Who’s who among the Afghan guerrillas

Press, 8 February 1980, Page 10

Who’s who among the Afghan guerrillas

From the ‘Economist,’ London

If you want to find an . Afghan leader who could rally the tribes against the Russians, do not look among the refugees or resting guerrillas in Peshawar, in Pakis-' tan. He is more likely, to. be . holed up in a cave in Afghanistan’s mountains, sheltering from the snow and out of reach of Russian bombs, surviving on hoarded food, and waiting for the spring. The only thing such a man would have in common with the self-styled leaders.’ who, from exile in Pakistan, often claim sensational vic-< tories for largely imaginary forces, would be his fierce nationalism and. his hatred of anyone seen to be a puppet of a foreign power. Beyond that the ties end. The one possible exception is Sayed Ahmad Gailani of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan. Aged 48, he is the son of a well-known religious, figure who was ad- - visef to Afghanistan’s first reforming monarch, King Ammunallah. : Mr Gailani is : Afghanis-

tan’s nearest equivalent to a social democrat. He accepts that the Soviet Union should wield the influence expected of a large and. important neighbour, butrefuses to compromise on the country’s Islamic character, its nonalignment and its independence. . ■ - He has personal links with the 'Saiidi ruling family (which have helped to keep his reforming zeal in check). /-He has attracted to his banner many middle-class exiles, including, former diplomats and, Government officials. His ideas of a modern Afghanistan are in many ways similar to those of the late President Noor Mohammed Taraki. Mr Gailani acted as Mr Taraki’s adviser for the first two months after the Soviet-backed coup in April, 1978, until it became clear that Islam was not to be dominant in the new regime. Then, in October, 1978, he left his stockaded fortress at Sorkhrod, near Jalalabad, and went to Pakistan to organise a war of resistance.

The province of Paktia, which lies south of Kabul and adjoins the Pakistani frontier, is his main base. He claims the support of up to 6 million of Afghanistan’s 17 million people. His nephewi and other relatives are in Pakista.. organising the war. Here he is different from .most of the other political leaders, who just send their agents across the border with money to buy people’s loyalty. The other five Peshawarbased rebel- groups are a hotchpotch of religious extremists who bicker among themselves, bribe each other’s followers, steal each other’s guns and claim as supporters people who are mostly ordinary villagers, but who at their chieftain’s bidding will attack a Government outpost or murder an objectionable official. They joined with Mr Gailani’s followers in a show of unity for benefit of the Islamic conference in Islamabad last week, but their Islamic Alliance for Liberation

of Afghanistan is not likely to amount to more .than the sum of its parts. The noisiest and best organised of these groups is the faction of Hazbe Islam! Afghanistan (the Islamic party of Afghanistan) led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. It has a hospital in Peshawar and a clandestine radio in Kunar province and never seems short of funds. A lot of the money ends up in the pockets of mullahs in the P u s h t u-speaking regions along the Pakistani frontier, and food and shelter come only to those villagers who are prepared to join the party.- ■" It wants to return women to the veil, outlaw foreign culture, impose a restricted franchise for “men of respect and orthodox religions,” and it vehemently despises the former monarchy. A party with similar objectives but with less support is the rump of Hezbe Islami led by Yunus Khalis. Next in line is an alliance of figureheads, with no guerrilla forces to call its own, named Paiman-i-Ittehadi Islami (Unity of Islamic Forces). This alliance in-

eludes the National Liberation Front of Afghanistan led by Sibghatullah Mujaddidi, a member of a leading Kabul family. He has been out of . the country, for at. least 10 years teaching Islamic studies in Libya and Scandinavia. Another group —-is-- the Jamiat-e-Islami party, another relatively wealthy fundamentalist group, led by Professor Burhaniddin Rabanni who is the frontman for the new rebel aliance. Its men usually vie with the Hezbe people in buying support. Then there is the Harakeli Iniqilab Islami party (Movement for . the Islamic Revolution) which seems to have no members save its leader, Mohammed Nabi Mohammedi. . Following behind the pack is the newly created’ New Afghanistan Union National Islamic party, whose main claim to recognition seems to be that it operates out of one of Peshawar’s seediest English boarding houses and wants King Zahir Shah back on the throne. After that there is a vacuum into which falls every Afghan, in the central and eastern

parts of the country, who is against the Kabul Government. Most of these men have no' political leaders. Nor do most of the rebel, tribesmen in eastern Afghanistan, >■ where the rebellion began — and which the meh in Peshawar say they control. • Previous attempts to corral the rival guerrilla bands into an alliance, with Saudi money as the lure, have collapsed partly because of different interpretations of Islamic ideology, but mainly because of unresolvable disagreements over leadership. There. is no reason to expect the present unity to last. Perhaps, however, the chances will be better after the rebels have had their first taste of conflict with the Soviet Army and realise their need for expensive new weapons. Already the guerrilla groups have made shopping lists of anti-tank rockets and < anti-aircraft guns, and they are unlikely to be able to afford these in any quantities until they go some way towards what their Middle Eastern backers want.