DOCSLIB.ORG

Afghan Refugees

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Afghan Refugees CANADA'SREFUGE PERIODICAL ON REFUGEES Vol. 9, No. 1 SPECIALISSUE October 1989 Afghan Refugees When Duke University Professor and Afghan scholar Louis Dupree was asked a year ago to edit a.specia1issue of Refuge on Afghanistan, he immediately set to to work on this project with the help of his wife, Nancy Hatch Dupe. The issue was beginning to take shape when Louis Dupedied of lung cancer in March of this year. Now that the project has been completed, we are dedicating the mdtsto his memory. Louis Dupree: In Memoriam by Anders Fange There is a story about Louis Dupree. He said the same thing on numerous dare to hope any more; even then he never Once, in the early eighties, during a dis- lectures around the world, in articles and expressed a single doubt that the Afghan cussion about Afghanistan in the State intenriews, in every possible fora where people would reach victory in the end. Department, an expert on the Soviet he could make his voice heard. Even dur- Of course, there were a lot of people Union said that the Afghans will lose this ing the worst years, between 1984 and who said that Louis certainly knew a lot war because there has so far never been a 1986, when the Soviets tried to bomb about Afghanistan, but his analysis case in history where the Soviets have left Afghanistan back to the Stone Age, when emanated more from feelings than from a country once they have put their hands they attacked furiously in a last desperate facts. I was one of them, and I was wrong. on it. His argument was simple. The attempt to crush the Afghan spirit of resis- Louis was right, because he had, above all, Soviet Union was a superpower with all tance, when many of us who supported its resources and the biggest war machine and believed in the Afghan cause did not Continued on page 2 the world had ever seen; Afghanistan was a backward country, one of the poorest, IN THIS ISSUE: with no army, a divided resistance, little organization, and so on. Louis was there Louis Dupree: A lkibute by M. Nazif Shahrani Page a and he objected. He told the man: The Canadian Response to Afghanistan by Jane Thomas Page 4 "Perhaps you know the Soviet Union, but Aid in Afghanistan: Limitations and Possibilities by Andus Fdnge Page 8 it is obvious that you don't know the Problems and Prospects of Repatriation by Peter Rees page 11 Afghans. If you did, you would also know that they will not give up, that Prospects for Afgan Women After Repatriation by Nancy Hatch Dupree page 14 they'll go on fighting whatever the odds, Refigees and International Relations reviewed by Lisa Gilad page 17 they will continue to resist until the From the Jews to the Tamils reviewed by lndhu Rajagopal page 18 Soviets are forced out of their country." one thing in common with the Afghans, came a long way. He saw the Soviets a pig, to the satisfaction of many and to which was crucial in his vrofound and leaving, but he did not reach his own per- the dismay of those who deserved it. unique understanding of them; just like sonal victory, which would have been to The& are too few Louis Duprees in them he was not a quitter. Just like the see his beloved Kabul once again. The this world and now there is one less; the Afghans he was a fighter. Afghan people, and we who are working world is a poorer place. Now he has left us, attacked from to help them, have lost one of our best Anders ~an~estarted as a reporter in within by that dreadful disease. But I friends and staunchest supporters. We Afghanistan in 1981. He has been the refuse to believe that he gave up. I am will miss his deep knowledge and good Director of the Swedish Committee for convinced that he fought until that stage advice, his stories and pkes, the spirit he Afghanistan - one of the oldest and today where no fights are possible any more, created around him. But, above all, we the biggest crossbord& humanitarian agency where you are left alone with your aeator. will miss his straight-forwardness and working in Afghanistan - since 1983. He He died the same way he had lived. He honesty, his habit of calling things for was also one-if the founders of the Agency what they are; because Louis Dupree Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief never hesitated to call a cat a cat and a pig (ACBAR) and is now its Vice-chairman. CANADA'S PERIODICAL ON REFUGEES The Current Situation REFUGE Most Members of the Citizens swept dusty plain. Many of the tents had Cemrefor Refugee Studies. York Univenily. Commission on Afghan Refugees who vis- been blown down by strong winds, and Suite 234. AdmlnbtrallveStudies BuHdlng. 