International Attitudes to Soviet Military Presence - Lifting of US Grain Embargo Against Soviet Union
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Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives), Volume 27, May, 1981 Afghanistan, Page 30879 © 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. Military and Internal Political Developments - International Attitudes to Soviet Military Presence - Lifting of US Grain Embargo against Soviet Union During the second half of 1980 and in early 1981 Afghan rebels (mujaheddin or holy warriors) continued to wage guerrilla warfare against the Soviet troops which had entered the country in late December 1979[see 30229 A; 30381 A] and the Afghan Army. Meanwhile, the Soviet- backed Government of President Babrak Karmal continued to experience factional divisions and the President himself was said to have tried to commit suicide on June 13, 1980, when an Afghan guard was reported killed and two others injured in a shootout as Soviet guards tried to disarm him. The Guardian also claimed on July 23 that President Karmal had threatened in a letter written to President Brezhnev the previous month to resign if he was not allowed a freer hand to run the Government. Administrative changes carried out during 1980 reflected the increasing dominance of the smaller Parcham ("Flag") faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) over the main Khalq ("People") faction, many of whose members were purged in this period. By August 1980 only three Khalqis were said to remain in the Government and the purges had spread to the armed forces, which formed the main basis of support for the Khalq faction. Both the predecessors of President Karmal-Mr Nur Mohammad Taraki (April 1978-September 1979) and Mr Hafizullah Amin (September-December 1979)-belonged to the Khalq faction. After Mr Amin's death at the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, President Karmal (a Parchamite) had been encouraged by the Soviet Union to bring both factions into the Government to ease tensions, but these had in fact increased[For other details see 29037 A.]. In what appeared to be a move to centralize the administration and reduce the power of, notably, the Interior Ministry (led by Maj. Mohammad Ghulabzoi) as well as to exclude Khalqis from the Government, President Karmal had in July 1980 brought a number of government departments under his own direct control and placed Parchamite officials in charge of finance in nine Afghan provinces where Khalqis had previously been in control. He established four departments responsible to himself as Prime Minister to deal with labour and social security, (ii) Islamic teaching, (iii) administrative reform and provincial affairs and (iv) policies and investment, and a presidential advisory council was later set up in August, made up of appointees from various ministries. The influential Education Minister, Dr Anahita Ratebzad, was subsequently in late November given increased powers to supervise the Ministries of Public Health and Information and Culture. Also in November 1980 Dr Ratebzad was appointed head of the peace and friendship committee of the PDPA, while the Deputy Finance Minister (Mr Mehrabuddin Pachiawal) and the provincial governor of Herat were appointed respectively head of the state planning commission and president of state organizations (both posts being raised to ministerial level). On Aug. 17, 1980, Kabul radio confirmed that one of the two Deputy Prime Ministers, Mr Assadullah Sawari (a Khalqi who had been in Moscow since June, officially for medical treatment), had been appointed ambassador to Mongolia. The Minister of Justice, Mr Abdorrashid Arian (also a Khalqi), took on the additional post of Deputy Prime Minister on Sept. 22, it being announced on the same day that Dr Saleh Mohammad Ziray, a member of the PDPA politburo, had been appointed a member of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council. A rebel spokesman announced on Sept. 14 that the Minister for Border Affairs, Mr Faiz Mohammad, had been killed with two other government officials on Sept. 11 as he tried to "buy the loyalty" of tribesmen at the village of Lake Tiga in Paktia province (south-east of Kabul). Mr Muhammed Siddiq Sailani was appointed to replace him on Sept. 22, at which time Mr Abdul Haji Qarizada became Minister of Planning (a post hitherto held by Mr Soltan Ali Keshtmand, a Deputy Prime Minister) and (ii) the Deputy Minister of Industry, Mr Ghulam Mohammed Rahimi, and the Mayor of Kabul (both of them Khalqis) were removed from their posts. Among government members who lost their lives in 1980 were Mr Mohammad Gholam Masimi, the Deputy Minister of Communications (who was reportedly killed by rebels in Kabul on May 24), and Dr Mohammad Wali Yousufi, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education (who was shot dead in Kabul on July 21 in what appeared to be a factional incident). Brig.