Date: 01 Mar 97 03:05:34 EST
From: Chris Burford <100423.2040-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: M-I: Afghanistan


While I can see points in the position that has been argued by
subscribers such as Richard, and I appreciate the comradely
way he and members of his party deal with political differences,
I have been looking for an opportunity to draw a line of demarcation
more precisely over Afghanistan. Undoubtedly had we both been 
in the historical CPGB in 1979 we would have been lining up as
tankies versus Euros at that time. 


An obiturary of Babrak Karmal published after his death
in December last year confirmed my strong recollection of an
Afghanistan prime minister being installed one day after Soviet 
planes had flown in.

This was a mistake not only in terms of real-politik but in terms of
a concept of socialist internationalism, however much with retrospect
one can see some positive reasons why socialists might think it
appropriate. It was a further step in the Soviet Union's military
assertiveness under Brezhnev. It was a step further than the 
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 which was part of the Warsaw Pact.
The "Brezhnev Doctrine of Limited Sovereignty" was being extended to 
an independent country which happened to have a communist government 
that had recently come to power but was unstable and the wrong faction
was in power. The result was the Soviet Troops were invited in 
by the prime minister of that country who took up office one day
after they arrived!

Extracts from the obituary of Barbrak Karmal in the Guardian, London.
below.

Chris Burford
London


________________

"Babrak Karmal, who has died of liver cancer in Moscow at the age
of 67, was installed as leader of Afghanistan when Soviet troops
invaded the country in December 1979. He was removed no more gloriously
in the autumn of 1986 when Mikhail Gorbachev reversed policy and 
decided that the invasion was no longer worth sustaining.

<>

Babrak was one of the founder members of the People's Democratic 
Party of Afghanistan, which soon became the countries most effective
party, determined to modernise a notoriously backward society with the 
aid of a communist programme. Babrak headed the PDPA's more
moderate wing, known as Parcham or Flag, which, although it 
intended to monopolise power for the party, thought the revolution
should take a gradualist approach.

As long as the party was still aiming for power, its internal splits
were not significant but when it overthrew President Mohammed
Daoud in April 1978 the Babrak wing found itself in a minority. 
Dissension in the leadership led to Babrak being sent as ambassador
to Czechoslovakia, while the radicals, first under Nur Mohammed
Taraki and later under Hafizullah Amin, imposed a harsh form of 
rule, insisting on rural women abandoning the veil and trying to 
push through a sweeping land reform. 

As armed resistance mounted, helped by the Central Intelligence 
Agency, the Soviet politburo under Leonid Brezhnev fatefully
decided to topple the radicals and occupy the country. A KGB
group stormed Amin's headquarters and killed him, while
Babrak was flown into Kabul on a Soviet aircraft."




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