Committee: Historical Security Council Topic: The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979) Committee Directors: Janset Nil Genç, Süha Nurhat

Transcription

1 Committee: Historical Security Council Topic: The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979) Committee Directors: Janset Nil Genç, Süha Nurhat I. Introduction Wars and conflicts, when looked into, mainly are kindled from clashes of power between the rising political and polar parties, opposing ideologies and religious beliefs. When political conflicts are taken into consideration, ideologies and religion become a medium for superpowers to use as a persuasion of masses during war. The Soviet War in Afghanistan lasted almost 9 years, between the Soviet forces and the Mujahideen. The Mujahideen s main motivation to overthrow government (Afghanistan's Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan). The Soviet Union helped the government while the rebels found support from different sources including the United States and Pakistan. The conflict was a proxy war between the two Cold War opponents (United States of America and Soviet Union), who never actually fought in direct confrontation. The Afghan government ratified a treaty in December which granted them to call on Soviet forces, repeatedly requested the access of troops in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of Soviet troops were to provide safety and to help the government in the conflict against the anti-communist Muslim mujahideen rebels. On April 14, 1979, the Afghan government asked USSR to send around 20 helicopters with their crews to Afghanistan, and on June 16, the Soviet government responded and sent a detachment of tanks, and crews to secure the administration in Kabul and to guard the Bagram and Shindand air bases. As a response to this, an airborne battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. Lomakin, reached out to the airbase in Bagramon on July 7. They arrived without their combat gear, disguised as technical specialists. They were the bodyguards of the Afghan President Nur Mohammad Taraki. President Taraki acquired authority when he and leftist military officials overthrew the former President Mohammad Daud Khan. The new government consisting of two Marxist-Leninist political groups made alliance with Soviet Union. Politicians such as Alexei Kosygin, Soviet statesman, and Andrei Gromyko, Minister of Foreign Affairs, were against this intervention. They appeared to have many requests from the Soviet over the following

2 months right up to December However, the Soviet government was unwilling to grant these requests. Throughout the meetings between President Taraki and Soviet leaders in March 1979, the Soviets promised political support and to send military aid and technical specialists, but upon constant requests by Taraki for direct Soviet intervention, the leadership opposed him; reasons included that they would be met with unrest from the Afghan people, that intervening in another country's civil war would hand a propaganda victory to their opponents such as United States, and Afghanistan's overall insignificant weight in international affairs, coming to terms with the fact that they wouldn t have any advantage by taking over a country with such poor economy, unstable government, and population aggressive to outsiders. However, as the situation continued to regress from May December 1979, Moscow changed its mind on Soviet troops. II. Definition of Key Words Mujahideen : Comes from the plural word of mujahid someone who is commonly called as a fighter for Islam, often a guerilla fighter, and against non-islam states or parties. It comes from the Arabic word jihad, an important phrase from Quran which means to radiate Islam via fighting. Quran 2:191 reads as...and slay them wherever you find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter... and fight them until fitnah is no more, and religion is for Allah.. Mujahideen is the first frequent use of such guerilla warriors seen in Soviet-Afghan War, led by tribal leaders in rural mountainous areas. Guerilla War: An irregular form of warfare fought against regular armies with consumptive military strategies. Guerilla is often used in mountainous areas. It is observed that armies of thousands have fallen against ten men due to false equipment. Proxy War: A term repeatedly used in Cold War Era to describe a war between two or more nations that is fought indirectly, neither country directly engages the other; and takes place in another country. III. Major Parties Involved

