also come for them to start paying for saddling the world with a Palestinian refugee problem for 54 years instead of resettling the refugees, as they could easily have done. The Saudi proposals should be discussed with Israel's Prime Minister, who has learnt from the bitter experience of the Oslo agreements that giving territory in exchange for promises and "obligations" that can be revoked or ignored whenever convenient brings terrorism - not peace. Trying to bypass Ariel Sharon will not produce a settlement — but it might force Israel into another election.

3. See Kazakhstan section for oil and gas pipelines planned in Central Asia.