Bloody coup topples Afghan leader

Press, 29 December 1979, Page 1

Bloody coup topples Afghan leader

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad The former Afghan Vice-President, Mr Babrak Karma', a rigid Marxist ideologue and political exile for 18 months, emerged y cerday as Afghanistan’s leader after a bloody coup in which his predecessor was toppled and executed. Kabul Radio, in a broadcast at 11.10 a.m. (N.Z. time) yesterday, said that the deposed President Hafizullah Amin. who himself came to power after a coup last September, was executed after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of crimes against the Afghan people. The radio also said that the new Government had asked for and received an assurance from the Soviet Union of urgent assistance. including military aid.

The coup came after United States warnings 'hat the Soviet Union had

made a big airlift of troops and military equipment to Kabul in recent days. The Carter Administration has accused Moscow of blatant interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. United States officials in Washington said yesteray that Soviet combat troops, believed to number up to 10,000 throughout Afghanistan, had taken part in the coup. Informed ’ diplomatic sources in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad said early yesterday that the sporadic clatter of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout Kabul during Thursday night, and this was followed by heavy fighting. The outbreak. in which tanks and artillery were used, coincided with a big airlift of Soviet troops to Kabul Airport and to Bagram Air Force base. 80km north of Kabul, during the last week.

The sources said that several tanlis thundered up to what was President Amin’s residence, the People’s Palace. and opened fire.

The coup was the third tine nature of the counin Afghanistan, a strategic buffer State, in 19 months, and reflected the Byzan-

tine nature of the country’s politics which have been additionally complicated by a war against Muslim guerrillas opposed to pro-Soviet administrations.

According to Kabul Radio. Mr Karmal has pledged that the “Executioners of the Amin re-

gime” would be put on trial by revolutionary and religious courts.

He also promised that the new Government, would respect the Muslim faith and clergy. However, the insurgents are unlikely to welcome Mr Karmal as their new leader because of his more pro-Soviet stance than his predecessors, although he is regarded as more pragmatic and thus possibly more open to compromise. Nineteen months of political upheaval in Afghanistan began in April, 1978, when President Mohammad Daoud was toppled in a military-led coup.

President Daoud’s successor, Nur Muhammand Taraki, a Left-wing poet who came to power with strong Soviet backing, was overthrown by Mr Amin, and died of wounds suffered during a palace revolution on September 14.

Mr Karmal who is believed to be in his late 40s, has been appointed Secretary-General of the Central Committee Of the ruling p r o-Marxist People’s Democratic Party, and President of the Revolutionary Council. His Vice-President was named as Mr Asadollah Sarwari, and two former Cabinet Ministers under the late President Taraki were named to the Revolutionary Council. Mr Karmal spent the last 18 months in political exile after being banished within months of helping the People’s Democratic Party to overthrow President Daoud. In Moscow, the Soviet news agency, Tass, has quoted Mr Karmal as saying that the Afghan people had destroyed “the bloody dynasty” of President Amin.

Profile of new leader, page 6