Soviet air power helps subdue bloody riots in Kabul

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 8

Soviet air power helps subdue bloody riots in Kabul

NZPx\-Reuter Ka M Displays of Soviet air power helped Afghan forces quell two days of anti-Govcrnment demonstrations which led to martial law being declared in the Afg’han capital, Kabul, eye-w z itnesses said.

Authorities gave no casualty figures for violence in the mass protests, on Thursday and Friday before the Soviet military planes took to the air. Travellers arriving in the Indian capital; New Delhi, from Kabul said between 50 and 100 civilians were killed in gun-battles with Afghan forces on Friday, the main day of the protests..

Soviet MiG jet fighters and helicopters flew over Kabul on Saturday to back ground operations by the Afghan Army and pro-Government militia to subdue any possible demonstrations. Most shops in the capital stayed closed in protest against the Soviet military presence, Reuter correspondents in Kabul reported.

They said the city remained quiet, although two hotels were attacked. by demonstrators and some foreigners, possibly Russians, were injured.

The Government-controlled Afghan television said disturbances had been organised on the instructions of the United States, China, and Pakistan.

The demonstrations, begun Thursday evening, started again on Friday ' when thousands of Muslim protesters chanting “Allah AlAkhbar” (God is great) gathered near the city centre before Friday prayers, and many more marched in from surrounding areas to join them when Soviet jets began swooping low over Kabul. By noon, Afghan troops and armed activists of the ruling People's Democratic Party had set up blocks on all key roads and Soviet and Afghan helicopter gunships were circling the city’s main trouble spots. Two hours later Radio Afghanistan announced effective martial law ■ and said gatherings of more than four people on the streets were banned.

An unidentified Islamic i underground organisation has! called for a continued com-; mercial strike. ' The authorities announced they had arrested 16 Pakistanis and an American in Kabul. Two Pakistanis and the American would be put on trial accused of being saboteurs. , ' Radio Kabul said that those arrested wanted to link Afghanistan to “cruel, oppressive U.S. imperialism and their godless allies, the rulers of China and reactionary circles in Pakistan.” It urged the , population not to believe what it called criminals, adding, “real Muslims do not kill Muslims and burn their homes. “The U.S.S.R. has always been ot’r best friend and will remain so . . . Soviet soldiers are defending us from foreign aggression . . . They not only respect our sacred religion, but are defending it too,” the radio added. The West German Foreign Minister (Mr hans-Dietrich Genscher) said the disturbances showed that the Soviet Union had underestimated the resistance of the Afghan people.

“With its decision to occupy'Afghanistan, the Soviet Union clearly underestimated the reaction of the Third World and the West and also the will for freedom of the Afghan people,” Mr Genscher said. “The sooner it draws the consequences out of this the better,” the foreign minister added. “But if it does, nobody should show triumph about it. We want peace and co-operation, not triumph. ’ In Peking, China has denied a Soviet accusation that it has set up a training centre for saboteurs in northern Kashmir and has' said Moscow is trying to find a pretext to invade Pakistan. “On February 18, Radio Moscow cooked up a lie alleging that Chinese experts had set up a training centre in free Kashmir for saboteurs and terrorises who

would. soon be sent to Afghanistan and India.” the New China News Agency said.

"The Kremlin is trying to put pressure on Pakistan and is seeking pretexts- for its invasion of that coun-try,”-it added. In Islamabad, Afghan refugee sources have said that Sultan Ali Keshtmand, vicepresident of Afghanistan's Revolutionary Council and! third in line, has- died in Russia. • According to one senior Afghan diplomat who fled the country on Thursday. Mr Keshtmand's coffin . was given full military honours upon arriving in Kabul from Moscow. Officially, Mr Keshtmand, who was Vice-Premier and Planning Minister as- well as council vice-president, left Kabul for medical treatment in the Soviet Union on Febuary 7. However, reports in Kabul said that he was wounded in a shooting incident. Radio Kabul has made no mention yet of Mr Keshtmand, who was considered close to President Babrak Karmal. He had been imprisoned for a year and a half under the former regime but was released after the Soviet intervention last December. In Moscow, the Soviet President (Mr Leonid Brezhnev) denied that the Kremlin has carried out any military intervention in Afghanistan and said Soviet troops would be withdrawn as soon as “outside interference” in that nation ceased.

Mr Brezhnev repeated Moscow’s position that Soviet troops were invited into Afghanistan by the Government under the terms of a Soviet-Afghan treaty. Although the speech was regarded by many analysts as an uncompromising repetition of Moscow’s line, West ■ Germant' cautiously welcomed it and urged Moscow and Washington to discuss it.