From Bosnia to Rwanda, ethnic wars have turned savage in recent years. And they've sparked a crisis of conscience in Western countries. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what happens when Red Cross workers, diplomats and other do-gooders intervene in an ethnic war?

Political analyst Michael Ignatieff is the author of The Warrier's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience. He tells Judith Strasser that there's a new sort of moral intervention now; that humanitarian aid should not replace diplomatic or military efforts; and that sometimes such aid actually prolongs the agony.

Photographer Susan Meiselas tells Steve Paulson about the Kurds - a Middle Eastern people whose nation disappeared when national borders were redrawn after the first world war and who are now persecuted in all of their "new" countries. Meiselas has compiled a book called Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History which documents the vanished Kurdish state and Kurdish culture and traditions. Susan Meiselas also has a web site at http://www.akaKURDISTAN.com. Also, Jamal Badawi, founder of the Islamic Information Foundation, teaches Islamic Studies at St. Mary's University in Halifax. He tells Steve Paulson that Islam has much in common with Judaism and Christianity and that acts of terrorism committed by what the West calls "Islamic Fundamentalists" have nothing to do with the religion based on the Koran.

Thomas Dyja talks with Jim Fleming about his novel Play for A Kingdom, in which Northern and Southern soldiers about to fight the battle of "The Wilderness" in northern Virginia in 1864, "pick nines" and engage in a series of baseball games.

Distribution dates:

• week of 03/15/98 - hour 1