Sleep is a GOOD thing.
DISCLAIMER: This posting is about a SIMULATION, not a real-life situation. For more information, please visit: http://www.brynania.net
It is AMAZING what a night of sleep will do. Scary that 10 hours of sleep still wasn't enough, but hey, it'll do for now.
So, yesterday. Ha.
I'll give everyone a little synopsis of what occurred (if I can remember everything in order).
Angela and Marion had to run off to a meeting with the SRSG and the heads of the GoB and PFLZ. Ang fortunately had most of the SOFA with her (SOFA = Status-of-Forces Agreement, it basically forms the legal basis for any country to be in another country), and had the gob and PFLZ sign it (which apparently they didn't even read--idiots).
After that, Ang had an appointment for her knee (she had knee surgery, and now there are complications), so I went over to campus to meet with Marion and at that point, we were in UN meetings all day.
Control (Brynen--I will refer to him as control from now on, because that's essentially his role) clarified a few issues for us, mainly that the individual countries giving us forces have to confirm deployment AND subsequent movement of their troops before Control can move anything around (which sucks, because if we request a country do something, and they a) take too long or b) refuse, the rest of our troops could get slaughtered).
Around mid-day, we got kicked out of the room so that Thomas (SRSG) could conduct peace talks with the heads of the GoB and the PFLZ, with the French ministers in the room (I have no idea why they were there, but they had agreement from both sides).
They had pretty much gotten through an agreement (the "Port Royal Peace Accords"), when the PFLZ leadership in the room were informed that one of their subcommandantes, van Eyken, had staged a coup and was now in control of the PFLZ. The PFLZ leadership stormed out, leaving us with the peace accord which we still publicized.
DPKO managed to weasel our way into the SC (Security Council) meeting later that day, where they asked a few questions, and we had the opportunity to point out that the missions that we had been assigned in Resolution 2.1 were impossible given the current situation and the limitations placed on DPKO within the Resolution.
In Res 2.1, we were charged with the following:
Establishing a cordon sanitaire along the E1/D2 (none of you have maps, so this won't make a whole lot of sense) section of the Icasia/Brynania border. Cordon Sanitaire is essentially the equivalent of a demilitarized zone (so why didn't they just call it that? I have no idea). This must be done with unarmed military observers.
Securing the Mcgilldishu/Duchovnyville airport (from now on, this will be called M/D airport, just because they can't figure out the damn name doesn't mean I should have to type the whole thing out every time) and establishing a cordon sanitaire around the perimeter once that happens.
Escorting humanitarian aid agencies into the country.
Coordinating the removal of mines and UXOs in the eastern beta province between the GoB (removal capabilities) and PFLZ (who know the ground and where the mines are). Unfortunately, this will occur in ZPF territory (one of the other insurgent groups).
The last three must be done ONLY with four countries: Norway, Canada, Germany, and Italy.
Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions.
Problem is, no one will give us observers OR troops unless the area is relatively calm OR until there is a peace established.
The peace accords give us that, until the PFLZ move, and there was in-fighting between the two factions of the PFLZ once van Eyken split off. So DPKO has its hands tied again.
The dissident PFLZ faction split off and formed the ZPLF with the ZPF (I swear to god, they do this just to screw with our acronyms . . . I feel really sorry for any student in the class who may be dyslexic).
Then, we got news late in the night that it was all staged, and the PFLZ leadership was being reunified, with orders from the PFLZ to start blasting away from the ZPF.
Big mistake. Big, big mistake. Morale had been low due to the food shortages in the area, and to join ranks and then order your people to shoot on the people you just joined with when they were under the impression that this was all real, and not staged, is stupid.
ZPF is now in almost full control of the beta province, with the PFLZ in tatters.
This is a problem, since ZPF wasn't included in the initial talks with the SRSG nor subsequent peace talks. They may not agree to any UN presence, and if we're there without their authorization, they may have the size to do some serious damage to us.
The Security Council came up with two new resolutions, which authorize us to do everything under 2.1 WITHOUT the country limits (thank god) AND also gives us the authority to determine who should be heavily vs. lightly armed (including observers), but screw that, frankly it's a question between heavily and medium at this point. I'm not sending people in to die.
The armed question got pushed through because Norway refused to go in unless they were allowed to be heavily armed, for which I am very grateful that they stood their ground. And I'm glad we were at the SC meeting, because it gave us the opportunity to sit down and tell them, look, you've told us to do all of these things, but you have limited the resources which would allow us to do them without getting everyone killed. You have to give us more leeway, or else this will be a disaster.
Woohoo.
