For the west, Kosovo was the biggest trauma, once again, a single defiant leader --- in this case Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic --- was able to create havoc and orchestrate oppression in the face of widespread foreign condemnation.

As with Kosovo, the international community initially groped for a response to rampages in East Timor by pro-Indonesian militias enraged by a vote for independence. By the time an Australian-led peacekeeping force was approved and deployed, hundreds of thousands of people had fled their homes.

But, in Chechnya, throngs of civilians were displaced by intensive Russian attacks ostensibly armed at Islamic rebels. Western leaders decried the bombardments and pushed to provide humanitarian aid, but in this crisis there was no serious talk of a foreign intervention force. The only reason is that Russia’s nuclear missile system could threat most of western democratic country.

Kathleen Newland, an expert on refugees with the Carnegies endowment for International peace, said nations and relief agencies were becoming increasingly skillful with the logistical responses to far flung crisis. But the political aspects of humanitarian intervention remains complex.

Two intrepid travelers embarking from the Swiss Alps were blessed by good luck. Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones became the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around world nonstop.

“Below us it wasn’t paradise. Below us there were wars, suffering of all sorts, and we had to ask why we had the right to be so happy,” Picard said afterwards, “There is plenty of room on this earth to realize a more harmonious destiny.”

Terrorism remains a major threat in the new century, but many of the fears of Islamic fundamentalism are overblown. The vast majority of the world’s 1 billion Muslim are not extremists, and even the extremists are too badly split for a worldwide movement.

The doctrinal disputes within Islam, which have already led to political crises in Iran, Algeria and elsewhere, won’t end any time soon, even so, the pace of modernization will keep fundamentalism alive and potentially dangerous.

--- by Jonathan Alter.

In Asia, everybody want U.N.’s help, but Indonesia would not allow its top generals to be tried in an international war crimes tribunal now being considered by the United Nations, President Abdurrahuman Wahid said (Dec. 22, 1999). Wahid described the issue a matter of “national sovereignty”. “I am not trying to protect anybody, we have to respect our courts,” he added.

However, if the human rights over nationalism, there have many troubles in “Asian country” because of internal affairs was interfering.