Harvard Model United Nations 2019

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Harvard Model United Nations 2019 Historical Security Council, 1979 Update Paper Soviet Incursion into Afghanistan (1979) Relevant context for the eventual 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan

1 Harvard Model United Nations 2019 Historical Security Council, 1979 Update Paper Soviet Incursion into Afghanistan (1979) Relevant context for the eventual 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan extends as far back as the late 19th century. In the midst of a period of diplomatic strife between Great Britain and the Russian Empire over the Middle East, the two superpowers began to dispute the northern border of Afghanistan which separated it from Turkmenistan; incidentally, Turkmenistan had recently fallen under Russian control. The Russians hoped to push the boundary as far south as possible in order to expand their territorial holdings; the British, on the other hand, feared that Russia was making preparations for a possible expansion into India. In 1885, tensions boiled over into conflict, as Russian forces seized disputed territory at Panjdeh despite opposition from the Afghan military. Britain and Russia only just avoided full-on war as a result of the Panjdeh incident, opting instead for peaceful negotiations, but this event would not mark the last time Russian involvement in Afghanistan would provoke hostility from foreign powers. With the turn of the century came two world wars, which generally kept Russia preoccupied for most of the early 1900s. However, Russian interests in Afghanistan never exactly ceased throughout this time. Afghanistan remained neutral throughout the first world war, but in the years immediately following the end of that conflict it took advantage of a weakened British Empire to gain its full independence in the Third Anglo-Afghan War ( ). In 1926 Amir Amanullah Khan proclaimed himself king of Afghanistan and began the implementation of several controversial, modernizing policies; ultimately, the new king was forced to abdicate the country by his opponents in Khan was eventually succeeded in 1933 by Mohammed Zahir Shah, who would go on to rule for forty years of relative political stability. In 1953, Mohammed Daud Khan, a pro-soviet general in the Afghan military and a cousin of the king, became Prime Minister and instituted a number of educational and social reforms. He also made moves to strengthen Afghanistan s relationship with the Soviet Union, while also taking precaution not to upset the United States and thereby lose their economic aid. In general, Daud Khan took a centrist approach to international relations during his years in power ( ); he sought to create a more cooperative relationship with the Soviets without burning bridges between Afghanistan and the US and UK. Additionally, his support for Pashtun nationalism, which can be loosely defined as the right of the Pashtun people to Pashtun lands in Pakistan and Afghanistan,

2 2 Update Paper, Historical Security Council, 1979 created a rift between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fallout from this disagreement led to Daud Khan s resignation as Prime Minister in 1963 and sparked lasting tensions between the two neighboring countries marked the clandestine formation of the People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which would become Afghanistan s foremost Marxist party. Its primary leaders in its early stages were Babrak Karmal and Nur Mohammad Taraki. Soon after its inception, the party split into two rival factions: the Khalq party, which was more radical and consisted primarily of lower-class Afghans, and the Parcham party, which was somewhat more moderate and consisted of more middle and upper class Afghans. Radical groups were not only coming together on the far left of the political spectrum, either; in the 1960s and early 1970s many conservative Muslims sought organizations that could oppose some of the liberal tendencies of the current Afghan government. In 1972, a number of informal Islamic groups came together to form Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan (the Islamic Society of Afghanistan). The group sought to structure Afghan society according to its own somewhat radical interpretation of Islamic law. Growing discontent in the early 1970s with the Afghan government and its king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, came to a head in 1973 when a military coup under the leadership of former Prime Minister Daud Khan overthrew the monarchy and proclaimed Afghanistan a republic. The Afghan army had received significant aid from the Soviet Union, who supplied most of its arms, and so the new military-led government came into power with significant ties to the Soviets. This new regime, under the leadership of Daud Khan, instituted a number of modernizing economic and social reforms which, although fairly well received by the population at large, sparked intense discontent among more radical groups on both the right and the left. Hardcore communist leaders of the PDPA critiqued the new government for failing to enact a truly Marxist social and economic system, while conservative Islamists pushed back vehemently against the liberal reforms which did not align with their religious beliefs, particularly surrounding the issue of women s rights. In 1978 the Khalq and Parcham factions of the PDPA united in revolt against Daud Khan s government, assassinating the president and installing Nur Mohammed Taraki, a founder of the communist party, in his place. The new communist government, due mostly to its leftist ideology, was even more beholden to the Soviet Union than the last. It didn t take long for Taraki s government to meet fierce domestic opposition of its own, for a number of important reasons. First and foremost, the government s communist principles did not at all align with the Islamic beliefs of most of the Afghan population; this disconnect garnered it little support from the Afghan people and even led to the formation of militant radical Islamist groups who would oppose the government by force. Second, old divisions between Khalq and Parcham factions began to reemerge, leading to a violent split within the PDPA which was accompanied by a purge of domestic opposition by Taraki and his Khalq leadership. Islamist guerilla groups began cropping up in Afghanistan before the PDPA even came into power, but once the communist party won control of the government the presence of the Islamic insurgency only grew. These antigovernment guerilla groups were collectively known as the mujahideen. The government struggled to effectively fight off these groups due in large part to the fact that the governments of Pakistan and the United States were supporting the mujahideen. Pakistan still harbored resentment toward the Afghan

