Implementation of Afghanistan agreement begins.

Fifty military officers, drawn from existing UN peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, have been dispatched to the capitals of Afghanistan and, Pakistan as a first step in implementing the Afghanistaii peace settlement.

Known as the United Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan (UNGOMAP), the military officers will form inspection teams, based in Kabul and Islamabad, to investigate alleged violations and monitor other aspects of the fourpart Agreement.

Diego Cordovez, who over a sixyear-period mediated the complex negotiations that led to the historic settlement (see UN Chronicle No. Z 1988), on 26 April was named the UN Secretary-General's Representative oil the Settlement of the Situation relating to Afghanistan.

He said the "highly mobile" observer teams would be "deployed on a functional basis to address the specific requirements of particular situations".

Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar said the officers would be based in the area for up to 20 months. Their number might be reduced according to the needs of the situation, and at present he anticipated that most of them would not be needed for more than 10 months.

The military officers come from 10 UN troop-contributing countries-Austria, Canada, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Ghana, Ireland, Nepal, Poland and Sweden. Observing the departure

The UNGOMAP officers observed the beginning of the departure of Soviet troops &om Afghanistan on 15 May, as specified in the Agreement. Mr Cordovez said there would be a UN presence when thc troops crossed the border from Afghanistan into the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union reported in early June that 15,000 troops had been withdrawn, UNGOMAP officers had also visited a number of locations in Pakistan. Both Governments expressed "real determination" to implement the Geneva agreement, he reported.

A comprehensive settlement, a real peace in Afghanistan, was now essentially in the hands of the Afghans, Mr Cordovez said. The Geneva agreement had settled the external aspect of the crisis, but the internal aspect of the problem, such as the type of Government, had to be decided by the Afghans. He hoped that the Afghans would seize a historic opportunity given to them to achieve peace.

Four signers

In a brief dramatic ceremony on 14 April at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed instruments on principles of mutual relations, in particular non-interference and non-intervention, and on the voluntary return of...