The Afghanistan Accords

Abstract

In the interval between the Security Council’s mandatory resolution on the Gulf War in the previous July and its final reluctant acceptance by the Iranians a year later, the United Nations achieved the second major diplomatic breakthrough of this period of its renascence. This was the signing at UN headquarters in Geneva, on 14 April 1988, of the four agreements which brought to an end the eight-year war in Afghanistan. Under the first of these accords Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed not to interfere in each other’s affairs. Under the second, styled a ‘Declaration on International Guarantees’, the superpowers promised to refrain from interfering in their affairs as well and to urge others to do likewise. Under the third, Pakistan and Afghanistan settled conditions for the voluntary return of refugees. And under the fourth, which was signed by Afghanistan and Pakistan and ‘witnessed’ by the superpowers, it was agreed that ‘foreign’ (i.e. Russian) troops would be withdrawn in stages between 15 May and 15 February 1989, and also that the good offices of the UN Secretary-General should be employed to ensure full implementation of the accords. (For the full text of the accords, see Appendix 5.) Why was Afghanistan a theatre of conflict, and what role was played by the United Nations in producing the April accords?