4700 Keel8 Street. North York. Ontario. Canada M3J 1P3. ited Pakistan previously accepted the could not be reconstituted because of Telephone: (416) 736-5863. Fax: (416) 738-5687. widely held view of gov&menk and the defective poles. Safe water and food had Eledronic Mall Via Binet Address: REFUGE@YORKVMl. general population that: "the regime in to be brought in by truck. The provision Kabul will probably fall soon after the of basic health care was inadequate. I Guest Editor: Soviet withdrawal". was told that ten children had died the Nancy Hatch Dupree Obviously, the conventional wisdom previous day and was shown several fresh was wrong and it now appears that the graves. Throughout my visit the refugee Editor: fighting will continue on for an indetermi- elders pleaded with me for additional Howard Adelrnan nate time that some speculate will last for help. An obvious point to be made is that years unless there is-a negotiated settle- programmes for refugees in Pakistan must Executive Editor: ment between the government in Kabul not yet be de-escalated. To the contrary, Alex Zisman and the Interim Government based in additional support services are urgently Peshawar. Here it should be pointed out requited by the new arrivals. Illustrations: that one member of the Commission, The above comments have been excerpted Herminio Ord6iiez Robert Cranborne, did not concur with from James C. Strickler's "Report of Visit this assumption. In an article in the (5122-5128189) to Peshawar and Hangu Circulation Manager: Spectator (August 6, 19881, he points out Pakistan ",dated June 16, 1989. The author Helen Gross that the Geneva accords provided an is is a Member of the Citizens Commission on agreement for the Soviet withdrawal from Afghan ~efu~'. Assisfant to the Circulation Manager: Afghanistan, but did not contain provi- Ching Man (C.M.) Wong sions that would guarantee peace. He dis- cusses the "fiendishly complicated politi- Canadian Aid RqScgc is dedicated to the encouragement of assistance to refugees by providing a forum for cal situation" and opines that the existing According to Government of Canada sharing information and opinion on Canadian and parties are not likely to become more sources, about $300 million has been international issues pertaining to refugees. It is effective and that the West should encour- provided to Afghan refugees between published four times a year by the Centre for Refugee Studies. It is a non-pfit, independent age the commanders "to take power into 1980 and 1988 through the United Fodical supported by private donations and by their own hands". Nations and the Government of subscriptions. It is a forum for discussion, and the As a consequence of the continued Pakistan. It is mostly in the form of views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of fighting, substantial numbers of Afghan its fundem or staff. food commodities. While this may All materials in Refuge may be reproduced refugees, largely from the Jalalabad area, sound like a lot of money, given the without permission unless copyrighted or other- continue to flee to Pakistan. During my magnitude and duration of this refugee wise indicated. Credit should be given to the stay, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, crisis, it is not. It works out to far less author or source, if named. Subscription rates for one year are $20.00 in Benazir Bhutto, announced that 800-1,000 than one cent per day per refugee. Canada and US $25.00 overseas. Please enclose new refugees are now arriving daily in Government-to-government aid was payment with your order. Pakistan. Others have cited a figure of also withdrawn in 1980. That is still in 70,000-75,000 new refugees since effect. In 1988, however, Canada Logo design: Dreadnaught Co-operative Inc., Toronto November 15, 1988. I visited one of the restored aid through NGOs to refugee camps for new arrivals, the Afghanistan. Only about $2 million has Layout: PAGES Q\a5 Shindand Camp near Hangu. There were been provided (through NGOs) inside an estimated 8,000-10,000 refugees living Afghanistan during the whole war thus Second CkrMail Registntbn N. 5512 IS6N 0229-5113 in tents, under a glaring sun, on a wind- far. Louis Dupree: A Tribute by M. Nazif Shahrani Afghanistan's natural and human on Afghanistan spanned some forty years, and outspoken advocates in the interna- resources have been devastated by the beginning in 1949, when he participated in tional arena. The fact that just a few weeks more than a decade-long direct and indi- an archaeological excavation in before Louis's death the defeated Red rect military aggression by the Soviet Southwestern Afghanistan as a Harvard Army was in the last phase of its final Union against her small, traditionally non- graduate student, until his death, due to departure from Afghanistan must have aligned, Muslim neighbouring state in lung cancer, on March 21, 1989.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Remembering Nancy Hatch Dupree 2: Nancy in the Words of Others
