Pine Crest Model United Nations IX

NORTH KOREA SEIZES U.S. SHIP IN SEA OF JAPAN

The United States Naval vessel “Pueblo” left a Japanese port with 84 officers and crew under instructions to monitor North Korean civilian and military movements. That afternoon, North Korean naval vessels and aircraft signaled the Pueblo to heave to or be fired on. As the Pueblo tried to outmanuver the faster vessels, the North Koreans opened fire. Shells pierced the superstructure of the vessel and several of the crew, including the captain, were wounded by bullets or shrapnel. One crewman died before the North Koreans finally overran the ship. The ship, the captain and the surviving crew of the Pueblo were captured and taken immediately to Pyongyang. The North Korean government claims that the US ship violated North Korean territorial waters and was carrying state-of-the-art communications and encryption equipment—it was a spy ship.  They are demanding an apology from the US over the incursion of the ship.  The US asserts that the ship was not an intelligence-gathering vessel, but was involved in oceanographic research, and further claim that the Pueblo was in international waters when attacked by North Korea. They state that the captured crewmen are being tortured physically and psychologically, and have threatened an immediate military strike against North Korea unless all American citizens are immediately released

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RUSSIAN TANKS ENTER CZECHOSLOVAKIA TO CRUSH REBELLION

The Soviet Politburo selected Leonid Brezhnev to succeed Nikita Khrushchev as leader of the Soviet Union in October 1964.  Although stability was restored in the Soviet Union, unrest stirred elsewhere in the Warsaw Pact. By February 1968, reformers within the Czechoslovak government led by Alexander Dubcek were taking over.  These reformers were confident they could modernize communism; the party would still lead -- but by consent, not force. There would be freedom to speak and write, to travel and organize. There would even be a form of market economy. Dubcek's vision was called "socialism with a human face.” Brezhnev flew to Prague to meet with new Czechoslovak leader, but Soviet dislike of Dubcek's reforms had turned to fear that the Czechoslovak Communist Party might lose power. There was also concern that Dubcek might change sides in the Cold War. Threats from Moscow and elsewhere in the Warsaw Pact failed to make Dubcek change from his path of reform. Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies have invaded Czechoslovakia; Dubcek and other Czech leaders have been arrested. Soviet forces have reached the center of Prague, and crowds of people have taken to the streets -- trying to resist the tank crews with rocks, bottles, and makeshift barricades. NATO troops have been brought to high readiness alert as clashes have broken out, bringing death and destruction to the Czech capital as Warsaw Pact troops have opened fire on Czech citizens and buildings.

CIVIL WAR IN NIGERIA CAUSES MASSIVE STARVATION AND DISLOCATION

The Republic of Biafra has seceded from the Federation of Nigeria. The country, which took its name from the Bight of Biafra (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean), was established by members of the Igbo tribe who felt they could not develop-or even survive-within Nigeria. Igbos have been killed and subject to harassment and discrimination in Nigeria since the countries independence 8 years ago. Seeking to maintain national unity, Nigeria has imposed economic sanctions on Biafra, and military clashes between Nigeria and Biafra have broken out. The breakaway state had insufficient resources at the start of the war-it was a net importer of food and had little industry-and depended heavily on its control of petroleum fields for funds to make purchases abroad. The Biafran oil fields have been destroyed in the war, and more than one million of its civilian population are thought to have died as a result of severe malnutrition caused by the Nigerian blockade.