AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents feel world's eyes turned away

by Natalia A. Feduschak

PART III

As the war has raged on in Afghanistan for over six years now, there is one question which continuously comes to mind. Why, while facing overwhelming odds, do the Afghan people keep on fighting and how have the Afghan people been able to keep the Soviets at bay for such a long time?

Initially, the question is perplexing. But when one begins to look at the history, religion and culture of the Afghan people, the answer begins to unfold.

"We have a strong faith for God and religion," said Tour Khanjar, a 23-year-old mujahideen who is currently on a speaking tour in the United States. "It's our bound duty to fight 'til death," said his friend and colleague Hamid Akberzai. Both men have been in the United States for four months.

One refugee who has lived in the United States for two years said that religion, however, is not the only reason the Afghan people continue to fight the USSR. A large part of the will to persevere comes from the Afghan culture. He recalled a poem popular in his country which tells of a mother's parting words to her son as he goes off to war.

"She tells him not to return with a wound in his back," said Ahmad Omar. The message is that it is more honorable to die for one's country than to turn one's back and walk away. This has remained a constant throughout Afghanistan's history, "We did fight three wars with the British and won," Mr. Omar stressed.

After speaking to many mujahideen and refugees, one finds that all these attitudes make up the character of the Afghan people. Underneath the seemingly gentle exterior lies a firm resolve to stand for what they believe is right. When asked how long they will continue their battle against the Soviets, the collective answer is always the same. "We will fight until the last Afghan."

Indeed, this attitude prevails. Mykola Movchan, an ex-Red army soldier who defected to the mujahideen in 1984, said he was initially shocked by the Afghan desire to fight and even today can't completely comprehend their drive.

"I saw that the Afghan people, almost all of the Afghans, fought against (the Soviets). I was surprised at their desire to fight. These people fight; many die, but they fight. They don't lose their enthusiasm. This surprises me. All countries fight the Soviet Army and are scared. The Afghans don't understand this."

A country arms

After spending 13 months with the mujahideen, however, Mr. Movchan said he did begin to understand that perhaps one of the reasons the mujahideen have been able to keep the Soviets at bay for so long is that they have a tremendous support mechanism. And because of this support mechanism, after a while it becomes impossible to separate the mujahideen from the civilians.

"They all are mujahideen," he said. For all the factions that may exist within the mujahideen, their one unifying force is that they are fighting for the same cause - a free Afghanistan. The people support the insurgents, give them shelter and food when they need it. Mr. Movchan recalled that when the mujahideen would enter a village, the people would come joyously out of their homes and greet them.

"They never welcomed us (the Soviet soldiers) that way," he said.

Mr. Movchan said that all the Afghan people were willing to fight, even little children. Farmers would plow their lands - with a weapon by their side, ready to be snatched up if the Soviets began to attack.

In an effort to weaken the villagers' support for the mujahideen, the Soviets have tried to destroy complete villages, many Afghan experts have said. "But such a thing is impossible," Mr. Movchan stated, because the nation-community structure is so tightly knit.

Another reason the Afghan people have fought so hard in this war comes from the Afghan perception of the Soviet Union itself. Tour and Hamid and other refugees interviewed have started over and over that they see the Soviets as godless people." "We believe in the religion and God," said Tour, but the Soviet people do not have a religion, do not have a god. "The ones who made the decision (to intervene in Afghanistan) we consider godless people," said Hamid. "I'm not going to label all people, they're also very oppressed people. The Soviet soldiers have told their stories.

Mr. Movchan, however, said the Afghan perception is not too far off the mark. The Soviet Union is an atheistic state, he emphasized. "No one goes to church or believes in God anymore."

The desire to fight

This desire to fight, to win, has sustained the Afghans, even on the battlefield. The numbers show that the mujahideen are clearly outnumbered by Soviet troops. Currently there are about 115,000 Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. To counter this imbalance, the mujahideen have tailored their military plans so that they can have the biggest advantage. The mujahideen fight mostly at night when they cannot be easily attacked by the Soviets, and they attack in small groups.

Tour was born and raised in Kabul. He joined the mujahideen nearly five years ago. In that time, he has not seen nor heard from his family. He acted as a paramedic taking medicine from Pakistan and helping soldiers on the battlefield. In the course of his duties, he said, he has seen much dying, yet he resolves to keep on fighting. In an interview with The Weekly he described a typical military campaign. This one took place in Khowst, a Soviet military post in Paktia province, last year.

