Soviet 'serious’ on Afghanistan

Press, 15 April 1986, Page 17

Soviet 'serious’ on Afghanistan

The Soviet Union is for the first time negotiating seriously about withdrawing its. troops from Afghanistan, President Zia U 1 Haq of Pakistan said in an exclusive interview, Shyam Bhatia reports from Islamabad. Despite evidence of a new Soviet military offensive in Afghanistan, he believes the Government is seeking ways of extricating itself from the Afghan war. His assessment is based on a face-to-face conversation with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and subsequent diplomatic contacts with Moscow.

“They left Adjerbaijan in 1946 and then Austria. Let us take them at their word,” President Zia said. “Mr Gorbachev has categorically stated that the Soviet Union wants to leave, but they want to leave with guarantees of non-interference.”

However, his optimistic assessment is not shared by Pentagon hardliners in Washington or by the heads of fundamentalist Afghan geurrilla groups based in Peshawar.

But Pakistani hopes have been boosted by Moscow’s decision to resume without preconditions the Geneva peace talks on Afghanistan. The talks were suspended last year after Pakistan continued to refuse to participate in discusions with representatives of the Soviet-backed Afghan Government.

Zia remains scathing about the Afghan President Babrak Karmal.

“We have made it quite clear we will not agree to direct talks. This man (Karmal) moved in a Russian tank, you can’t deal with him. He’s a puppet. And if you do this today, tomorrow they’ll be expecting other things. Poor chap, he knows he’s at the mercy of the Soviet Union.”

President Zia agrees that he has to take into account domestic political pressures of the high numbers of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan — there was a time two years ago when refugees in Peshawar outnumbered the local population — but he believes there is still widespread support for Pakistan’s role in war.