BY: Akilan Shanmugaratnam, Hwa Chong Institution
Commencing the debate on the first resolution addressing the stability of Iraq, the Security Council witnessed heated discourse between delegates of the fifteen member nations represented in the Council. The major bone of contention proved to be the issue of ethnicity, and by extension, the division of the three main ethnic groups residing on Iraqi soil – the Sunni Muslims, the Shi’a Muslims, and the non-Arab Kurds. There exists a distinct religious, linguistic and cultural dichotomy between these separate groups, and conflict has recurrently arisen, prompting the delegate of Italy to compare them to “rabid dogs” to be “put in cages”.
The resolution sought to mitigate this problem by proposing the partition of Iraq into three autonomous regions, presided over by a central government that should serve as a single, impartial entity with control over common resources.
The delegate of Russia astutely raised concerns that such delineations might merely aggravate existing fault lines. The delegate cited the historical cases of East and West Germany, and North and South Vietnam, underscoring the implausibility of peaceful coexistence.
The delegate of France did not hesitate to clarify that a temporary separation would, conversely, foster open-mindedness, thereby encouraging receptivity and acceptance between the various ethnicities.
Amidst this discussion, concerns were eventually raised over a conspicuous oversight that could not go unexposed – the protection of the rights of minority groups. This omission was hastily rectified by the delegate of Costa Rica, in the form of an amendment proposing the provision of military and police protection of minority ethnicities.
The delegate of China advocated a more pragmatic outlook, purporting that police would not willingly protect Iraqis of other minority ethnicities, though the delegate of USA allayed these concerns by declaring that his nation would devote troops to this cause.
This scintillating ideological tug-of-war moved the delegate of Indonesia, Siddarth Raghavan, to announce, “The standard [of debate] is very high, I feel like a dumb---, and you can quote me saying that.” Ronnie Yang, delegate of the UK, echoed the sentiment in milder terms, saying, “All in all, SC is doing good.” The first day of debate in the Security Council was certainly anything but MUNdane!
Commencing the debate on the first resolution addressing the stability of Iraq, the Security Council witnessed heated discourse between delegates of the fifteen member nations represented in the Council. The major bone of contention proved to be the issue of ethnicity, and by extension, the division of the three main ethnic groups residing on Iraqi soil – the Sunni Muslims, the Shi’a Muslims, and the non-Arab Kurds. There exists a distinct religious, linguistic and cultural dichotomy between these separate groups, and conflict has recurrently arisen, prompting the delegate of Italy to compare them to “rabid dogs” to be “put in cages”.
The resolution sought to mitigate this problem by proposing the partition of Iraq into three autonomous regions, presided over by a central government that should serve as a single, impartial entity with control over common resources.
The delegate of Russia astutely raised concerns that such delineations might merely aggravate existing fault lines. The delegate cited the historical cases of East and West Germany, and North and South Vietnam, underscoring the implausibility of peaceful coexistence.
The delegate of France did not hesitate to clarify that a temporary separation would, conversely, foster open-mindedness, thereby encouraging receptivity and acceptance between the various ethnicities.
Amidst this discussion, concerns were eventually raised over a conspicuous oversight that could not go unexposed – the protection of the rights of minority groups. This omission was hastily rectified by the delegate of Costa Rica, in the form of an amendment proposing the provision of military and police protection of minority ethnicities.
The delegate of China advocated a more pragmatic outlook, purporting that police would not willingly protect Iraqis of other minority ethnicities, though the delegate of USA allayed these concerns by declaring that his nation would devote troops to this cause.
This scintillating ideological tug-of-war moved the delegate of Indonesia, Siddarth Raghavan, to announce, “The standard [of debate] is very high, I feel like a dumb---, and you can quote me saying that.” Ronnie Yang, delegate of the UK, echoed the sentiment in milder terms, saying, “All in all, SC is doing good.” The first day of debate in the Security Council was certainly anything but MUNdane!
No comments:
Post a Comment