3 Harvard Model United Nations government over the aforementioned issue of Pashtun nationalism; the United States, on the other hand, feared the expansion of Soviet influence and the spread of communism that the new Afghan government represented. The PDPA-led Afghan government could only really counter the foreign aid to the mujahideen in one way: by reaching out for aid of their own to the Soviet Union. While the Soviets had already been supporting the Afghan government before 1978, in December of that year the relationship took a step forward with a so-called friendship treaty between the two countries. This treaty represented an agreement on behalf of the Soviet government to provide economic and military support to Afghanistan. At the beginning of the year 1979, tensions in Afghanistan are running high on both a domestic and international scale. The PDPA government under Taraki remains in power, although Islamist insurgent groups still exist throughout the country with foreign backing. The Soviet Union and the United States both feel that protecting their ideological and economic interests in the region is important, and both can be expected to continue supplying aid to opposing sides of the conflict in Afghanistan. Given that Russia has promised military support specifically to the Afghan government, it would not be a surprise to see them become even more directly involved on behalf of the PDPA in Afghanistan. The Guatemalan Civil War Key facts about Guatemala in January 1979: Current president: General Fernando Romeo Lucas García, Institutional Democratic Party Population: million GDP per capita: US$ 2472 GDP growth rate: 4.7% per year Summary: The Guatemalan Civil War is a conflict fought between the military government of Guatemala and leftist rebel groups which began in It consisted of a series of military coups d état, featuring fraudulent elections in which only military personnel were the winner candidates. There was widespread violence against indigenous people, suspected government opponents, refugees, academics, students, leftleaning politicians, trade unionists, religious workers, journalists, and the poor. What s Happening: Since 1944, Guatemala had been increasingly moving towards a more leftist government, with policies that benefited the urban working class and the peasants: they were politically strengthened, the communist party was legalized and, most notably, in 1952, under democraticallyelected president Jacobo Arbenz, a decree passed ordering the redistribution of fallow land on large estates, including that of the powerful United Fruit Company (UFCO). Because of these moves, Arbenz was seen as a communist threat by the CIA and they decided to get involved against him. Called Operation PBFORTUNE, the CIA backed Guatemalan Army Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas to lead an insurrection against Arbenz. In 1954, the coup successfully deposed Arbenz and Castillo was declared president. Castillo soon set about reversing land reforms that benefited poor farmers and removed voting rights for illiterate Guatemalans. He banned labor unions and left-wing political parties and returned all the confiscated land to the United Fruit and the elite landlords. In 1958, Castillo was murdered and General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes assumed power. On 13

