| UNGOMAP was established in
May 1988 to assist in ensuring the
implementation of the Agreements on the
Settlement of the Situation Relating to
Afghanistan and in this context to investigate
and report possible violations of any of the
provisions of the Agreements. |
 |
The United Nations
Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP)
was established on 15 May 1988 in accordance with the
letter dated 25 April 1988 from the President of the
Security Council addressed to the Secretary-General,
with the purpose to assist the Personal Representative
of the Secretary-General to lend his good offices to the
parties in ensuring the implementation of the Agreements
on the Settlement of the Situation Relating to
Afghanistan (the Geneva Accords) and in this context to
investigate and report possible violations of any of the
provisions of the Agreements.
The mandate of UNGOMAP was derived
from the Accords and included the monitoring of (1)
non-interference and non-intervention by the parties in
each other's affairs; (2) the withdrawal of Soviet
troops from Afghanistan; and (3) the voluntary return of
refugees. Having fulfilled its tasks, UNGOMAP ceased
operations on 15 March 1990.
On 27 December 1979,
Soviet forces entered Afghanistan, in response to a
reported request from the Afghan Government for
assistance against insurgent movements. More than
100,000 Soviet troops were eventually deployed; they
soon became embroiled in a protracted conflict with the
factions of the Afghan resistance, or mujahideen.
Security Council
debate of the issue in January 1980 failed to produce a
resolution. In order to circumvent the deadlock, the
matter was referred, under the "A Uniting for Peace"
procedure (as provided for in General Assembly
resolution 377 (V) of 3 November 1950), to an emergency
session of the General Assembly, which, by resolution
ES-6/2 of 14 January 1980, strongly deplored the armed
intervention and called for the immediate, unconditional
and total withdrawal of the foreign troops from
Afghanistan.
On 11 February 1981,
Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim appointed Mr. Javier
Pérez de Cuéllar, then Under-Secretary-General for
Special Political Affairs, as his Personal
Representative on the Situation Relating to Afghanistan.
In visits to the region in April and August 1981, the
Under-Secretary-General held extensive discussions with
the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to determine
the substantive issues to be negotiated in resolving the
conflict. The acceptance by the parties of his suggested
four-point agenda started the negotiating process which
ultimately produced the Geneva Accords.
Geneva negotiations
Upon his assumption of
the post of Secretary-General in January 1982, Mr. Pérez
de Cuéllar designated Mr. Diego Cordovez, who had
succeeded him as Under-Secretary-General for Special
Political Affairs, as his Personal Representative.
Beginning in June 1982 and over the next six years, Mr.
Cordovez acted as intermediary in a series of indirect
negotiations between the Governments of Afghanistan and
Pakistan in Geneva and in the area .
The conclusion of the
Geneva Accords was finally expedited by a growing desire
on the part of the Soviet Government to withdraw its
forces from Afghanistan. In February 1988, the Soviet
Union announced that it would start repatriating its
troops in May. The last round of talks ended on 8 April
1988 when Under-Secretary-General Cordovez announced
that all the instruments comprising the settlement had
been finalized and were open for signature.
Geneva Accords
The Accords, known
formally as the Agreements on the Settlement of the
Situation Relating to Afghanistan, consisted of four
instruments: a bilateral agreement between the Republic
of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on
the principles of mutual relations, in particular on
non-interference and non-intervention; a declaration on
international guarantees, signed by the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics and the United States of America; a
bilateral agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan on
the voluntary return of refugees; and an agreement on
the interrelationships for the settlement of the
situation relating to Afghanistan, signed by Afghanistan
and Pakistan and witnessed by the Soviet Union and the
United States.
This last instrument
contained provisions for the timetable and modalities of
the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. It
also provided for arrangements to assist the parties to
ensure the smooth and faithful implementation of the
provisions of the instruments of the Accords and to
consider alleged violations. The Secretary-General was
asked to appoint a Representative to lend his good
offices to the parties. The Representative would be
assisted in his tasks by a support staff, organized as
the United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan
and Pakistan (UNGOMAP), which would investigate and
report on any possible violations of the instruments.
The mandate of UNGOMAP was derived from the instruments
and, accordingly, comprised the monitoring of
non-interference and non-intervention by the parties in
each other's affairs; the withdrawal of Soviet troops
from Afghanistan; and the voluntary return of refugees.
UNGOMAP's operations
in the field would be directed by a senior military
officer designated as Deputy to the Representative.
UNGOMAP would be organized into two small headquarters
units, one in Kabul and the other in Islamabad, which
would each consist of five military officers and a small
civilian component.
