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United Nations
Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan
United Nations
Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP)
was a United Nations observer mission involving Canadians
from 1988-1990.
Mandate
To assist the
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 and, in this context, to investigate and
report possible violations of any of the provisions of the
agreements from May 1988 to Mar 1990.
History
On 27 Dec 1979,
Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in response to a
reported request from the Afghan Government for assistance
against insurgent movements. Eventually over 100,000
Soviet troops were engaged in a protracted conflict with
Afghan resistance fighters (mujahideen).
The United Nations
failed to produce a resolution to this matter in Jan 1980,
and an emergency session resulted in a strong statement
calling the military action an invasion and demanding the
immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of Soviet
troops from Afghanistan.
In 1981,
discussions between the UN and the governments of both
Afghanistan and Pakistan led to six years of discussions
in Geneva from 1982-1988. The Geneva Accords were followed
by a Soviet announcement that their troops were being
withdrawn in 1988.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.1
By the middle of
May 1988, UNGOMAP was operations and monitoring the
withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan and ended its
mandate on 15 Mar 1990.
Canadian Military
Involvement
Canada provided
five UN Military Observers for the duration of this
mission, May 1988-Mar 1990.
Insignia
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Service with
this mission for at least 90 consecutive days
between 1 May 1988 and 15 Mar 1990 entitled a
serviceman to the UNGOMAP Medal. The ribbon was in
UN Blue with two narrow white stripes. Service with
UNGOMAP/OSGAP was recognized by a metal device worn
on the UNTSO/UNOGIL ribbon. |
Fatalities
Lieutenant Colonel
H.H. Angle died while serving on this mission.
Notes
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UN website.
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