-Gen. Abdul Qadir, a member of the Presidium of the Revolutionary Council, was also wounded by a Khalqi militant in Kabul on June 16, 1980. According to diplomatic sources in March 1981, the Deputy Agriculture Minister, Mr Abdol Ghafar Lakanawal, had been arrested early that month and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Gen. Baba Jan, dismissed following rumours of anti-government plots. The same sources reported that Col. Khalilday (commander of the Kabul army garrison) had been appointed Deputy Minister of Defence in recognition of his action against "counter-revolutionaries. Against a background of reports of daily murders of PDPA cadres and purges of Khalqis, units of the 14th division of the Afghan Army were reported to have mutinied at Ghazni (south of Kabul) on July 24, 1980, amid a general upsurge of mutinies and threatened revolts elsewhere in the country. The Soviet Union increased its troop activities in the mutinous areas, concentrating on Ghazni, Wardak and Logar provinces (all south of Kabul), and on Aug. 3 Soviet troops were reported to have taken control of Ghazni garrison after a 10-day battle. A similar offensive was launched at Tangi Wardak (about 24 miles west of the capital) and by the second week in August the Wardak and Logar offensives were said to be over. Moreover, diplomatic sources said on July 31, 1980, that Soviet troops had recently suppressed an Afghan Army plot to overthrow the Karmal Government. In other developments, Kabul radio reported on June 14 that three former ministers who had held posts under President Taraki and President Amin had been executed (in addition to the 11 people executed on June 8, 1980 -see page 30362). They were Mr Mohammed Sadiq Alemghar (Planning), Mr Saheb Jan Sahra'i (Border Affairs and also Minister without Portfolio) and Mr Mohammed Zarif (Communications), all of whom had more recently been provincial governors and who belonged to the Khalq faction. Four other former ministers were reported by New Delhi sources at the end of August to have also been executed, namely Prof. Mahmud Suma (Higher Education), Dr Abdurrashid Jalili (Education and later Agriculture), Prof. Mahmud Hashemi (Water and Power) and Mr Khyal Malek Katawazi (Information and Culture). President Karmal on Oct. 16–24 paid an official visit to Moscow, subsequently remaining in the Soviet Union until Nov. 4 for rest and medical treatment. At a dinner in his honour on Oct. 16 President Brezhnev pledged full Soviet support for "revolutionary Afghanistan" against all outside interference and said that the Soviet Union would carry out its "internationalist duty" to Afghanistan and would not allow "provocations by the forces of imperialism and hegemonism" to deprive Afghanistan of its revolutionary gains. Mr Brezhnev said: "Feverish military preparations and unrestrained propaganda-even, it can be said, eulogies of nuclear war-have reached an unprecedented level in the United States. … They are talking with amazing cynicism about unleashing nuclear war as of something normal, almost desirable, and are inuring people to accept this criminal idea. … In short, American imperialism is apparently again embarking on a new cold war and creating a situation threatening universal peace and the security of all peoples. … The game they are playing is extremely dangerous and they may themselves become its first victims.'' He denied that the Soviet Union had any designs against third countries and called for a normalization of the Afghanistan situation, beginning with an agreement with Pakistan . In a statement signed by President Karmal and President Brezhnev on Oct. 16 and published on Oct. 19, both sides declared themselves in favour of a political settlement of the Afghanistan issue which would "contribute to improving the international political climate" . The two sides stressed that "the way to such a settlement lies through effectively ending intervention from the outside, through reaching appropriate agreements between the Governments of Afghanistan and its neighbours, in the first place Pakistan, on the basis of the known proposals of the [Afghan Government]of May 14, 1980"[see page 30383 andalso below]. They added that no plans "affecting the sovereignty of the people of . Afghanistan or disregarding its legitimate Government would meet with success" and that the withdrawal of the "limited military contingent" of Soviet troops could only be considered in the light of a political settlement and not until guarantees of "non-resumption of subversive activities from abroad against the Afghan people and its Government" were given. In an address on Soviet television news on Oct. 19 President Karmal thanked the Soviet Union for its military support, praised its "courageous, humane and peaceful" step