Soviet, Afghan show of force restores peace to Kabul

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 8

Soviet, Afghan show of force restores peace to Kabul

NZPA-Reuter

Kabul

Soviet and Afghan troops have restored calm in Kabul after three days of bloodshed which the Afghan Government said was fomented by the United States to try to topple it.

Tanks guarded key Ministries but most shopkeepers spurned official offers .of protection and refused to .reopen for business. ;Z ‘ they said they feared reprisals . by Muslim- rebels fiehtins President Babrak Karmal’s Moscow-backed Government.

The violence erupted last Thursday with a surge of protest' against the thousands of Soviet troops ,in Af°hanistan. With the return of calm, the Government, in a communique broadcast by Radio Moscow, said it had crushed an attemnted revolt organised by the United States, China, and Pakistan. ' The authorities did 'not. issue casualtv finures. A foreigner said he had counted s(f bodies at one hospital and Kabul residents feared that s<\me 300 people had be p n killed. ' The sources, .who have access to reliable information in Kabul., said hosmtals were strained to the limit. Some had run short of beds and medicine.

“Evidence of large-scale killing is everywhere, particularly’ in the old citv.” one source said. “It is believed there are several hundred dead and the number of wounded could be in the

thousands.” The main road from Kabul to the eastern border with Pakistan remained vulnerable to attack by Islamic guerrilla groups.

Guerrilla roadblocks had prevented the daily bus front Peshawar in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier province from reaching Jalalabad 80km inside Afghanistan for the last two days, sources said.

Moscow newspapers, for the first time since Soviet troops intervened in Afgha-

mistan two months ago, 'admitted, that unrest in the [country was widespread. | They blamed foreign-back-ed counter-revolutionaries. ' The unusually detailed jaccount.of unrest in Afghanistan contrasted with previous Soviet press coverage of Afghanistan which has reported only sporadic violence and suggested that in the main the new Marxist. Government of Babrak: Karmal was winning increasing popular support. But it was in line with President Leonid Brezhnev’s uncompromising speech last. Friday in which he said Soviet troops would remain in Afghanistan while the United States continued to “interfere” in that country's affairs.

The “Pravda”, article appeared to . indicate that the Soviet press would now put the accent more on the alleged interference by Western Powers in Afghanistan to justify ’the continued Soviet military presence there.

The article, said that last , Thursday morning “counterrevolutionary . elements” began distributing leaflets in Kabul, calling on shop owners to stop work and ' create economic difficulties. ■ By lunchtime shops and Government offices had closed and streets hademptied. [ By nightfall, it said. J“armed bands of counterI revolutionaries” appeared on the streets and, using the influence of ■ “reactionary” clergy, had taken advantage of support from confused people. Joined by. criminals and those who had lost their class privileges under Marxist rule, they burst into shops and restaurants and 'began looting, “Pravda” said. I They hijacked cars and set I them ablaze.

The “Pravda” correspondent suggested that the demonstrations petered out once the Afghan Army and the police had arrested an American and 16 Pakistanis. The authorities have said that they will be tried for subversion.

. Helicopters swooped over Kabul at the week-end dropping leaflets warning the population that' mercenaries paid by imperialists were causing destruction and deaths in the capital.

The Government has advanced the nightly curfew by three hours to 8 p.m. and has banned meetings in public of more than four people in a move against plotters. Foreign journalists have not been allowed to leave their hotels to assess the situation.

Afghan diplomats in Moscow quickly denied reports by Afghan refugees in Pakistan that the country’s second Deputy Prime Minister. Sultan Ali Kishtmand, had [died of bullet wounds sustained in a clash in the ruling Revolutionary Council. An embassy counsellor said that Kishtmand was recovering in a Soviet hospital after treatment for a stomach ulcer and was found in “good shape.” The refugee sources in Islamabad said his body had been seen on Thursday .in Kabul.

The embassy described the report as nonsense and said Mr Kishtmand would go back to Kabul next week.

A rebel spokesman in Islamabad reported that civil servants in Kabul had gone on strike against the pres-ence-of Soviet troops. The Afghan Government said, however, that all but. key Ministries were shut because a holiday had been declared.