They were 300 mujahideen to 20,000 Soviet soldiers, Tour said. Because of the odds, there was little chance for victory, but the mujahideen decided on an attack plan anyway.

"We have three groups of 100 men...we attacked them in three ways." Tour said the mujahideen attacked the Soviets at 7 p.m., just as it was beginning to get dark. Before the men broke up into the groups, their commanders gathered them together and they prayed. Just as they dispersed, they said "God is great."

The Soviets, knowing the mujahideen were going to attack, shot off a rocket launcher and many came out of the compound, said Tour.

"I was in front, fighting hand-to-hand combat. It was very effective," he said of the campaign. Because the mujahideen had three groups, the Soviets were surprised and the mujahideen were subsequently able to capture many weapons and machinery.

"We got six or seven tanks, 21 Vichak trucks and captured a lot of ammunition," as well as 350 AK46 rifles, said Tour. Approximately 300 Soviet soldiers were killed.

Much of the ground around the base was mined, said Tour. "And we don't have mine detectors." Thus, many mujahideen perished because they stepped on the mines.

After four days, the mujahideen attacked again, but this time they were not as successful, and the mujahideen suffered many casualties. Part of the reason this happened, Tour said, was because the mujahideen don't have trained commanders.

"We have no military men. Only a few commanders know how to use the guns. One of the great tragedies of the Afghan war has been that the mujahideen have had to fight for weapons from the Soviets so they can continue fighting the Soviets.

"Almost 60 percent of our weapons are captured from Russians that we use against them."

Hamid, 21, a communications specialist, left high school and joined the mujahideen when he was 16. He chose to become a "freedom fighter" because he did not like what was happening to his country. Politically, the country became Communist and it was compulsory for students to study Soviet politics and theory, he said.

Hamid, too, has not seen his family for five years. "I don't know if they're still alive. I've had no communication. If we write, the authorities automatically put a death sentence on them."

When interviewed by The Weekly, he spoke on a broad subject of topics, from lack of proper aid to the mujahideen, to the atrocities he has seen committed in Afghanistan to his hope for his country.

"Our future is to liberate our homeland, that's all," he said. "When I joined, I realized the life of the freedom fighter is not easy. It's not unusual for us to eat bread, raw onions."

"There is not a single family who hasn't been affected by the war," said Hamid. "They, the Soviets, are making an effort to demoralize us but they don't understand (our will)."

Conversations with Soviet soldiers

From his conversations with the Soviets soldiers who defected, Hamid said he was able to find something of the lives of the Soviets in their homeland.

"The soldiers in Afghanistan are being taken there by force. Their commanders were telling them they would be fighting Chinese, Pakistani, American CIA mercenaries who were trying to overthrow Afghanistan. When they come to Afghanistan and see the reality, they show reluctance. They don't see Chinese, American and Pakistans. Some soldiers from Central Asia are now fighting for us." Hamid explained that they felt these soldiers wanted to fight against the Soviet Union because it similarly overpowered their homeland.

The soldiers have told Hamid that "their system is imposing (on them). They have a reluctance to fight because they have to. They say they're uninvited by puppet government."

When the mujahideen capture Soviet soldiers, they ask them to give themselves up, said Hamid. "We say 'Please surrender, you have no right in this country.' Some do try to escape, and then they surrender."

The Soviet soldiers have been cooperative and supportive of the Afghan cause, said Hamid. "Two Soviet soldiers (are) even married to Afghan women."

Both Tour and Hamid have expressed an intense desire to return to their homeland and continue in their struggle. They said they know their country has historically incurred some serious problems: no centralized government, a high rate of illiteracy and a high death rate due to lack of proper sanitation and nutrition. But despite these problems, they said they feel that they could be resolved in time if only the war would end. As part of their speaking tour which is sponsored by the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, they are also taking classes at Eastern Connecticut State University.

"If we take some courses, we will be more effective to our people and purpose. The difference between literate and illiterate is great," Hamid said. "We need people to fight. But freedom fighters is not enough. Afghanistan needs educated people."