    Remembering Nancy Hatch Dupree 2: Nancy in the words of others Author : AAN Team Published: 21 October 2017 Downloaded: 5 September 2018 Download URL: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/remembering-nancy-hatch-dupree-2-nancy-in-the-words-of-others/?format=pdf It is 40 days since the historian, archivist and activist on behalf of Afghans, Nancy Hatch Dupree, died, aged 89. She had spent decades of her life in Afghanistan or, like many Afghans, in exile in neighbouring Pakistan. She was the author of guidebooks on Afghanistan and a publisher of books. Then, first with her husband, Louis, and, after he died in 1989, by herself, Nancy amassed the most extensive archive of documents of the last forty years. Those 100,000 documents are now housed in a special building, known as the Afghanistan Collection at Kabul University (ACKU). Last night, in London, friends and colleagues met to celebrate Nancy’s life and mark her passing. Here, we publish some of the tributes that were made that evening. 1 / 12 Our first despatch to mark Nancy’s ‘fortieth day’, a republishing of an interview she gave in 2007, can be read here. See also AAN’s obituary for her and our report about the opening of the AFKU here. Shoaib Sharifi, journalist My first exposure to the name ‘Nancy Dupree’ goes back 18 years to 1998 when I joined Voice of Sharia, the official name of Radio Afghanistan under the Taliban. At a time when the world thought of Afghanistan as in one of its darkest eras and against all odds, as a newly recruited intern, I was assigned to introduce Afghanistan, its art and culture to the world via Radio Voice of Sharia’s English Programme.
    [Show full text]
  • Nancy Hatch Dupree Says It May Be Time to Move On
    World April 18, 2013 2:55 PM ‘Grandmother of Afghanistan’ Nancy Hatch Dupree says it may be time to move on Dupree came to Afghanistan in 1962 with her first husband, a U.S. diplomat. She’ll leave, if she can finally make herself do it, as a revered figure. During her decades here, she’s been ejected by the Russians, turned down a request for help from Osama bin Laden, guided countless relief efforts, aided refugees, advised journalists, politicians and the United Nations, and written five travel guides and hundreds of articles on topics including Afghan history, archaeology, women issues and libraries. Nancy Hatch Dupree stands outside the new Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, which she helped establish. MCT By Jay Price - McClatchy Newspapers o LinkedIn o Google+ o Pinterest o Reddit o Print o Order Reprint of this Story After more than half a century of helping Afghans preserve their history and culture and improve their lives, Nancy Hatch Dupree’sACKU extraordinary run in Afghanistan might be ending. Dupree came to Afghanistan in 1962 with her first husband, a U.S. diplomat. She’ll leave, if she can finally make herself do it, as a revered figure who’s been called the grandmother of this country, a title used even by President Hamid Karzai. During her decades here, she’s been ejected by the Russians, turned down a request for help from Osama bin Laden, guided countless relief efforts, aided refugees, advised journalists, politicians and the United Nations, and written five travel guides and hundreds of articles on topics including Afghan history, archaeology, women issues and libraries.
    [Show full text]
  • Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University
    Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University Nation Building through Information Sharing 1 ABOUT ACKU The Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University (ACKU), formerly the ACBAR Resource and Information Centre (ARIC), as envisioned by Professor Louis Dupree, was established in Peshawar (Pakistan) in 1989. Professor Louis Dupree often stated that his ambition was to understand Afghanistan “from one cell up” and during the 1970s, the Dupree home in Kabul was filled with Afghan and inter- national scholars and students exchanging knowledge and ideas. During the war years, Louis gained new insights while traveling across the border from Peshawar; meanwhile, Nancy Hatch Du- pree kept track of happenings among the world’s largest refugee population. Here was history in the making, a crucial component of Afghan heritage that desperately needed to be recorded. Louis then launched the idea of a resource centre that would preserve information from a wide variety of sources on every aspect of this traumatic period. Following Professor Louis’s death in 1989, Nancy picked up the reins. Time Photo: Magazine In 2005, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, then Chancellor of the Kabul University, provided temporary space in the University’s Main Library. In 2007, President Karzai authorized development funds to be made available from the Government’s budget for the con- struction of a new facility at the University Campus. In 2007, the Dupree Foundation was established in New York to support the program in Afghanistan (http://dupreefoundation.org). 2 Photo: David Gill David Photo: On 27 March 2013 ACKU inaugurated the new building, located analyses, unique documents charting the struggle for women’s at the center of the Kabul University Campus.
