Daoud last of dynasty

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 8

Daoud last of dynasty

! NZPA Islamabad The Afghan Army rebels (who have overthrown President Mohammed Daoud in Kabul have toppled the last of a dynasty of chieftains and nationalistic kings who imposed authoritarian rule on Afghanistan for over two centuries.

Under the title of President, Sardar (Prince) Daoud

(exercised autocratic power in the republic he declared after ousting his brother-in-law, King Sahir Shah, in a 1973 military coup backed by "onnq armv off' "Born into the royal family in uuiy, iao», rruive Uauua was the power behind the throne before he became its master. From his childhood, he was aware of the subtle balance among the tribes,

factions, and families which jousted for power in the country. He rose to political prominence in the shadow of his brother-in-law, whom he served as Prime Minister (also holding the portfolios of interior and defence) during the decade from 1953 to 1963.

For the next 10 years, Prince Daoud plotted more or less openly against the throne, to which he had no claim by direct descent. He gathered around him Soviet-trained officers who wanted to see Afghanistan move away from autocracy toward socialism on the Soviet model.

After the 1973 coup, the king abdicated and was sent off, with comfortable revenues, to exile in Italy.

Mohammed Daoud’s background was enough to ensure the support of the Afghan tribes, which are organised on a strictly hierarchical model and do not look kindly on upstarts.

in'-'frallpr’ r ’ t ' dent, Daoud sought to move away num uie nimj •*'v» who got him there. The reforms made by his regime did not basically change the realities of Afghan society. Just as had often been ’the case under the monarchy, part of the country suffered last winter from food shortages and large amounts of wheat had to be imported. In the eyes of the officers who eventually found him an obstacle to be removed. President Daoud did not succeed in making a clean break between his royal predecessors’ way of governing and his own. He was a secretive man. his eyes usually hidden behind' dark glasses with thick lenses. He rarely left the Presidential Palace (the former Royal Palace), where he surrounded himself with a close-knit influential coterie of advisers and relatives.

Ironically, it was only after his first visit overseas that he was overthrown. In recent weeks, while preparing for a meeting of the non-aligned movement in Kabul, his travels took him to meetings with the Indian Prime Minister (Mr Morarji Desai), the Egyptian President (Mr Anwar Sadat), and King Khaled, of Saudi Arabia.

The touchy nationalism of the early years of Mohammed Daoud’s Presidency gave way little by little to a taste for compromise which was alien to Afghan tradition.

The tendency to meet opponents half way led him to sign an agreement with Iran recently on sharing the waters of the Helmand River, a problem which had noisoned relations between Kabul and Teheran for decades.