NEW AFGHAN ATROCITIES ALLEGED BY THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100530011-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: March 5, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000100530011-2
3~ P~G~. ~
THE CHP,ISTIAN SCIENCE h10NITOR
5 P~Ia rc h 1980 '1
Afghan soldiers, some of which were alleged
By Daniel Southerland
Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor .
- washingtoa
The US Central Intelligence Agency has revealed new re- ~
ports of atrocities alleged to have been committed by Soviet- '
supported troops in Afghanistan. _ -
In aletter to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D) of Texas, CIA direc-
tor Stansfield Turner listed the following until-now
unreported events said to have occurred in Afghanistan in ~
1979:
? g In retribution against a village that refused~to cooperate
with the Kabul regime, Afghan troops destroyed the village ?
and killed 20 of its inhabitants. The children among the vic-
timswere mutilated in front of their parents before the entire
group wasslain. - . _....
s In another incident reportedly motivated by retribution,
Afghan soldiers killed 300 villagers. _ I
Tn addition. the letter from Admiral Turner said that there
had been reports of several cases of rape perpetrated by
On March 3, Shyam Bhatia of the London
Observer, who was held captive by Afghan:
guerrillas, reported that 80 percent of the vtl-:
lages along most of the 220-mile main Kabul
Kandahar road "were just flattened" byrock--
ets . fired.. by -Soviet-supplied 'helicopter
gunships. According to a United Press Inter
national report, ~ the correspondent further
said that .hundreds of -civilians,: including
women and children,- were killed in indis-
to have resulted in the victims' deaths.
The CIA director said details of all of these
incidents had to be omitted in order to protect
sources of information. He also said that.
there have likely been numerous unreported
incidents of this kind.
The CIA reports coincided with one from a
Cairo-based correspondent for the London'
Observer, wt;o said he had recently seen the ?
destruction of 80 percent of the villages along
one of Afghanistan's main roads and with new '
reports from other US government sources -
that the Soviets have used nerve gas in trying .
to crush Afghan guerrillas. ; ~ ~?
Admiral Turner's letter to Senator
Bentsen came in response to a letter from the ~"
senator asking for information about a report '
in The Christian Science Monitor Feb. 4 which
quoted survivors as saying that Afghan ? ~
troops, under Soviet orders, had murdered.
1,170 unarmed men and boys last April in the -~
village of Kerala in eastern Afghanistan. -:
The CIA director said. in his response that j
the agency was "almost certain" that the al-
leged massacre did occur. He said CL9 had no
on-the-spot confirmation from its own sources
but noted that a strikingly similar account ap-
peared in a P_ akistani newspaper on April 29,
1979.
As a result of Admiral Turner's report to i
him, Senator Bentsen has urged President
Carter to seek a UN Security Council investi-
gation of the alleged massacre at Kerala. In a
letter to the President dated March 4, the sen- 1
ator said that if the Soviet Union were to veto `f
such an inquiry, then "the veto itself would
speak volumes. about Soviet conduct, and. the _~
debate leading to the veto will insure thatthe=
whole world will watch the`debate and evalu-
ate the charges" ~ . _ ~ -'
He suggested that as alternatives,_ae
President might want to consider an investi--_
gallon by the full UN General Assembly. or-
one bytheInternational Red Cross..' ; . ~.~=,- ~'T
criminate attacks by such gunships- . '' ~' y
:Carter . admuustration :. sources, "mean-
? while, said reports on the use of nerve gas by
the Soviets in Afghanistan were based not on
"clinical evidence" -but' on:-numerous :ac-
~counts from refugees gathered oyer,a period
of several months.... _ -_= : ~ :.:,~ ?- : =s '
...~~.:-
i7S State Department offic~als:~began.re-:
"portingsome weeks aga that the Soviets had ;
Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000100530011-2