    [Show full text]
  • The Soviet-Afghan War: a Superpower Mired in the Mountains
    WARNING! The views expressed in FMSO publications and reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR: A SUPERPOWER MIRED IN THE MOUNTAINS by Lester W. Grau, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS. This article was previously published in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies March 2004 Volume 17, Number 1 The Soviet-Afghan War involved more than the Soviets and Mujahideen resistance. Afghan communists (the DRA) were involved in the immediate struggle and a large number of countries supplied the Mujahideen during this "Cold War" hot war. Their struggle and their lessons are outlined. The author does not usually write without footnotes, but he wrote this article during a trip to Iraq and lacked his reference library. Needless to say, he drew on his knowledge about the war and the knowledge he gained from noted authorities on the subject. These include Ali Jalali, Barnett Rubin, Riaz Khan, Mohammad Youssaf, Brace Amstutz, Artem Borovik, Aleksandr Lyakhovskiy, Aleksandr Mayorov, Scott McMichael, Makhmut Gareev, David Isby, Boris Gromov, Rasul Rais, and Louis Dupree. Soaring mountains dominate Afghanistan and shape its culture, history, social structure, customs, politics and economy. Vast, trackless deserts, mighty rivers and lush cropland further define this remote country. Militarily, the operational key terrain is the limited road network that connects its cities in a giant ring with side roads to Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There are only 24 kilometers of railroad in Afghanistan--and these are split in two unconnected segments--leftover spurs from the former Soviet Union’s incursion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Taliban, Foreign Occupation, and Afghan
    1 RESISTANCE BY OTHER MEANS: THE TALIBAN, FOREIGN OCCUPATION, AND AFGHAN NATIONAL IDENTITY A dissertation presented by Mariam Atifa Raqib to The Law, Policy and Society Program In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Law, Policy and Society Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April, 2011 2 RESISTANCE BY OTHER MEANS: THE TALIBAN, FOREIGN OCCUPATION, AND AFGHAN NATIONAL IDENTITY by Mariam Atifa Raqib Policy analysts frequently portray the Taliban resistance as an exclusively Islamic movement. Culturally deterministic notions regarding Islamic societies have negatively influenced western governments’ policies towards Muslim states. The research here advances the hypothesis that the current conflict in Afghanistan is not about “Islam.” At its core the Taliban resistance is a nationalist challenge to foreign forces and their Afghan allies. Furthermore, the roots of this movement are foreign occupation, continued years of war and violence, and a lack of genuine effort on the part of the incumbent regime to implement necessary socio-economic and political reforms. This work claims that the success of the Taliban movement is firmly rooted in their appropriation of religious symbols, discourse and terminology — particularly Shariat, or Islamic law — to channel the frustrations of a grieving population. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Law, Policy and Society in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Northeastern University, April 2011 3 Acknowledgements This dissertation has culminated from many years of research. I am privileged to have a group of people who have been supportive to me.