Resolutions 3.1 and 4.1 just hit the listserv, so I gotta see what else they want us to do. *sigh*
:)
It is AMAZING what a night of sleep will do. Scary that 10 hours of sleep still wasn't enough, but hey, it'll do for now.
So, yesterday. Ha.
I'll give everyone a little synopsis of what occurred (if I can remember everything in order).
Angela and Marion had to run off to a meeting with the SRSG and the heads of the GoB and PFLZ. Ang fortunately had most of the SOFA with her (SOFA = Status-of-Forces Agreement, it basically forms the legal basis for any country to be in another country), and had the gob and PFLZ sign it (which apparently they didn't even read--idiots).
After that, Ang had an appointment for her knee (she had knee surgery, and now there are complications), so I went over to campus to meet with Marion and at that point, we were in UN meetings all day.
Control (Brynen--I will refer to him as control from now on, because that's essentially his role) clarified a few issues for us, mainly that the individual countries giving us forces have to confirm deployment AND subsequent movement of their troops before Control can move anything around (which sucks, because if we request a country do something, and they a) take too long or b) refuse, the rest of our troops could get slaughtered).
Around mid-day, we got kicked out of the room so that Thomas (SRSG) could conduct peace talks with the heads of the GoB and the PFLZ, with the French ministers in the room (I have no idea why they were there, but they had agreement from both sides).
They had pretty much gotten through an agreement (the "Port Royal Peace Accords"), when the PFLZ leadership in the room were informed that one of their subcommandantes, van Eyken, had staged a coup and was now in control of the PFLZ. The PFLZ leadership stormed out, leaving us with the peace accord which we still publicized.
DPKO managed to weasel our way into the SC (Security Council) meeting later that day, where they asked a few questions, and we had the opportunity to point out that the missions that we had been assigned in Resolution 2.1 were impossible given the current situation and the limitations placed on DPKO within the Resolution.
In Res 2.1, we were charged with the following:
Establishing a cordon sanitaire along the E1/D2 (none of you have maps, so this won't make a whole lot of sense) section of the Icasia/Brynania border. Cordon Sanitaire is essentially the equivalent of a demilitarized zone (so why didn't they just call it that? I have no idea). This must be done with unarmed military observers.
Securing the Mcgilldishu/Duchovnyville airport (from now on, this will be called M/D airport, just because they can't figure out the damn name doesn't mean I should have to type the whole thing out every time) and establishing a cordon sanitaire around the perimeter once that happens.
Escorting humanitarian aid agencies into the country.
Coordinating the removal of mines and UXOs in the eastern beta province between the GoB (removal capabilities) and PFLZ (who know the ground and where the mines are). Unfortunately, this will occur in ZPF territory (one of the other insurgent groups).
The last three must be done ONLY with four countries: Norway, Canada, Germany, and Italy.
Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions.
Problem is, no one will give us observers OR troops unless the area is relatively calm OR until there is a peace established.
The peace accords give us that, until the PFLZ move, and there was in-fighting between the two factions of the PFLZ once van Eyken split off. So DPKO has its hands tied again.
The dissident PFLZ faction split off and formed the ZPLF with the ZPF (I swear to god, they do this just to screw with our acronyms . . . I feel really sorry for any student in the class who may be dyslexic).
Then, we got news late in the night that it was all staged, and the PFLZ leadership was being reunified, with orders from the PFLZ to start blasting away from the ZPF.
Big mistake. Big, big mistake. Morale had been low due to the food shortages in the area, and to join ranks and then order your people to shoot on the people you just joined with when they were under the impression that this was all real, and not staged, is stupid.
ZPF is now in almost full control of the beta province, with the PFLZ in tatters.
This is a problem, since ZPF wasn't included in the initial talks with the SRSG nor subsequent peace talks. They may not agree to any UN presence, and if we're there without their authorization, they may have the size to do some serious damage to us.
The Security Council came up with two new resolutions, which authorize us to do everything under 2.1 WITHOUT the country limits (thank god) AND also gives us the authority to determine who should be heavily vs. lightly armed (including observers), but screw that, frankly it's a question between heavily and medium at this point. I'm not sending people in to die.
The armed question got pushed through because Norway refused to go in unless they were allowed to be heavily armed, for which I am very grateful that they stood their ground. And I'm glad we were at the SC meeting, because it gave us the opportunity to sit down and tell them, look, you've told us to do all of these things, but you have limited the resources which would allow us to do them without getting everyone killed. You have to give us more leeway, or else this will be a disaster.
Woohoo.
Resolutions 3.1 and 4.1 just hit the listserv, so I gotta see what else they want us to do. *sigh*
:)