New Survey Shows Most Britons Unaware of African Conflicts
多数英国人不知伊战阿战以外之战

　
A new survey by the British Red Cross finds most Britons are unaware of major conflicts in the world, besides Iraq and Afghanistan where the British military is engaged. Less than one percent of those surveyed identified the major African conflict zones of Sudan or Somalia.

英国红十字会进行的一项新的调查发现，大部分英国人除了知道英国部队参与的伊拉克和阿富汗战争以外，他们不知道世界上其他的重大冲突。在接受调查的人当中，不到1%的人知道苏丹或索马里等非洲的主要冲突地区。

When asked earlier this month by the ICM polling company, about 2,000 Britons could easily name Iraq and Afghanistan as two countries experiencing conflict, but after that it got much tougher.

当英国ICM民调公司在这个月早些时候提出问题的时候，大约2千名英国人可以轻易地指出伊拉克和阿富汗这两个正在发生冲突的国家，但是在回答其他问题的时候就显得很困难了。

Nearly 20 percent could not name five other countries currently feeling the effects of conflict.

将近20%受访者说不出其他五个目前正在经历冲突的国家。

Charles Antoine-Hofmann is with the British Red Cross, the humanitarian agency that commissioned the survey.

安托万霍夫曼是英国红十字会这个人道机构的成员，这次调查是英国红十字会委托进行的。

"That is quite a striking finding as such for us because obviously there are a large number of conflicts around the world, which are not really spoken about, which are experiencing really serious situations when it comes to civilians being affected by conflict from both direct and indirect consequences," he said.

他说：“对我们而言，这是很惊人的调查结果，因为很明显世界上有许多冲突， 虽然不是经常提到。但是，从平民受到的直接或间接影响来看，这些冲突的情况是很严重的。”

According to the International Rescue Committee, more people have died for instance in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the past decade than anywhere else in the world. The aid agency estimates that 5.4 million people have died from war-related hunger and disease since war first broke out there in 1998.

根据国际救援委员会，过去十年在刚果民主共和国因为冲突而丧生的人比世界上任何其他地方都多。 这个救援机构估计，自1998年战争首度爆发以来，已有5百40万人死与战争相关的疾病和饥饿。

Despite this, Antoine-Hoffman says awareness in Britain is extremely low.

尽管如此，安托万霍夫曼说，在英国了解这些情况的人非常少。

"There is certainly enough evidence to show us that this is probably one of the most deadly conflicts in the world and certainly more than Afghanistan and Iraq," he noted. "That is not to minimize the brutality and seriousness of these places of course, but I think the Democratic Republic of Congo is a striking example, and there are other examples as well."

他说：“ 肯定有足够的证据能告诉我们，这可能是世界上死伤最惨重的冲突之一，而且一定超过阿富汗和伊拉克。这当然不是在贬低这些冲突的残暴和严重性，但是我认为刚果民主共和国是个显著的例子，而且还有其他例子。”

As Antoine-Hoffman says, the survey is part of a new British Red Cross campaign to raise awareness about all conflict zones and the brutal impact they are having on ordinary people.

安托万霍夫曼表示，这次调查是英国红十字会为了提高人们对所有这些冲突区域的了解而开展的一次新的运动，同时也让人们意识到这些冲突对一般人产生的残酷影响。

"Obviously the whole point is not to put any blame on the public for not knowing about these places," he said. "It is a much broader and difficult problem in terms of the role of the media in talking about these situations and also us, that is part of our exercise actually when we are launching today the Civilians in Conflict month. It is really about raising awareness on these situations in these different countries and also on the effects of conflict on civilian populations."

他说：“很明显，调查的整个重点不是责怪公众对这些地方一无所知。从媒体谈论这些情况和谈论我们所扮演的角色来看，它其实是个更广泛且更困难的问题。我们发动这一活动的真正目的是在于提高人们对不同国家冲突情况的了解，以及冲突对一般人的影响。”

Although the survey looked at just British views on conflict, Antoine-Hoffman suspects the same kinds of findings would probably occur elsewhere in the developed world.

虽然这次调查是要看看英国人对冲突的看法，但是，安托万霍夫曼认为，其他发达国家可能也会出现相同的结果。