Topic: Afghanistan
Country: Croatia
Delegate Name: Michael Jennings
School: Flint Southwestern Classical Academy
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Croatia position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
The country of Afghanistan is a country in strife. The opium trade that was suppressed during the Taliban’s violent regime has once again has taken its place as the staple of the Afghan economy. Afghanistan now supplies 92% of the opium in the world. 8,200 metric tons of opium is shipped out of Afghanistan annually. This high profit industry has given the wealth to many criminal syndicates in the country. The government that is friendly to the west has been rife with corruption and more recently voter fraud. After election monitors in the southern region of Afghanistan already showed signs of rigging the run off election on the 7th of November. Finally, the overthrown Taliban government has gained strength in the rural regions of Afghanistan. Afghanistan was ranked 173rd out of the 177 candidates by the human development index.
The Republic of Croatia has been very successful as a member of the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) having 295 members serving in Afghanistan and pledging to raise the number to 550 soldiers over the next year. Croatia has suffered no casualties while severing time in the region. While the need for new strategy to deal with multitude of issues that have arisen in Afghanistan is necessary. The Republic of Croatia is very displeased to hear of the voting fraud of Hamid Karzai and is willing to protest his government’s actions by with holding further aid until fair and equal elections can done. The Republic of Croatia would like to see an extension of the Peace Support Operation in Afghanistan. Instead of focusing on the current stability of the region, the ISAF must treat this PSO (Peace Support Operation) like every other one in the past fifty years. It must concern itself with the future of the region as well. We must bring Afghanistan into the post-modern world. We must deal with the blight of corruption that has tormented the region since it’s monarchist independence in the 1950’s by educating the future generations of Afghani leaders. We must foster the cultivation of legal crops among the majority agrarian population of the Afghan culture. Concerning the resurgence of the Taliban, Croatia can talk with experience being a relatively new nation and a successfully integrated nation from the PSO I its region in the 1990’s. The ISAF must respect and honor the culture of the Afghans, and show that we are not the stereotypical west they have been lied to about all their lives.
The Republic of Croatia has been seeking entry into the European Union for quite some time, and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It has several friends in the Security Council including Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. The Republic of Croatia does not look to antagonize any nation on the council and wants to have a productive session.