4 4 Update Paper, Historical Security Council, 1979 November 1960, outraged by the corruption and incompetence of those running the country, as well as opposing the approval of the US using Guatemala to prepare for the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba with no consultation from the rest of the military, a group of left-wing junior military officers led a revolt against Ydigoras government. This was violently cracked down by the government, but the survivors formed the MR-13, which went on to become an important source of opposition to the military government during the war. This marked the start of the Civil War. In December 1962, the MR-13, together with the outlawed PGT (Guatemalan Labor Party) and the student organization, the April 12 Movement, merged into a coalition guerilla organization called the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), the most important opposition force to the military government and a main player in the Civil War. Another important player was the FGEI (Edgar Ibarra Guerrilla Front) and together, these opposition forces totalled more than 500 combatants. The United States military continued backing the military government, sending advisors to Guatemala and providing training, money and weapons to help them defeat the rebels. The Guatemalan army had around 5,000 soldiers. In 1966, Cesar Mendez, a civilian, was elected president. This did not last long, however, as the military launched a major counterinsurgency campaign and both the civil war and the repression intensified. On 2 November 1966 a nationwide state of siege was declared in Guatemala in which civil rights including the right to habeas corpus were suspended. In January 1967, the army formed the Special Commando Unit of the Guatemalan Army (SCUGA), which had the task of stopping the communists, and as such, carried out abductions, bombings, street assassinations, torture, disappearances and executions of both real and suspected communists. This was the bloodiest period of the Civil War, which was marked by repression. On 4 February 1976, an earthquake shook Guatemala. Over 23,000 Guatemalans died and close to a million were left without adequate housing. The incapacity of the government to deal efficiently with the effects of the catastrophe led to a rise in independent organizing and left many survivors deeply critical of the government. The political system was ineffective to ensure the welfare of the populace, and this led groups to put greater pressure on the military government to induce reforms. The security forces subsequently took advantage of the disorder to engage in a wave of political assassinations in Guatemala City. In 1974, Lucas Garcia, a member of the military Institutional Democratic Party, was elected president in fraudulent elections. Diplomatic issues: On 28 August 1968, US Ambassador John Gordon Mein was assassinated by FAR rebels. On 31 March 1970, West German Ambassador Count Karl Von Spreti was kidnapped by the FAR. They subsequently put out a ransom note for the ambassador in exchange for political prisoners, but the government refused to cooperate. This caused outrage among the diplomatic community and the German government. On 9 April 1970, Von Spreti was found dead. In 1977 the Carter administration in the US began to enforce Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act, which stated that no assistance will be provided to a government engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights., and this strongly reduced their support of the Guatemalan government.

5 Harvard Model United Nations Iran Before 1979 The Pahlavi dynasty, overthrown during the Iranian Revolution, strove to secularize and modernize Iranian society. Under the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, Islamic laws which had previously underpinned Iranian society were replaced, and Iran instead began to gravitate towards Western culture. Women were no longer permitted to wear the traditional Muslim hijabs and chadors publicly; with regards to marriage, Reza Shah raised the minimum age and modified religious divorce laws that had invariably favored the husband in order to make them more equitable. Reza Shah similarly secularized the judicial system: Legal affairs formerly under the jurisdiction of Shiite religious courts were, during the Pahlavi dynasty, administered by secular courts or overseen by state bureaucracies. The number of secular schools dramatically expanded under Reza Shah, eroding the Shiite clergy s dominance over the education system. Yet within a couple years of Reza Shah s accession to the throne, his government evolved into autocracy and, soon afterwards, arbitrary rule. According to his prime minister, Mehdi Qoli Hedayat, Reza Shah required absolute obedience of his citizens: We have reached the point that the Shah expects to be worshipped. Reza Shah exterminated any critical views in the press; he arbitrarily arrested and even executed government officials in an effort to ensure their loyalty. Furthermore, Reza Shah compelled even the most religious members of society to renounce long-held Islamic traditions and accept norms of Western culture. Ordering all men to wear European-style bowler hats, Reza Shah infringed on the freedom of religion, prohibiting ulema Muslim scholars who serve as interpreters of Islamic sacred law and preachers from wearing the turban. Reza Shah s attack on religion along with his dictatorial suppression of critics as well as his undemocratic disregard for the parliament, referred to as the Majles antagonized the pious Shiite members of Iranian society. Any civil disobedience, however, was met with violent repression: When, in 1935, worshippers gathered in the shrine of Imam Riza, chanting slogans and delivering sermons to express their disapproval of Reza Shah s bowler hat policy, troops entered the shrine and opened fire, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. The increasingly unpopular Reza Shah was forced to abdicate in 1941 following the invasion of Iran by Britain and Russia, who were unnerved by Reza Shah s growing ties with Nazi Germany. His eldest son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was installed by the Allied powers of World War II to replace his father. Upon assuming the throne, Mohammad Reza immediately encountered issues that could undermine Iran s national interests and, therefore, his rule. Russia strove to annex most of northern Iran; rampant inflation only worsened the economic depression afflicting the country. Furthermore, the end of Reza Shah s iron-fist rule revived political opponents, who defied Mohammad Reza s authority in seeking personal gain and political clout. The most prominent of Mohammad Reza s political opponents was Mohammad Mosaddeq, a zealous Iranian nationalist who, in March of 1951, pushed a bill through the Majles to nationalize Iran s vast British-owned oil fields. Forced to appoint Mosaddeq as prime minister, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq only to be exiled from Iran himself by Mosaddeq s supporters in August of 1953, paving the path for Mosaddeq to take up the reigns. Mosaddeq s term, however, was remarkably short-lived: A few days later, his opponents, with the covert support of the American CIA and British MI6, deposed Mosaddeq in a military coup d état and restored Mohammad Reza to power. Mohammad Reza began to exhibit a more authoritarian style of government: He freely dissolved the Majles in

