Topic: Situation in Georgia
Country: Colombia
Delegate Name: Chad Feezel
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Colombia position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
Columbia is a third world nation with a very shaky economy. It is the second most populated South American country and the majority of the population lives in the mountainous cities around the capital of Bogota. With this intense congregation of people in one area, the economy of Colombia is poor and unstable. In 1999, Colombia suffered a recession as a result of low world oil prices, reduced export demand, and increased guerilla violence throughout the country. This caused an increase in unemployment, increased drug usage and sales, and devaluation of the Colombian peso. In 1999 at the time of the recession approximately 17.7% of the Colombia people were living at or below the national poverty line. In the year 2000, the unemployment rate in Colombia reached 20%. This rate did not stay at 20% for long because of the instability in the Colombian economy, by 2006 the unemployment rate had improved and was at 13% which also decreased poverty.
Columbia does little that concerns Georgia because of it’s economic and drug problems. Columbia might however feel the impact of Georgia losing its’ Baku-Supsa pipeline to Russian bomb and missile attacks. On August 10th, between 4 and 5 am, 2 Russian fighter jets flew over the km25 section of the pipeline for about 30 minutes. They dropped a number of bombs, creating more than 50 craters. One bomb did not explode however and was found 10 meters from the pipeline.
The bombed area is rural. There are no military facilities there and no significant infrastructure apart from the pipeline. Further, the bombs used included 2 types of Russian bombs.
On August 12th at about 11:30 am, a rocket was fired at the km 27 just 2 km’s away from the bombing 2 days previously. The rocket exploded just 40 meters from the pipeline. The targeted area is also rural and contains no military facilities, nor does it have significant infrastructure apart from the pipeline.
