Peace is breaking out around the world: report

Catholic New Times, Sept 26, 2004

International peace researchers report that worldwide conflict is on the decline, as are the number of casualties.

Their research shows that the number of people killed in battle has fallen to 20,000 per year, the lowest number in the post-Second World War period.

Although death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan have thrust war into the global spotlight, annual reports from think-tanks such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Canadian NGO "Project Ploughshares", cite a drop from the peak numbers of armed conflicts witnessed in the 1990s.

According to the Stockholm Institute, which measures the number of conflicts that produce greater than 1,000 deaths in a year, 19 major wars were in progress in 2003 compared to 33 in 1991.

Three wars ended in 2003 (Angola, Rwanda and Somalia), and a fourth in India's Assam state was downgraded from the 'major' category. There were three new wars added in 2003 Iraq, the Darfur region of Sudan and Liberia.