3 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): They were the main belligerent of the invasion as they started the war. The USSR s main goal was invading the country before an unexpected Iran-like Islamist revolution in the Afghanistan after the coup of the People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan and their non-popular reforms among the public. Another moral of the Soviet invasion was the information coming from Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) about the secret communications between President Amin and the US government. The KGB played an important role before the beginning of the invasion as it gathered necessary information to politburo. The Soviet Union s very first goal was capturing country as soon as possible and establishing their satellite government but it has failed as they faced with a strong insurgency against Soviet troops. Soviets entered Afghanistan with two ground corridors and one air column. The Soviet force that entered the Afghanistan, in addition to the 103rd Guards Airborne division, was under command of the 40th army and consisted of the 108th and 5th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions, the 860th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment, the 56th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, the 36th Mixed Air Corps. Later, the 201st and 58th Motor Rifle Divisions also entered the country, along with other smaller units. The USSR tried to invade all country successfully and take down all the control but they failed and this failure cost them thousands of soldiers, years of suffering, billions of rubles and lots of steps through the collapse of the union. Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA): The DRA was another main belligerent of the war along with the USSR. Afghanistan was the country where this blood scene took place in but the government of the DRA supported the soviet troops and the invasion as they fight with them against the insurgency. Some part of the government s afghan army joined the insurgency in some local places but they were the minority. Majority of the Afghan Army fought the insurgency. At first the President Amin demanded lots of soviet troops and he was someone pro-soviet but he also protected his country s sovereignty so the Soviet Union staged a coup installing Babrak Karmal as the new president who will be the new puppet of the USSR. In the beginning of the war Afghan army used it forces to support soviets but after the 1986, the Afghan Army started to carry the burden of fighting insurgency alone. This weakened the DRA government and made it collapse step by step. Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen: It consisted of seven jihadist groups and have members from various of countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and even Iran. Mujahideen was the main opponent to the soviet army and the main insurgency in the war. They tried to protect their country at any cost with guerilla type war against the soviet army. They took medical, military and monetary help from the

4 countries like United States, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. They successfully defended their nation and beat the soviet and afghan government army. Iran: After Soviets deployed roughly troops directly to Afghanistan territory, mujahideen set up various militant groups assisted by especially Iran. Iran highly supported mujahideen groups by supporting them not only economically but also by deploying troops and highly armed tanks etc. Since Iranian government supported mujahideen groups rebellions against Soviet invasion, Afghani- Iranian relations have deteriorated quickly. Taliban government kept on their harsh and brutal treatment on minority groups in Afghanistan by executing and harming the citizens. Instantly after Taliban s actions against the mujahideen and such minority groups, Iranian government increased number of troops that they contributed to mujahideen. However, ISAF(International Security Assistance Force) and NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization) have blamed Iran for supplying Taliban insurgents, playing double, Iran Foreign Minister has denied these accusations coming from other states which is considered as against the territory and dignity of Iran. Iran is totally acted against PDPA in this armed conflict. United States of America: Unlike other wars of the cold war, the United States did not interfere directly in war but somehow again managed to change the course of war in advantage of her side. From the beginning until the end, The US government supported Mujahideen with any kind of needs they want like money, weapons, medical needs and many more but the most significant was the stinger missiles that enabled mujahideen insurgency to shoot down Soviet air forces. Even according to some politicians and historians this event called stinger effect and it was the reason that Soviet Union lost the war. Unlike the physical helps to the mujahideen, the US also damaged the USSR in other meanings such as leading a protest in 1980 Moscow Olympics. Also, the US government used media to condemn the actions of the Soviet Union and impacted the western media in that way. Pakistan: They did not get along with the new Afghan government. Pakistan also condemned and criticized the new government s reforms. Pakistan always supported the Islamist and conservative part of the Afghanistan after the coup that made PDPA to take control of the country. With the given reasons and Pakistan s pro-islamist policies, Pakistan was one of the major parties that helped and fully supported the mujahideen and even after its formation Pakistan continued supporting the insurgency. Also, there was even mujahideen groups that consisted of Pakistanis. Pakistan also sent military weapons as much as they can to the Afghan mujahideen fighters. Saudi Arabia: As they saw themselves as the true leader of Sunni Muslims, they supported the Sunni Mujahideen of the Afghan insurgency, at the time Saudi Arabia was one of the richest countries with the highly-increased oil prices so they made massive amounts of monetary help to the Sunni Mujahideen.