There was also
provision for the deployment of up to 40 additional
military officers Awhenever considered necessary by the
Representative of the Secretary-General or his Deputy.
These military officers would be organized into
inspection teams to ascertain on the ground any
violations of the instruments comprising the settlement.
They would all be temporarily redeployed from existing
United Nations peacekeeping operations.
UNGOMAP DEPLOYED
Establishment
The Accords were
signed by the four countries in Geneva on 14 April 1988.
On the same day, the Secretary-General informed the
Security Council of the role requested of him in their
implementation. He stated his intention to dispatch 50
military observers to the area, subject to the
concurrence of the Council.
On 22 April, he
submitted a second letter with the texts of the Accords.
On 25 April, the President of the Council informed the
Secretary-General by letter of the Council's provisional
agreement to the proposed arrangements. Formal
consideration and decision were deferred until later. On
31 October 1988, in resolution 622 (1988), the Security
Council confirmed its agreement to the measures
envisaged in the letters.
The Secretary-General
immediately initiated the creation of UNGOMAP. He
retained Mr. Cordovez as his Representative and
appointed Major-General Rauli Helminen (Finland) as
Deputy to the Representative (Major-General Helminen was
succeeded by Colonel Heikki Happonen (Finland) in May
1989). Fifty military officers were temporarily seconded
from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization,
the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force and the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Ten countries
contributed to the mission: Austria, Canada, Denmark,
Fiji, Finland, Ghana, Ireland, Nepal, Poland and Sweden.
The first elements of
an advance party arrived in the Mission area on 25 April
1988. The two headquarters units in Kabul and Islamabad,
with the combined total complement of 50 military
officers, were operational well in advance of 15 May,
when the instruments entered into force.
Monitoring of
withdrawal
The strength of the
Soviet forces stationed in Afghanistan on 14 May 1988
was declared to be 100,300, all ranks, about two thirds
of whom were combat troops. They had already handed over
some positions to the armed forces of Afghanistan, but
still controlled 18 main garrisons. Soviet forces were
present in 17 of the 30 provinces of Afghanistan. At the
outset of its operations, UNGOMAP received from military
representatives of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan
detailed information on the plan and schedule for the
withdrawal of the Soviet troops.
This included a map
indicating the location of the main garrisons, the
routes to be used by the troops as they left
Afghanistan, and the crossing points on the
Afghan-Soviet border which they would use, namely the
towns of Hayratan and Torghundi. Starting on 14 May,
UNGOMAP met regularly with the Afghan and Soviet
military representatives. At these meetings, the Mission
received information on the ongoing withdrawal as well
as on any changes made to the original schedule.
UNGOMAP established
three permanent outposts on the Afghanistan side: at the
border points of Hayratan and Torghundi, and at the
Shindand air base which was used for withdrawal by air.
Each was normally manned by two officers whose task was
to monitor the withdrawal of the Soviet troops.
UNGOMAP's operations
also entailed visiting garrisons during or immediately
after the departure of Soviet forces. In areas where
uncertain security conditions prevented the presence of
United Nations observers at the garrisons, the numbers
of troops departing were recorded either at the airports
of Kabul, Kunduz and Shindand or at the border-crossing
points.
First phase
On 15 August 1988, the
Soviet military representatives informed UNGOMAP that 10
main garrisons had been evacuated and handed over to the
Afghan armed forces; 8 main garrisons remained under
Soviet control. The latter were located in Kabul, to the
north of Kabul and in north-west Afghanistan.
In accordance with the
stipulations of the fourth instrument of the Geneva
Accords, slightly over 50 per cent of the Soviet troops
had been withdrawn three months after the entry into
force of the Accords. A total of 50,183 Soviet troops
had been repatriated by land and air. Numbers of
fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and vehicles had also
been withdrawn.
Second phase
UNGOMAP had been
informed, on 14 May 1988, that the completion of the
first phase of the withdrawal in August would be
followed by a three-month pause. This would facilitate
preparations for the second phase of the withdrawal,
which was to be completed by 15 February 1989. Shortly
before the withdrawal was due to resume, however, the
Soviet representatives announced that it was being
postponed in the light of prevailing conditions. They
reaffirmed that it would be completed in accordance with
the Geneva Accords. Between 15 August 1988 and 1 January
1989, UNGOMAP did not observe any significant withdrawal
of Soviet troops.
On 25 January 1989,
the Soviet military representatives informed UNGOMAP of
the manner in which the final withdrawal of troops would
be completed. Over a short period of days in the first
half of February, troops would be repatriated both by
air and by road in grouped convoys. This duly took
place. On 14 February, an UNGOMAP team visited the
remaining main garrison in Tashqurghan and confirmed
that it had been evacuated on 12 February.
