Orchards mined, say Afghani guerrillas

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 11

Orchards mined, say Afghani guerrillas

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad Soviet troops have mined vast orchards near Kandahar, killing up to 50 people in the last few weeks and condemned the local Afghan economy to ruin, according to guerrilla sources. The Russians are aiming for greater security for forces based nearby, say the guerrillas. The mines were strewn along orchard paths to block rebel attacks on the city or the United Statesbuilt airport nearby, the sources based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, say. Muslim rebels, who control about three-quarters of Kandahar, have recently stepped up rocket attacks on the airport, now the largest Soviet airbase in south-eastern Afghanistan. Western diplomats say several squadrons of Soviet MiG-23 and MiG-25 fighter

planes are stationed there. Rebel sources in Quetta, 200 km from Kandahar, say Soviet strength at the airport has been boosted recently from 8000 to more than 10,000 men. The victims of the mining were mostly peasants from fruit-growing villages south of Afghanistan’s secondlargest city. The sources said the mining would effectively destroy this year’s fruit crop, one of the country’s leading exports. The orchards provide excellent cover for rebels attacking the city or firing Chinese-made 107 mm rockets at the airport. “A man on a motor-cycle with three Katyusha rockets on his back could go anywhere in the orchards and fire away at the airport," said one former Kandahar resident now living in Quetta.

“Now the Russians want to kill all those Mujahideen (Islamic warriors) and all the people going to tend their fruit trees," he said. The rebel sources said a large Soviet and Afghan force entered 'the orchard belt on March 12, one day after Soviet high-altitude bombing in the Mahalajat region west of Kandahar, and forced villagers out of their homes. They forced some residents to point out the most frequently-used orchard paths, which they studded with butterfly wire-tripped and heavy detonator mines, the sources said. The troops were there for three days. “Now the Mujahideen cannot hide there, the farmers cannot enter to irrigate their orchards, the people cannot even go in to pick up their dead relatives,” one exiled Afghan said.