"I feel I could be happy if I could succeed at my classes, I am proud." Hamid hopes that as he goes back to his country, and as the war ends, he is able to put to use what he has learned, to make a better future for Afghanistan.

Feeling isolated

It is, at times, both Tour and Hamid agreed, hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even as they have fought in this war for so many years, they said they feel that on a worldwide perspective, they feel increasingly isolated, that other countries, other people don't care about their battle. While the students who they have spoken at American universities have been supportive of them, governments are a different story.

The mujahideen's foremost frustration is that, while Western powers have provided covert aid to the mujahideen, it has not been enough, they see very little of it. And they have asked themselves if other nations really care about what is happening in Afghanistan. (Aid programs for the mujahideen will be looked at in the last part of the series.)

"We really think our people are alone in this war," mujahideen commander Abdul Haq told a Senate committee last year. "Nobody really (is) on our side and nobody really help(s)."

Echoing this thought, Tour said, "We don't know if people really care."

"We don't have weapons. They don't give us antiaircraft weapons, we don't have supplies from the United States, such as clothing and medicine. We run out of supplies. Once we had 120 bullets to last three or four days. That's nothing for fighting a superpower," said Tour. While he knows that other nations do supply covert aid to the mujahideen, he said the insurgents see very little of it because of corruption along the supply line which runs through Pakistan. By the time everyone gets his share in the form of a payoff, he said, nothing is left for those men who are fighting.

"We never receive effective aid," said Hamid. "Our bullets just harass them (the Soviets). We can't do anything against the Soviets. We have not enough food, clothing. We have enough manpower, but not enough equipment. We have fought with sticks."

Tour also said that those weapons that the mujahideen do get are far outdated when compared with new Soviet technology. Once he said, he went to a museum in Connecticut and said as he looked at one of the rifles on display, it was similar to the type the mujahideen were using in their battle against the Soviet army.

The mujahideen have stated time and again that what they need most, more than ever food or clothing, are surface-to-air missiles. They have begged governments worldwide for such missiles because the Soviets finding that tanks are ineffective in Afghanistan's rugged terrain, have begun to use helicopters during attacks. In light of this, the Reagan administration has apparently decided to provide the Stinger missile, the most advanced portable anti-aircraft weapon around, through the Central Intelligence Agency because it feared a major spring offensive by the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Stinger costs $75,000 per missile.

Tour said he remains sceptical at the Reagan administration's decision. "This is not the first time this type of thing has been promised for Afghanistan. The U.S. sends things for us, but you couldn't see it (in Afghanistan).

The mujahideen assert that if they were provided with the proper weapons, they would be able to win the war against the Soviets. "One in five dies because of inadequate weapons," said Hamid. "If we could have that aid, if we were receiving effective aid, they would leave. If we had that aid, the freedom fighters could win the war."

Tour contended that while the West has expressed its concern and has sent some funding and arms, the government has not followed up on how effective the aid has been. "When they send, they never ask how effective weapons were."

"What kind of friendship is this?" asked Tour. "You give $100 million to Nicaragua, but can't get decent supplies to us."

World's freedom at stake

All those Afghan interviewed have stressed that they are fighting the Soviets not only for their own freedom, but the world's as well.

"We are not only fighting for the liberty of our homeland," said Hamid. "This is not only a war of survival for Afghanistan. It is a war on behalf of the free world," said one Afghan refugee who wished to remain anonymous. When mujahideen commander Abdul Haq spoke before a Senate panel last year, he said that the mujahideen were discouraged and felt that other countries are willing to let the Afghan people fight the Soviet government alone.

"Mostly, we hear of many people who just say, we are on the side of mujahideen, we are on the side of Afghanistan, the Soviets are doing bad things to Afghanistan.

"We don't need words, just words, because words are not useful for us. ...The mujahideen, the commander in Afghanistan, they decided that they were going to fight with the Soviets; they were going to resist against the Soviet Union, because we have no choice.

"We were not going to blame an outside people to say, why did you not help us... If they love freedom, they should help us. If they don't, we don't care."

And, according to Tour, "We do the best with what we have. If other countries won't help us, we won't be disappointed. We live or die. This is our holy struggle."

Next: The refugee situation.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 4, 1986, No. 18, Vol. LIV

| Home Page |