5 They even tried to help their Sunni brothers with military aid such as weapons and medical equipment with the help of American air transportation. They did not only help Sunni Mujahideen themselves but also made other Arab countries support the fight of insurgency. IV. General Overview Russia had intentions over the Afghanistan region in the 19th century and these intentions continued on through the Soviet era. But apart from the Tsar, Soviet Union attempted to reach their intentions by providing large amounts of aid, economic assistance, and military equipment to the Afghanistan government, therefore, the relations between Soviet and Afghanistan got better and better year by year and after a while, Afghanistan was totally under the influence of the Soviet Union. Because of such a tremendous help there was a sympathy growing for the Soviet Union in some groups of Afghanistan and this sympathy affected their politics and eventually resulted with the establishment of the People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan in 1965 which later led the Saur Revolution and seize the government of Afghanistan in and hereby started the chain of events which eventually led to Soviet invasion in PDPA lead the Saur Revolution in order to overthrow the Mohammad Daoud who seized power in a military coup in 1973 after allegations of corruption against the king s government and also who ended the monarchy. The main reason of the Saur Revolution was Daoud imposing repression on members of PDPA. Finally, on April 27,, the Afghan Army, which had been sympathetic to the PDPA, overthrew and executed Daoud. After the revolution, the PDPA had reigned for a year and during this year the government had even closer relations with Soviet and signed a friendship treaty which includes the Soviet Union providing economic and military assistance to the Afghan government. But these close relations with the Soviet Union and reforms initiated by the government bothered some groups and eventually these groups revolt against the government. The rebellion was supported by Pakistan. After the US ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs kidnapped and killed after he caught in the crossfire between the militants and the Afghan security forces during the negotiations to release Dubs. But Dubs was not accidentally caught in the crossfire, he was assaulted by the Afghan security forces due to an advice from a KGB agent. Because of the death of Adolph Dubs, the United States and Afghanistan relationship tensed and the United States started to help rebellious movement against the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan. The rebellion fortified its forces day by day with the aid coming from Pakistan and United States and because of that Afghanistan government repeatedly requested help from the Soviet Union refers to the friendship treaty signed between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Soviet was not unresponsive for these requests and deployed troops and increased the number of its military advisors in Afghanistan, thus the Soviet invasion began.

6 Soviet Invasion By the early 1979 Soviet Union started to send military aid to Afghanistan government and its military experts to assist the Afghan army. The number of Soviet types of equipment increased daily until the Soviet army to invade Afghanistan. After a short period of time Soviet army took control of the urban areas and communication systems while the Mujahideen divided into small groups and turned the war into a guerilla war. Even though they were divided into groups mujahideen were controlling the rural regions of Afghanistan which are almost the 80 percent of the country but the 20 percent controlled by the Soviet army was strategic points and big cities where most of the population live. The Soviet army periodically carried attacks out against mujahideen between 1980 and In these attacks, the Soviet army targeted mujahideen-controlled and strategically important regions especially to Panjshir Valley but these attacks did not achieve to improve the government control of the area. Mujahideen resisted against Soviet attacks with the help of CIA providing assistance via Pakistani ıntelligence services and thousands of young people coming from Muslim countries to Afghanistan in order to wage jihad against the atheist communists these young were called Afghan Arabs and one of them was Osama Bin Laden whose Arab group eventually evolved into al-qaeda. These military engagements between mujahideen and the Soviet troops lasted uninterruptedly until The arrival of Gorbachev on the scene 1985 and his new foreign policy was the main reason the Soviet Union withdrawing from Afghanistan nevertheless economic and political onerousness of the invasion were reasons that obliged the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan.At the same time Gorbachev's intentions to finish the cold war caused proxy wars to end and since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was one of them Gorbachev wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan. In 1988 retreatment process had begun, the United States and Soviet Union forces started to return. By the February, 1989 Soviet army withdrew all of its contingent in Afghanistan. Even though Soviet forces left area war did not come to an end. From 1989 to 1992 the government and mujahideen continued to fight. So the Soviet invasion succeeded by the civil war which resulted in the very victory of Mujahideen. V. Timeline of Events 1973 Daoud Khan led a coup d etat against his cousin King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan. Coup d etat resulted in the overthrow of the king and abolition of monarchy. Daoud established the

7 Republic of Afghanistan and became the first president. 17 April 18 April 19 April 27 April May Political unrest began after the assassination of Mir Akbar Khyber who is prominent member of Parcham, People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Government tried to put the blame on other groups but Nur Mohammed Taraki of PDPA stated that government itself was responsible. During the funeral of Khyber, approximately PDPA sympathizers gathered in Kabul and started protest government. After this event, most of the leaders of PDPA were arrested by the government. Hafizullah Amin of PDPA organized a coup d etat against government with army officers loyal to communist party. PDPA established the new government as known as Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA). New government first changed the national flag from traditional Islamic green color to a similar red color of the soviet flag. Then declared the equality of the sexes and implemented a socialist agenda. These actions followed by lots of new radical changes throughout the country that were unpopular among community. Spring Anti-government armed forces were formed and most of the public were on protests but the government mercilessly crushed any rebellion and suppressed any opposition and arrested thousands as many as people. Late 5 December Political unrest began in PDPA itself, The government was highly unstable because of in-party rivalry DRA Government signs a peace treaty with the USSR based on economic and military aids.

