Human Costs in Wars of the 1990s

Death tolls or estimates in a sampling of conflicts fought in the 1990s, starting with the most costly in civilian and military casualties:

AFGHANISTAN: 2 million, 1979-1992. Soviet-backed coup put pro-Moscow regime in power, backed by more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers. Rebel groups drove Soviets out and seized power, turning against each other. Civil war continues between Taliban militia and alliance of opposition forces.

SUDAN: 1.5 million, 1983-99. Rebels from the Christian and animist south have been fighting for autonomy from the Arab and Muslim north in a conflict marked by famine.

RWANDA: 500,000-800,000, 1994: A 90-day slaughter of Tutsis or moderate Hutus by soldiers, militia and others under the influence of the Hutu government, finally put down by Tutsi-led rebels.

BOSNIA: 250,000, 1991-95: Military conflict and civilian massacres following the breakup of Yugoslavia, settled with a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

GUATEMALA: 200,000, 1960-96: Civil war ended with peace agreement between leftist rebels and the government.

LIBERIA: 150,000, 1989-97: Civil war sparked by rebellion to oust ethnic dictatorship. Democratic government installed, but sporadic armed clashes have followed.

BURUNDI: 150,000-250,000: 1993-99: Tutsis and Hutus have been fighting since the 1993 assassination by Tutsis of the first democratically elected president - a Hutu - and a coup in 1996 that brought a Tutsi government to power.

ALGERIA: 75,000, 1992-98: An insurgency touched off when the army cancelled elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win. Algeria is getting its first civilian chief of state since 1965, but the election brought charges of fraud.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Unknown, 1998-99: A continuing border war, one of Africa's worst conflicts, with each country claiming to have killed thousands of soldiers on the other side, but no reliable estimates.

COLOMBIA: 1,200 civilians, 1998: Thousands die yearly in violence perpetrated by drug traffickers, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitary squads and wayward army soldiers in a decades-long struggle. The country's ombudsman says civilian massacres rose 16 percent last year, to 1,200, and more than 300,000 people were displaced by violence.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS: 125,000, 1948-1997: The private Center for Defense Information's count since the establishment of Israel as a modern state.

CHECHNYA: 18,000-100,000, 1994-96: Fighting between Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels, ending with Chechnya running its own affairs but no country recognizing its independence claim.

SRI LANKA: 57,000, 1983-99: Tamil rebels have been fighting the government for an independent homeland in the small island nation.

TURKEY: 37,000, 1984-99: Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, using guerrilla bases in northern Iraq.

SIERRA LEONE: 14,000, 1992-99: Continuing war between the Revolutionary United Front and the government, with the rebels backed by an ousted military junta and the government by a Nigerian-led intervention force.

ARGENTINA: 9,000-30,000, 1976-93: Death squads tortured and killed political opponents in the "dirty war" sparked by a military coup.

PERSIAN GULF WAR: 4,500-45,000, 1991: Widely disputed even now, the estimated civilian death toll from allied bombing has been put as low as 2,500 by US officials and as high as 35,000 by Iraq. Estimates of Iraqi military deaths also vary widely, starting at about 1,500. US officials say 147 Americans died in action during Desert Storm; 289 more died in accidents before and during the war and related Gulf operations since.

NORTHERN IRELAND: 3,250, 1968-1998: Street clashes between Catholic protesters and Protestant police, leading in 1970 to the start of bombings and shootings by the IRA and then random killings by Protestant groups.

SPAIN: 800, 1961-99: Basque separatists declared a truce six months ago in their armed campaign for independence, although it has come under strain following a police crackdown.

Sources: AP, State Department, Center for Defense Information, CIA, World Almanac. Compiled by Calvin Woodward, Associated Press writer.