Description

UNTAG Namibia 1989-90 Civilian Police Monitors Plaque – SWA South African Border War Namibian War of Independance
Wooden Shield Plaque Badge
Amount: 1 piece
Fine original condition, please see pictures.

The Namibian independence plan of 1989–1990. A high point in UN history !

The Namibian independence plan of 1989–1990 is a high point in UN history. Namibia’s enormous challenge was already on the international agenda seventy years ago. Southwest Africa, now Namibia, became a League of Nations mandate in 1920 after Germany lost that colonial territory to the then Union of South Africa during World War I. After the Second World War, the mandate continued as a UN trusteeship under South Africa. Pretoria did not agree with international supervision. It governed Namibia as a colony, complete with the brutally racist apartheid institution. In 1966, the UN General Assembly declared that South Africa’s continued control of Namibia was illegal. In 1978, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 435 for an independent Namibia, which also proposed free elections. However, it took another ten years before the United Nations and the United States obtained South Africa’s cooperation.

For South Africa, waging the border war against the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) ultimately proves to be too heavy a burden and, a damaging political liability, an anachronism in the Gorbachev era of the Soviet Union and, perhaps most importantly, an unwinnable battle. International pressure and sanctions ultimately put South Africa at the table for serious negotiations. A series of peace deals also included a commitment by Fidel Castro’s Cuba to withdraw its troops from neighboring Angola, where Cuba had backed a communist government fighting an insurgency. A UN peacekeeping operation, the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG), was organized to formally launch on April 1, 1989, to facilitate elections in Namibia seven months later.

The UN’s mission to facilitate Namibia’s self-government is not yet easy. It seemed to end in failure, but UNTAG learned quickly to ultimately complete the process successfully.