Situation at the Afghan – Pakistan Border in thq 1980-s

Abstract

The author will consider the appeals of Pakistan on violations of the state border and the appeals of Afghanistan on a similar issue received in the 1980s addressed to the UN Secretary-General. At present, it’s impossible to find out whether these appeals corresponded to reality, so the author will study them as an indirect indicator of the state of Afghan-Pakistani relations. The author analyzed several hundred of these appeals and compiled statistics on the number of appeals, the nature of the complaints and the number of victims, summarizing his results in five tables. In addition, the author calculated the total number of episodes indicated in the appeals. The author also compiled statistics on the responses of Afghanistan to Pakistani complaints and the responses of Pakistan to Afghan complaints, expressed in the form of a table. The reaction to these appeals from several states and international organizations is analyzed, and resolutions of the UN General Assembly «Good neighbourliness between states» are examined. The greatest number of mutual appeals on the issue of violations of the state border and the episodes contained in them occurred in 1985–1987, what, according to the author, can serve as an indirect sign that these years were a period of maximum deterioration Afghan-Pakistani relations. 1988 was marked by a decrease in both the number of appeals and the number of episodes, which indicates that the success of the Geneva negotiations and the beginning of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan helped to soften Afghan-Pakistani relations.