Despite some delays in
prior notification of the withdrawal and the need
occasionally to limit UNGOMAP's movement for security
reasons, the mission concluded that the withdrawal of
Soviet troops had been completed in compliance with the
fourth instrument of the Geneva Accords. After the
completion of the withdrawal, UNGOMAP closed its three
outposts at Hayratan and Torghundi and at the Shindand
air base.
Monitoring of
non-interference and non-intervention
Numerous complaints of
alleged violations of the first instrument, on
non-interference and non-intervention, were submitted to
UNGOMAP from the outset of its mission by both parties.
Complaints submitted by Afghanistan included allegations
of political activities and propaganda hostile to the
Government of Afghanistan taking place in Pakistan,
border crossings of men and matériel from Pakistan to
Afghanistan, cross-border firings, acts of sabotage,
rocket attacks on major urban centres, violations of
Afghan airspace by Pakistan aircraft, the continued
presence in Pakistan of training camps and arms depots
for Afghan opposition groups, and direct involvement by
Pakistan military personnel inside Afghanistan, as well
as restrictions placed on refugees who wished to return
to Afghanistan. Complaints lodged by Pakistan included
allegations of political activities and propaganda
hostile to the Government of Pakistan, bombings and
violations of its airspace by Afghan aircraft, acts of
sabotage and cross-border firings, including the use of
SCUD missiles against Pakistan territory.
Despite the
constraints often encountered in the course of its
operations, UNGOMAP made every effort to investigate
complaints lodged by the two parties and it submitted
regular reports to them. However, a number of
difficulties unavoidably hampered the effectiveness of
the work of UNGOMAP's inspection teams. These included
the rough nature of the terrain, the time which lapsed
before many of the alleged incidents were reported, and
the security conditions prevailing in the area of
operation.
Two outposts were
established on the Pakistan side in November 1988 - one
in Peshawar and one in Quetta - to enhance UNGOMAP's
capacity to carry out its investigations promptly. In
April 1989, it further strengthened its presence on the
Pakistan side of the border by setting up permanent
presences at Torkham, Teri Mangal and Chaman.
Voluntary return of
refugees
UNGOMAP maintained
close cooperation with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and it stood ready to
discharge its task under the third instrument, the
Agreement on the Voluntary Return of Refugees. In
particular, it was ready to monitor the situation inside
Afghanistan and inform UNHCR of the safety conditions
necessary for the return and resettlement of refugees.
Up to 5 million refugees were estimated to be living in
Pakistan and Iran. However, fighting in Afghanistan
continued, conditions remained unstable and only a
limited number of refugees returned to Afghanistan.
TERMINATION OF
UNGOMAP
The Memorandum of
Understanding, annexed to the fourth instrument of the
Geneva Accords, provided that UNGOMAP's operation would
cease two months after the completion of all the
time-frames envisaged for the implementation of the
instruments. The longest explicit time-frame contained
in the instruments was the 18 months provided in the
third instrument for the arrangements to assist the
voluntary return of refugees. The implementation of this
instrument did not begin - as Pakistan noted in November
1989 - and the first instrument had an implicit
time-frame, so the duration of UNGOMAP's mandate
envisaged in the Accords, i.e., 20 months from May 1988,
became a matter of interpretation. Accordingly, on 9
January 1990, 20 months after May 1988, the
Secretary-General, having consulted the parties and
having obtained the concurrence of the countries
contributing UNGOMAP's military personnel, sought the
consent of the Security Council to an extension of
UNGOMAP's mandate, indicating that more needed to be
done for the implementation of the Geneva Accords. Two
days later, the Council adopted resolution 647 (1990)
extending the existing arrangements for two months.
In March 1990, the
Secretary-General again held consultations with the
signatories of the Geneva Accords but was unable to
obtain the consensus necessary for a further extension
of UNGOMAP's mandate. Consequently, and in view of the
mandate he had been given under General Assembly
resolution 44/15 of 1 November 1989 to encourage and
facilitate the early realization of a comprehensive
political settlement in Afghanistan, he informed the
Security Council that he intended to redeploy 10
military officers as military advisers to his Personal
Representative in Afghanistan and Pakistan to assist in
the further implementation of his responsibilities under
the Assembly's resolution. [The post of Personal
Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan
and Pakistan was first established in May 1989 and was
held at that time by Assistant Secretary-General Benon
Sevan.]
UNGOMAP's mandate
formally ended on 15 March 1990.
Source -
United Nations |