    [Show full text]
  • Background Guide
    Zahir Shah’s Cabinet, Afghanistan 1963 MUNUC 33 ONLINE TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________ CHAIR’S LETTER………………………….….………………………………..….3 CRISIS DIRECTOR’S LETTER..…………..………………………………………..5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN………………………………………….6 CURRENT ISSUES…………………………………………..…………………...21 ROSTER……………………………………………………..…………………...31 BIOGRAPHIES……………………………………………..…………………...33 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………..……………………………..…………………...45 2 Zahir Shah’s Cabinet, Afghanistan 1963| MUNUC 33 Online CHAIR’S LETTER ______________________________________________________ Dear Delegates, Welcome to Afghanistan! My name is Karina Holbrook, and I am the Chair (aka Zahir Shah) of this committee. As chair, I hope to be fair to everyone; more importantly, I want the committee to be fun. The goal of this conference is pedagogy, and I believe that this can best be done through an immersive, interactive experience - in other words, in a continuous crisis committee! I hope that this committee will give all delegates the opportunity to truly shine, both in the frontroom and in the backroom, in the pursuit of a new Afghanistan. On that note, there are a couple of things I would like to address. First, we will not be tolerating any remarks about the Taliban; not only is it completely inappropriate (and will be addressed accordingly), but it is also completely irrelevant to our time - we are, after all, in the 1960s, long before the Taliban even existed. Also, in that vein, I will not be tolerating any Islamophobic, racist, or sexist comments, either “in character” or to a delegate. “Historical accuracy” or “because my character was like that in real life” is not an excuse - after all, at the end of the day we are delegates in 2020, and we can choose to be mindful where our characters did not.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering Nancy Hatch Dupree 1: Nancy in Her Own Words
    Remembering Nancy Hatch Dupree 1: Nancy in her own words Author : AAN Team Published: 20 October 2017 Downloaded: 5 September 2018 Download URL: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/remembering-nancy-hatch-dupree-1-nancy-in-her-own-words/?format=pdf It is 40 days since the historian, archivist and activist on behalf of Afghans, Nancy Hatch Dupree, died, aged 89. As a tribute to this remarkable woman, we are publishing two pieces. The first is an interview which Nancy gave in 2007 to Markus Hakansson for a book authored by Nancy and published by the Afghanistan Swedish Committee, which features 58 chronicles about Afghanistan. In this interview, Nancy tells how she came to Afghanistan and fell in love with the country and with her husband Louis. She describes the fifteen wonderful years they had, excavating archaeological sites and with her writing guide books. She tells of the 1978 coup, Louis’ imprisonment and there eventual exile to Pakistan where they set up a project to collect and collate information. The extract ends with her eventual return to Kabul. AAN will publish a second dispatch which will be a collection of tributes from people who knew Nancy. Nancy Hatch Dupree moved back to the Afghan capital a few years after this interview took place. In 2013, she inaugurated the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University in 2013 (six years 1 / 20 after she secured initial funding for it of two million dollars). A description of the centre, which houses the now 100,000 document archive and provides research facilities to all, can be found here).
    [Show full text]
  • The Pashtun Tribal System* by Bernt Glatzer
    The Pashtun Tribal System* by Bernt Glatzer Chapter 10 in: In G. Pfeffer & D. K. Behera (eds.): Concept of Tribal Society (Contemporary Society: Tribal Studies, Vol 5). New Delhi: Concept Publishers, 2002, pp 265-282. Introduction We have inherited a somewhat fuzzy usage of the term ‘tribe’ and ‘tribal’ from early British anthropology. ‘Tribe’ was often used in a rather derogatory manner for relatively small ethnic groups who lived as ‘underdeveloped’ (formerly called ‘primitive’ or even ‘savage’) minorities, far from the majorities’ cultural and social mainstream. No wonder that the term ‘tribe’ became obsolete in many continents, and former objects of anthropological investigation are nowadays less ready to accept labels for their respective ethnic groups which seem derogatory to them. However, in the usage of English in the north-western parts of Subcontinent and in West Asia the term 'tribe' or in its equivalents in the local languages ('qawm', 'qabila', 'il', tayfah' etc.) has no derogatory connotation. To the contrary, it is used with pride as a marker of nobility. Belonging to a tribe means to be of distinguished and old ancestry, to belonging to genuine people, to be dependable. As a tribal one is bound by a network of primordial obligations on the solid basis of well structured genealogical ties. Such notions are linked to pride and honour, not to inferiority. Arab rulers would be deeply offended if their tribal background was questioned, Afghan dignitaries and intellectuals increasingly use their tribal names as a second name, a similar tendency is noticeable in Pakistan, e.g. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, a former President of Pakistan preferred to appear in tribal costume on official occasions.
