WOMAN MEDIC DEFIES SOVIET INVADERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320043-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: April 29, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

V
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320043-8
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WASHINGTON TIMES
29 April 190.6
Woman
_ medic defies Soviet
"Rival Afghan leaders fiercely
invaders denounce each other, but whenever
Juliette's name comes up, their
By Bill Gertz
THE NMSHINOTON TIMES
lb the Soviets and their puppet
regime in Kabul, French medical
doctor Juliette Fournot is a "prosti-
tute" for the Afghan resistance
forces, but among the Mujahideen
freedom fighters she is a legendary
figure dedicated to saving lives.
The petite blonde, whose features
show no trace of the horrors she has
witnessed in war-torn Afghanistan
during the past six years, knows the
country well. She first lived there
when her father worked for the
United Nations in the late 1960s.
"It was the growing period, when
you open your mind and you learn
everything about the outside world:'
Dr. Fournot, 32, said in a recent in-
terview. "I was very much im-
pressed by Afghanistan, especially
the Afghan people:'
She studied medicine in France
and in January 1980 was asked by
the French group Medicins Sans
Frontieres - Doctors Without Bor-
ders - to direct its Afghanistan re-
lief effort. Dr. Fournot has tended
the wounded and provided medical
training in rural areas of the coun-
try, often in the midst of the ongoing
war against Soviet occupation.
Doctors Without Borders is a non-
political humanitarian group, but
'Dr. Fournot is an outspoken partisan
for Afghan liberation. She said the
Soviets continue to "pacify"
Afghanistan brutally. "But they can't
control it totally because the resis-
tance is widespread; it's a huge
country and the people are proud
and won't bend
Details on Soviet atrocities that
foreigners bring out of the country
are "pretty disturbing to the Sovi-
ets:' she said.
"Through propaganda" the Sovi-
ets are "alleging that we, the women
doctors, are the prostitutes of the
Mujahideen," Dr. Fournot said.
"They are trying to attack us, hoping
that we will stop working inside:'
The lies, she said, have undercut
support for the resistance among
some of the less educated Afghans,
who are steeped in Muslim religious
traditions and tend to believe disin-
formation broadcast by Soviet radio
stations.
But a State Department official
who has spoken to dozens of Afghan
resistance leaders said-Dr. Fournot
was universally praised by them.
praise for her is unanimous, said the
official, who requested anonymity.
Karen McKay of the Washington-
based Committee for a Free
Afghanistan, who has known Dr.
Fournot for years, agrees.
"The courage and the self-
sacrifice of people like Juliette are
the stuff of which legends are
made:' Mrs. McKay said in an inter-
view. The Soviets have offered a re-
ward to the person who kills Dr.
Fournot, she said. "She has taken ter-
rible risks in her work that are hard
for those of us outside Afghanistan
to fully appreciate:'
In a report presented earlier this
week at a conference on
Afghanistan, Dr. Fournot said Soviet
policy in the central Asian nation
was one of "terror, human de-
struction and scorched earth:'
Dr. Fournot documented Soviet
atrocities in Afghanistan based on
her experiences:
? Bombings during a wedding
ceremony in the village of Jalrez
that killed "dozens" of people, and at
Arkupruk on market day, when 40
people were killed and 25 others
were treated at her hospital for na-
palm burns.
? Dumping cluster bombs with
thousands of anti-personnel mines
that "are designed not to kill but to
maim." In a protacted guerrilla war,
crippled persons are a greater bur-
den than the dead.
? Planting bombs disguised as
houshold items such as toy trucks,
pens and tobacco boxes, which have
blown off the hands and feet of Af-
ghan children. In some publications,
the Soviets have admitted setting the
booby-traps.
? Strafing caravans of Afghan
refugees headed for the Pakistan or
Iranian borders.
? Massacres of civilians, such as
the killing of 629 villagers - more
than half of whom were children -
in Kunduz Province in 1984. Another
massacre in Laghaman Province
claimed between 500 and 1,000 lives,
she said.
The Soviet massacres of innocent
Afghan civilians have been in repri-
sal for acts by the rebels or "random
violence to terrorize the people;' Dr.
Fournot said.
"This has been described in inter-
views with Russian soldiers who de-
fected and who described how they
were told to massacre people and
how to affect [local Afghans] by tor-
turing kids in front of their parents;"
she said. "In fact, there are a fair
amount of Russian soldiers who
couldn't bear it, they just couldn't go
through with it:'
The Soviets she said use two
types o so ers in Af hanistan:
re troops sent for six-month
tours to harden their nerves:' and
special foGRU rces - both Air Force and
military intelligence
"S etznaz" troops - that specialize
in assassinations, torture and psv-
chological warfare.
The Soviets' counterinsurgency
campaign against the Afghan resis-
tance has targeted "everything that
can support the Afghan resistance:'
including foreign journalists and the
hospitals and clinics of Doctors
Without Borders.
Eight hospitals run by Doctors
Without Borders have been de-
stroyed in Soviet bombing attacks,
she said, and three medical teams
have been ambushed by helicopter
gunships since the war began.
"Each year it becomes more diffi-
cult and dangerous to maintain clin-
ics inside Afghanistan to treat the
sick and injured and train Afghan
paramedics:' she said.
Dr. Fournot warned against be-
lieving recent reports hinting at a
possible Soviet troop withdrawal,
saying "major increases" in weap-
ons and troops indicate just the op-
posite.
"Last year I was going across the
plain of Khorst and there were nor-
mal activities of the garrisons being
supplied from Kabul:" she said. "But
about two months ago, about 14 An-
tonovs [Soviet transports] a day
were landing, unloading soldiers and
equipment. Now the spring offensive
has started, so there is nothing at all
to" Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba-
chev's supposed willingness to with-
draw troops.
Dr. Fournot said Soviet military
action inside Afghanistan "has
reached the level which, if sus-
tained, may result in the destruction
of an entire people."
She said the predominantly Mos-
lem Afghans should not be confused
with fundamentalist Iranians or
radical Libyans.
"They just want to be free at
home.... They don't even hate the
Russian; they often say that once
they have freed Afghanistan, they
will go and open that huge jail that
is Russia."
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302320043-8