Mass defections in Afghanistan

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 10

Mass defections in Afghanistan

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad

Thousands of Afghan troops and militiamen defected to rebels the day after the last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan on February 15, Western diplomatic sources said yesterday. The sources said they could not confirm the figure of more than 10,000 defectors — two army regiments and militiamen — given by the rebel mujahideen Jamiat-i-Islami group. “We cannot yet verify all the details, but several thousand Afghan troops defected to the mujahideen with their weapons, including tanks,” one source said. A . Jamiat-i-Islami spokesman said the defections took place on February 16 in the provinces of Badakshan and Takhar north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He said the troops de-

fected to the “Council of the North,” a coalition of mujahideen groups led by famed Jamiat commander, Ahmad Shah Masood. The spokesman said regiments 543 and 544 of the Afghan Army under the command of Majors Abdul Rahim and Abdul Rashid Qatar brought 15 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles and other weaponry with them.

1 The mujahideen have often claimed soldiers in the 40,000-strong Afghan Army have been asked to defect but have been told to stay in place until the rebels had food and supplies for them.

The Kabul Government of- President Najibullah claims to have 500,000 men under arms, including the air force and militia, a figure Western diplomats consider exaggerated.