Moscow’s credit line

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 11

Moscow’s credit line

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet . Union announced yesterday that it would continue sending free and low-credit supplies to Afghanistan this year as part of a wide-ranging programme of economic aid to the Kabul Government of Babrak Karmal. The official news agency Tass said the supply of “a wide range of consumer and other goods for free and under a long-term State credit” was agreed at a bilateral meeting just ended in the Afghan capital. Tass said that the Soviet Union accounted for 60 per

cent of Afghanistan’s foreign trade last year and that 16 industrial and other main projects were put into operation with Soviet assistance in 1982 and 1983. These 16 enterprises account for about 70 per cent of the State sector of Afghanistan’s industrial economy, it said. Meanwhile the Armed Forces daily newspaper “Krasnaya Zvezda” (Red Star) reported that Afghan Government troops had retaken the city of Urugun, 180 km south of Kabul.

The report did not say when the battle in the Uru-

gun area bordering Pakistan took place. Western diplomatic sources in Kabul said in late January that Afghan Government forces had seized control in the area after heavy fighting. “Krasnaya Zvezda” said Russians supporting Afghan troops in the area had helped unearh and defuse more than 4000 land mines planted by rebel forces. The newspaper said the rebels had suffered “not only a heavy political defeat but also a political downfall.” The Urugun area controls several vital rebel supply routes from Pakistan.