Topic: Countering the Threat Posed by Improvised Explosive Devices
Country: Bolivia
Delegate Name: Samuel Johnson Rechner
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Bolivia position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) pose a significant risk to world safety. With the majority of IED attacks occurring in populated areas, 82 percent of recorded IED casualties from 2011-2015 have been civilians. Typically created and detonated by terrorist organizations to spread terror, political turmoil, and government instability, IEDs are massive tools of societal destruction. In Afghanistan, one of the world’s most landmine-ridden countries, IEDs kill 10 times as many civilians than do landmines. By wreaking havoc upon the innocent, IED attacks create an environment of sustained insecurity which destroys the morale of security forces, hinders military recruitment and impedes security sector reform. Because of this, IEDs are able to sensitize government decisions and therefore influence lawmakers. Those unwilling to conform to terrorist threats and IED detonations have witnessed the effect. In 2015, 38 direct IED attacks against United Nations personnel and peacekeepers resulted in property damages, sustained injuries, and fatalities. The United Nations must continue its discussion of IEDs following the 2015 Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping. The United Nations must solve and regulate this heinous weapon, civilian killer, and country underminer.
As a first-hand witness of harmful IED impact, the Bolivian government understands both the severity and complexity of countering threats posed by IEDs. A signatory of the Ottawa Treaty Cluster Munition Convention, and Conventional Weapons Convention, Bolivia strongly believes in international security through peaceful disarmament. The Bolivian government experienced the bulk of IED usage during the early 2000’s in which the explosive devices were used by drug traffickers in rural regions to influence town politicians, assassinate law-enforcement officials, and kill enemy cartel members. In the Chapare Region, considered by many to be the largest haven for illegal cultivation of cocaine, IEDs killed 7 Bolivians and injured an additional 83 in 2003. Since 2008, however, Bolivia’s drug violence and IED usage has significantly decreased due to the unorthodox implementation of coca agricultural regulations and the removal of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
The Bolivian government recommends not only a counterable solution to IEDs, but also the funds necessary to independently implement such regulations. It is also suggested that DISEC increase regulation and supervision on the harmful explosive components typically found in IEDs, including ANFO, TATP, and EGDN. Bolivia views IEDs as a significant threat to democracy and hopes the international community works towards providing an effective solution to this growing problem.