    [Show full text]
  • Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State
    Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State Nick Cullather For suggestions on how to use this article in the United States history survey course, see our “Teaching the JAH” Web site supplement at <http://www.indiana.edu/ ~jah/teaching>. In May 1960, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee left Kandahar and drove ninety miles on freshly paved roads to Lashkar Gah, a modern planned city known locally as the New York of Afghanistan. At the confluence of the Helmand and Arghandab rivers, close against the ancient ruins of Qala Bist, Lashkar Gah’s eight thousand residents lived in suburban-style tract homes surrounded by broad lawns. The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country’s best hospitals, Afghanistan’s only coeduca- tional high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multi- purpose dam project funded by the United States. This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. “The domain of the Helmand Valley Authority,” he reported, “has become a piece of America inserted into the Afghan landscape. The new world they are conjuring up out of the desert at the Helmand River’s expense is to be an America-in-Asia.”1 Toynbee’s image sits uneasily with the visuals of the recent war. In the granite bat- tlescapes captured by the cameras of the Al-Jazeera network in the days after Septem- ber 11, 2001, Afghanistan appeared as perhaps the one spot on earth unmarked by the influence of American culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Report
    Research Report Exploring Perceptions of Love and Forgiveness Among the International and Local Aid Community in Afghanistan by Lola Cecchinel Research Report: Exploring Perceptions of Love and Forgiveness Among the International and Local Aid Community in Afghanistan by Lola Cecchinel Table of Contents About the Author ....................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 3 From the Fetzer Institute ........................................................................................................... 3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction................................................................................................................................. 4 Love, Compassion, and Building Bridges ................................................................................ 8 The Role of the Media ............................................................................................................. 12 History, Heritage, and Forgiveness ......................................................................................... 12 Dealing with the Past: The Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization ...... 15 Resilience, Culture, and Narrative Traditions ........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • From Peshawar to Kabul: Preserving Afghanistan’S Cultural Heritage During Wartime
    Laila Hussein Moustafa* From Peshawar to Kabul: Preserving Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage during Wartime This article profiles the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University (ACKU) as an example of an organization that has successfully engaged in preserving a nation’s cultural heritage during a time of war. The ACKU has emerged from, and been engaged in, efforts to preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage from the time of the Soviet occupation until today. Central to this story is the work of an American scholar, Nancy Hatch Dupree, who began to collect and preserve materials while she was in an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1989. Those materials became the foundation for what is now the largest library and research center in Afghanistan. The story of the ACKU sheds light on how librarians, scholars, gov- ernments, and nongovernmental organizations can act in collaboration to preserve and protect cultural heritage in time of conflict. Historical Context The value of the historical and cultural archives in the Middle East and Near East regions cannot be overestimated. The Middle East and Near East regions are home to the oldest human civilizations, which spurred numerous advancements that have contributed in countless ways to modern society. One of mankind’s earliest legal codes is the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia (r.1792-1750 BCE).1 The first agricultural irrigation system was used in the Nile Valley of Egypt more than 6,000 years ago, and the first known library was the Library of Alexandria, which was es- tablished in the third century BCE.2 The Middle East and Near East were home to the birth of three of the world’s major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
    [Show full text]
  • By Louis Dupree
    • by LouisDupree he leftist coup d'etat of April 27, 1978, which fighting in and around Kabul. In their first public toppled the government of Afghanistan headed statements, the leaders of the newly declared Demo­ T by President Mohammad Daoud was brought cratic Republic of Afghanistan (ORA) insisted that on by a series of accidents. Its outcome was also the they were not Communists and that their policies result of accident and makeshift arrangements-of would be based on Afghan nationalism, respect for spur-of-the-moment action rather than of elaborate Islam, economic and social justice, nonalignment in planning. 1 foreign affairs, and respect for all international agree­ The events which precipitated the coup began with ments signed by previous Afghan governments. Few bloodshed on April 17, when Mir Akbar Khyber, a could object to such noble intentions. But as often well-known leftist ideologue, was murdered in Kabul happens after bloody changes of power such as this, by persons whose identity has still not been deter­ the new regime's primary interest soon became the mined. 2 Massive demonstrations at Khyber's burial purs4it of legitimacy and security, at the expense of rites on April 19, during which an estimated 10,000- the human rights or economic well-being of the coun­ 15,000 mourners took to the streets and marched try's population. past the United States Embassy shouting anti­ Before trying to understand what has happened in American slogans, surprised both foreign and Afghan Afghanistan since the coup, however, it is necessary observers. Alarmed, the government of Mohammad to have some sense of the people and parties who Daoud arrested the leading politicians of the Left, but made it.
    [Show full text]