6 6 Update Paper, Historical Security Council, 1979 times of political turbulence and harshly quelled anti-government demonstrations through his secret police, the Savak, which ultimately resulted in over 650 deaths attributable to political violence between December 1946 and April Mohammad Reza maintained his father s pro-western foreign and economic policies, strengthening ties with the United States. In 1963, Mohammad Reza launched a national development program, referred to as the White Revolution. While the White Revolution admittedly worked towards its expressed goal of modernizing Iran, the White Revolution also pandered to the Iranian peasantry in order to solidify domestic support for Mohammad Reza. Land reform was an integral element of the White Revolution: In hopes of diminishing the influence of the Shiite clergy, the White Revolution forced landowners the vast majority of whom belonged to the Shiite elite to give up their land ownership, which was redistributed amongst the peasants. Yet the White Revolution expanded far beyond land reform. The White Revolution also spearheaded infrastructural projects that revamped the irrigation system and railroad network, established literacy and health institutions targeting Iran s rural areas, reduced the autonomy of tribal groups, and gave women the right to vote as well as improved child custody rights. arrested in June of 1983 and detained for eight months. However, Khomeini was rearrested in November of 1964 for his condemnation of Mohammad Reza s cooperation with Israel and the United States, subsequently sent to exile for fourteen years. By 1970, Mohammad Reza was taking a more iron-fist approach to ruling Iran. Mohammad Reza cracked down even further on religion: He compelled the Shiite clergy to attend staterun universities in order to obtain their license to preach, and he also pursued avenues to exclude the Shiite clergy from participating in Parliament and publicly displaying their religious beliefs. His anti-religion crusade, along with his insistence on silencing criticism by use of force, only aggravated his opponents, who increasingly turned to the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini as their savior. The White Revolution intensified criticism of Mohammad Reza amongst the religious members of Iranian society, who deemed westernization to be antithetical to Islam. Religious critics, coupled with those who opposed Mohammad Reza s autocratic rule and heavy-handed efforts to muzzle domestic dissent, gave rise to riots that erupted throughout Iran. One of the leaders of the riots was Ayatollah Khomeini, a member of the Shiite clergy who declared Mohammad Reza to be a wretched, miserable man who had embarked on the destruction of Islam in Iran. For his role in the riots, Khomeini was

US Iranian Relations

US Iranian Relations ECONOMIC SANCTIONS SHOULD CONTINUE TO FORCE IRAN INTO ABANDONING OR REDUCING ITS NUCLEAR ARMS PROGRAM THESIS STATEMENT HISTORY OF IRAN Called Persia Weak nation Occupied by Russia,