Mountain conflict

The Afghan Hindukush region has, over the years, played host to renegades Islamic and otherwise. So recent reports of Al Qaeda training camps being re-activated in eastern Afghanistan and unruly warlords refusing to surrender power and arms to Karzai's government may come as no surprise. What is perhaps more surprising is the possibility that Afghanistan's predicament reflects a growing global phenomenon of conflict in mountainous areas.

Historically, the relationship between mountains and human conflict runs deep. Yet according to 'Mountain Watch', a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, this traditional bond has strengthened further in the last 50 years with serious violent conflict now almost twice as likely to occur at high altitude.