8 March 1979 September December December December January 1980 The USSR enhanced its military presence in Afghanistan sent massive amounts of military aid to the DRA government because of the increasing numbers of protests against government. Meanwhile, USA decreased its presence because of the kidnapped and murdered ambassador. President Taraki is getting killed after series of events and Hafizullah Amin emerges as the new president of DRA. Under his new administration, President Amin requests a lot of troops from the USSR to fight against increasing insurgency of Mujahideen. The Soviet Politburo s inner circle decides to invade Afghanistan because of the facts that both they feared from Iranian-Style Islamist revolution and the news of President Amin s secret relations with the US officials. The Soviet Defense Ministry orders 40 t h Army to be deployed into Afghanistan. The USSR started its invasion with entering to Afghanistan from Termez and Kushka. Commandos seize strategic points in Kabul. Troops entered Afghanistan headed toward Kabul. The soviet commandos assassinate President Amin and stage a soviet backed coup, installing Babrak Kamal as the new president. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of troops continue to invade. Now Soviet Union has injected at least men and 200 aircraft into Afghanistan along with armored vehicles, heavy artillery and sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons. February March 1980 June August As soviets entered Afghanistan with 2 ground corridors and 1 air route, they quickly took the strategic points of country and installed their military bases along with garrisons. This part of the invasion called occupation. However, the invasion did not result in the way soviets expected. Afghan People responded with rebellion. Uprisings started nationwide and regional armed forces built to fight soviet soldiers. However, these forces needed to fight in open and in open fight, soviet forces swept them with the air support. Resistance intensifies with various mujahideen groups fighting soviets and DRA. Two mujahideen coalitions were formed and this made their effort more efficient and

9 1981 organized. Mujahideen fighters mostly used the guerilla tactics against soviets. August 1981 United States of America, Pakistan, People s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia and many more gulf countries increased their helps to Mujahideen. They fund them with military aid, weapons and money United Nations General Assembly passed a Resolution with vote, protesting the Soviet Invasion and called for soviet withdrawal. January 1985 More than 5 million afghan refugees forced to flee other neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan due to hard conditions of war New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stated that he wants to end war as soon as possible that resulted in the deployment of large amounts of new soviet troops to Afghanistan. Soviet troops in Afghanistan increased to Such deployment and aggressive moves from soviets made 1985 the bloodiest year of the war United States of America increased its helps to Mujahideen after the soviet aggression. The most noticeable help was Stinger Missiles that enabled Mujahideen to shoot down soviet air forces, especially soviet close air support helicopters Soviet forces understood that the war turned into a disaster that costed lots of money, military power and effort in change of nothing. After the stinger effect, Soviet Union also understood that their influence in the region started to decrease as well as their air superiority. As a result, Soviets started a withdrawal strategy: they started to train afghan troops to fight rather than fighting themselves. Step by step they transferred the burden of fighting Mujahideen to Afghan Troops. April May 1988 The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and United States of America signs peace accords, known as Geneva Accords of The Soviet Union officially began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

10 15 February 1989 The Soviet Union announces the departure of the last troops thus putting an end to nine-year-long Soviet occupation. As a result, more than 1 million Afghans and 13 thousand Soviet troops have been killed. Civil War in Afghanistan continues as the Mujahideen tries to overthrow PDPA and establish an Islamic Government. VI. Relevant UN Documents and Past Treaties The United Nations Security Council has drafted a resolution in 1980 regarding the situation in Afghanistan, but the resolution was undoubtedly rejected by the Soviet Union. In the emergency meeting that the UNSC had gathered, resolution 462 has passed under international peace and security. After the meeting, a series of resolutions have passed in the General Assembly in the agenda item of Situation in Afghanistan, calling for an immediate withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. UN Security Council Resolution The General Assembly Sixth Emergency Special Session Afgh%20ARESES6%202.pdf VII. Points to Consider With what motivation did the Soviet Union initiate this costly military intervention to Afghanistan? What was the primal reason behind the Soviet Union breaching the treaty they ratified with Afghanistan? In such cases of interventions made by third parties, what would be the proper action to be taken by the UN Security Council? How would be the aftermath in case of a prospective UN intervention to the conflict, and how would the situation reflect to the flow of the Security Council, where two of the prominent parties on this topic have permanent seats in?

11 What shall be the path to follow to stop this conflict turning into a proxy war, with many other nations as belligerents? Would condemning nations to cut the support of military aid help to de-escalate the heat, and to resolve the conflict eventually? Would condemning nations to cut the support of military aid help to de-escalate the heat, and to resolve the conflict eventually? Why did Gorbachev follow such a strategy to withdraw their military forces all of a sudden? Bibliography Afghan_War