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X~~ . rue. 3 June 1984 News stories Begin on page Chronology. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 Articles. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 13 Report from Nouristan.................. 23 Organizations.......................... 24 Recent Publications..................... 25 Consumer Notes......................... 26 Book Reviews. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 2 7 Kabul Chronology. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 2 Labor Law of the DRA. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 38 Jlr[;~J1Nl5TJ1N rC~Uill, lNL. 20~ E.Q5T ?~5T 5T~EET.. 2~ NErr! l.IC"~· Nl.f j.002~ Line Drawings from the 1982 Afghanistan Calendar The Chicago Afghanistan Relief Committee ABBREVIATIONS USED PT - Pakistan Times CSM - Christian Science Monitor KNT - Kabul New Times NYT - New York Times FEER - Far Eastern Economic Review AWSJ - Asian Wall Street Journal WSJ - Wall Street Journal AICMB - Afghanistan Information Ctr. Monthly Bulletin PDPA- People's Democratic Party of Afghan~stan CC - Central Committee -NFF - National Fatherland Front NWFP - North West Frontier Province DYOA - Democratic Youth Organization of Afghanistan ORA - Democratic Republic of Afghanistan WDOA ~Women's Democratic Organization of Afghanistan RTV - Refugee Tent Village Please send items for the Afghanistan Forum Newsletter to: The Afghanistan Forum, Inc. 201 East 7lst Street, 2K New York, NY 10021 The op~n~ons expressed in this Newsletter are those of the parties and publications involved and are not necessarily those of the Afghanistan Forum. NEWSLETTER subscription rates $10.00 per year (US & Canada) $12.00 per year (foreign) $15.00 per year (institutions) .· - --- .With physical en:e.rgy and mental JSt.rength, . to· j a new life. ' l 11 From the editor: Two extras accompany this issue of the FORUM: 1) a Forum Paper,* "The Central Asia Analogy and the Soviet Union's War in Afghanistan," by Mark Storella, and 2) a list of back issues of the Afghani­ stan Council & Afghanistan Forum News­ letters which will be orderable until October 1, 1984. Should you - or your library - want a complete set or need to fill gaps in your collection, now is the time. We shall not process orders until October 1 so that we can do them SPORTS: from the KNT 2/lll all at once, but don't let that keep you from getting your orders in early. from the NYT 5/20 ~ The deadline for the October issue is September 1. We would like to hear about Fall activi­ ties, publications, etc., as we like to be able to say "will be" in ar­ ticles instead of "was." A great "was," how­ ever, was a concert on 5/20 by Wali Taranasaz (harmonium --& VC?ice i ~ - C~et_ram .. -- Sahni (tabla), Moh'd Quraishi Roya (rehab) and Nairn (dhamboura & voice) at the Alternative Museum in New York City. These former Radio Afghanistan musicians played Afghan folk & popular songs for an Another new masthead for the Kabul appreciative Afghan & kmerican New Times audience (some of whom had paid the $9 The KNT changes its makeup oftener than ticket price) who responded with this publication! Its new masthead, rhythmic hand-clapping & enthusiastic applause. greatly reduced, appears below: *To librarians: Forum Papers replace Afghanistan Occasional & Special Papers. If you are numerically minded, Mr. Storella's paper is #25 (Occasional) ll~8IJL or #5 (Special) in the old papers series. The next Forum Paper will be 11 26. NEW TIMES From THE OREGONIAN 3/21 Afghan ·New Year . TOO LATE TO CLASSIFY •••••••••• · . Debra Denker is a writer, photographer 8Ild filmmaker Those calling for a Soviet _B_D_E_B_R_A_D_E_N_K_S::_R_ currently working 011 a video documentary 011 the Afghan pullout from Afghanistan Y '- . refugees that .is being sponsored by Portland's MUSIC-Gen- . ter forthe Presenratio.'!,_ of E!1!1!!!1$1!Ted Aris. include Bangladesh, the . AS SPRING toucltes the mountain valleys of Afghani- , United Arab Emirates, the stan, there will be little reason for the Afghan people to All-Pakistani Motamar al- celebrate Nawroz, literally "New Day," their traditional Alam al-Islami Convention New Year. · . · ·. · · Before the first Soviet-backed roup in Aprill978 and the. and the European Economic So~iet invasion, the first day of spring was an occasion of Conununity • great merriment in Afghanistan, celebrated with singing, rejoicing. feasting · and great tournaments of buz kashi. or The 5/12 PT reports that Mujahideen wiped out "drag the goat," the national game of Afghanistan. In Kabul, ca 500 Soviet paratroopers in the Dari Anawa the first leaves budded, the fruit trees blossomed, and the scent of lilacs filled the air as a nation celebrated the melting area of the Panjshir; 1200 Karmal troops de­ of the snow and the hope of another season of planting, fected in Anawa & mujahideen shot down 16 heli­ Now, Afghanistan's poet laureate, Khalilullah Khalili, has copters. On May 14, the PT stated that rnujahi­ written in his poem, "New Year of the Wanderers": "Tell deen attacked the Soviets~n Herat last week; Nawroz not to come this year, say not to pass through this and killed 50 of the 3,000 paratroopers dropped country of bloodstained shrouds : ..