DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Wars, Refugees and Arms Agreements

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Wars, Refugees and Arms Agreements
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, September 13, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report.

Researchers have hopeful news for the international community. A new study shows that fewer wars were reported around the world last year. A second study reports that last year's agreements for non-nuclear weapons sales dropped in value. And a third study reports the number of people seeking asylum¹ decreased during the first half of this year.

We begin in Sweden. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has recorded major decreases in armed conflict worldwide. The non-governmental organization counted nineteen major armed conflicts during two thousand three. A record thirty-three wars were reported for nineteen ninety-one. That was after the Soviet² Union fell apart.

The Stockholm study says three new wars started last year. The United States led a coalition³ to invade Iraq, and two new conflicts started in Africa. One was in Liberia. The other was in the Darfur area of Sudan. The Swedish organization said wars already in progress included the separatist conflict in the Russian republic of Chechnya, and the continuing conflicts in the Middle East and Indian Kashmir.

The second study measured the value of weapons transfer agreements in two thousand three. The Congressional Research Service of the United States Library of Congress said world arms sales last year dropped to about twenty-five thousand million dollars. The agency says this was the third straight year that world arms agreements decreased in value.

The report also says the United States continues to be the world's largest arms seller. The United States made agreements valued at fourteen and one-half thousand million dollars. That is almost fifty-seven percent of all weapons agreements worldwide. Russia made arms-transfer deals worth about four and one-half thousand million dollars. The agreements were about seventeen percent of total arms sales for the year.

Finally, the United Nations reported the average number of people seeking asylum in more than twenty-four industrial nations for six months. The Office of the High Commissioner⁴ for Refugees said the monthly average for the first half of this year was the lowest since nineteen eighty-seven. France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Austria provided asylum for many refugees during that period.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Gwen Outen.

1 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

4 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。