•" · ·Slx years aft-er the first coup and more than four years · in the Panjshir. The paper says the Soviet since the invasion, the leaves and flow!!rs still bud. But the advance in the Panjshir stopped on 4/28. But only rejoicing ~II be when mujahedeen freedom· fighters . the 5/16 PT says that the DRA began attacks in . win _battles, and the only singing will be the refr;dn of · Kandahar,~erat & Farah after the Panjshir of­ : defiant hope in the spontaneous poetry created and sung by fensive; that 20,000 more Soviet troops were .. •the ·people of Afghanistan. ·• · · -- sent to Afghanistan and that a consignment of There will be no feasting, either in Afghanistan or in the refugee camps in .Pakistan. where nearly 3 tnilli«?~ .refugees . helicopter gunships arrived in Kabul (see chrono­ ' live. If they are registered officially, they survive on 'some 30 logy 4/18). cents a day; if not registered, they survive any way they can, pooling resources _with extended family members who Regarding refugee relief - Turkey donated $1 lakh preceded them into exile. for refugees; Pres. Zia announced that Pakistan Inside Afghanistan, the situation is far worse. Perhaos a will continue its assistance; V.P. Bush, in million internal refugees have fled bombed homes and rJeva­ stated fields. Due to Soviet' attempts to wear down the Pakistan, pledge~ $15m to refugees and visited resistance by plowing under crops and cutting off water refugee elders on 5/17 in Peshawar. supplies to villages in liberated areas, the 1981 harvest was only half that of 1978. Thus, more than 25 percent of the prewar population has been forced into exile. ! «:;.;!t;J. 1-Q:-~ •·v t • ~ ........... , _ ,.. _ _ ~·-. ~ _ · 'The people who remain are living and fighting on little more than bread, tea, yogurt and lumps of brown.sugar . This ' was·the diet on -which I and my escort of mujahedeen existed during my trip last April into KunarProvince. Yet I was struck by the stoicism, stubborn resistance and, always, the generosity of these besieged people. The few eggs available >always·were pressed upon me, the foreign guest, while the .-:mujahedeen marched for 12 llours, often through the night, ·· .on weak green tea and brown sugar. Yet these drawb8cks do not break spirits, and I have _ · heard men vow lrom their hospital beds to return to the · front as soon as a bullet wound is .healed or bandages re­ moved from the stump of a foot amputated due to severe frostbite. ·Another recurring refrain in tbe converSation of men,' women and children, both in refugee camps and inside Af· ghanistan, is the question: "Why won 't America help us more?" They do · not ask for handouts, or for troops or training. They only seek effective weapons to combat heli- CO!)ter gunships. _ A solemn, black-bearded man, .just back from Afghani· stan, once stopped me in a refugee camp and said impas­ sionedly: "Tell your government not to give us rations, but give us anti-aircraft guns to fight the helicopters.", .. ., Spring is a time of hope, and the ·Afghan people in 1984 live on little else but hope and faith. New Year Rally Forum Foto 2 2/23 - FEER - Mohan Ram reports: "By means 3/8 - AICMB - New army regulations an­ of a high voltage line from a point inside nounced: Army service is now 4 years, Uzbekistan ••• Afghanistan is now connected to students who fail courses will go directly the Soviet electricity grid. The link was into the army, secondary students will made in late January & soon Soviet electri­ have to do their army service before at­ city will be available to the fast-growing tending university and students can go industrial town of Mazar-i-Sharif." FEER abroad to study only after they have com­ also r~ports that on 2/11 the DRA accused pleted their military service. On 3/14 the Reagan administration of installing the Bangkok Post reported that a "massive atomic weapon~ in Pakistan. firefight possibly caused by a mutiny, and a rash of desertions among government 2/28 - AIC~ffi - A time bomb exploded in the soldiers hit Kabul after authorities ex- Parchami Student Organization office at tended the term of military service." Kabul University. The desettioD.s contin­ Karga. Som~ sources said ued into last Friday when the fighting was sparked 3/1 - FEER - "An important element in the government soldiers in by a major rebel attack, recently stepped-up war effort by the Af­ the Rishikor area of but others said the rebels joined the fray .after "a ghan resist~nce is the upgrading of weapons Kabul fled, blowing up two mili~ posts behind riot broke out as the word it continues to acquire from clandestine them, according to t!le of the extension of· mili• sources.