PAKISTAN QUESTIONS US DESIRE FOR AFGHAN SETTLEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030098-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 98
• Publication Date: May 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

S1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030098-1
ARTICLE Atpi.~_=:
ON PAGE
OH?ISTIAN SCIENCE NCNITO
Pakistan questions U.S_des~re-
Af4han settlement
Islamabad troubled by White'House
leaks to press on US aid to- rebels:
By Mary Anne Weaver
Special to The Christian ScienceMomtor
_._z .. - New Delhi
Reports that the united States has stepped .up .its aid _to
At ghan resistance.fighterslave embarrassed Pakstan.
"The timing could not have been-more inappropriate,".a
foreign diplomat said . of the official -leaks coming -out of.
Washington last week.
The leaks, which referred,to.accelerated arms. deliveries
to the Pakistan-based guerrillas, came-at a time when it ap-
pears there may be progress in the Geneva talks sponsored
by the United Nations. The .talksare aimed-at forging a politi-
-
cal settlement of the war in Afghanistan.
"It either portends total American insensitivity," said the
foreign diplomat concerning the leaks, "or more Machiavel-
lian motives were involved. It's long been recognized that
there are voices within the American administration which
have never supported the Geneva dialogue."
Despite the caution voiced by diplomatic officials, more
and more straws are flying in the wind that progress was
registered in Geneva in the April round of indirect talks be-
tween the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan and Paki-
stan. And it appears that both sides - essentially the Soviets
and the Pakistanis - have begun preparing the groundwork
for what could be.a final settlement on the Soviet occupation
of Afghanistan.
rrwo leading Afghan rebel .leaders have denounced the
UN-sponsored talks, according to Reuters. "Our jihad (holy
war) does not rely on Pakistan or any other countries,".
Maulvi Younis Khales, bead of the rebel group Hezb-i Islami,
said. "Unless we are in the negotiations the efforts are-use-
less," be said-)
Moscow has long been pressuring the Pakistani govern-
ment to halt the flow of communications equipment, sup-
plies, and arms through Pakistan's dusty frontier town of
Peshawar - where six Afghan resistance organizations are
based - then through the Khyber Pass .and the tribal tern-
tones into Afghanistan. The Kremlin.has also protested the
use of Peshawar, and Pakistan's unpatrolled tribal tracts, as
staging areas for mujahideen attacks. -
Thus, it does not seem a coincidence, to diplomatic-ob-
servers here, that the White House leak followed an early
April directive from tbe..Pak istan .government to the
mujahideen. The directive said the resistance groups must
move their headquarters out of Peshawar.and be dispersed
along the Afghan frontier.
No deadline was set by the Islamabad government, but as
the war of covert action went on, Moscow responded with its
own leakage from Kabul over the weekend. According to a
report of an official Indian news-agency, the dispersal of the
Afghan refugees would coincide-with a withdrawal of Soviet
forces from the Pakistani border, and their redeployment in
the interior of Afghanistan.
The simultaneous withdrawal of #orces,:according to.tbe^
United News of India report, was "v zaiiy- settled" in rf--
neva. September was given as thetentative beginning date
According to diplomatic officials closely monitoring2be
Geneva talks, such a dispersal would .create-the de n tits=?l
rized zone that the Soviets ght4n'_Geneva.-.a xosdt m_
'sanitair - The Red Army and the beleaguered Afghantocae._
could begin their withdrawal throughauch ate,
disarmed refugees moving into it for repat da>ion
Stan andiraa
It 'mat' to wishful thinking but even: c ous,dtplm
. agree"thatItcould portend a breakthrough - and anemone.
building block in -place for an eventual Soviet withdrawal=
from Afghanistan=
)In a Sunday press conferenee,?'bowever, General Zia-
missed reports that Soviet 1mops Would-witbdraw'from At
ghanistan's -border areas by summer's end, according to
Reuters. ' There.is-no confirmationat:all of such news,,-she
said, "and according to me it is all propaganda.")
There are other elements to a possible-settlementaswell_
-According to weekendreports from Reshawar,the Soviet
Armv =in an'Amp
recedented move mid-APi~ signed a
truce with the` ? e . commander of, Lhe .,northern
Panjsbir Valley,'AZmed lab Masoud: Miestruee; which
came after three weeks ofintensive fighting, will reportedly
include a withdrawal of Soviet?torees from key areas of the
.valley, through which the main'highway passes connecting
the Soviet Union and Kabul. . . _ . _
And the -beleaguered Afghan regime of Babrak Karmal,
`
which does nothing without Moscow's advice and support,
quietly expelled the sons of Pakistan's late Prime'Minister
ZulfikarAli Bhutto from Kabul lastweek,obviouslyatlempt-
ing to remove another irritant in its relations with Pakistan:
Since 1980, the brothers, Murtaza and Shah Nawaz Bhutto,
have used the Afghan capital as headquarters for'tbe "'A)-
Zulfikar" terrorist group, and from there directed the
groups bombings, arson, a jetlinerhijacking,.andattempted
assassinations inside Pakistan.
On a related development, the ,Afghan -government ex-
pelled a senior US diplomat, PeteriGraham; from the-Ameri-
can embassy in Kabul - the first -such expulsion 'order
against an American since the Soviet occupation in l999.Tbe
expulsion. follows-the recent-arrest:of a'dozen-of the.USjem-
bassy's Afghan employees.-In retaliation, the US State De-
partment announced Monday that it has ordered =tbe
explusion of a diplomat from Afghanistan's Washington
. embassy-)
For its part the Pakistani government - as diplomats
assembled in the ornate splendor of Geneva's Grand Palais
-gave warning to five mujahideen newspapers in Peshawar
that all articles must hence-forth be submitted for censorship
.or the papers would have to close. The five newspapers a)-
most immediately stopped their presses.
Whether or not the mujahideen will accept such restzic-
bons, including dispersal of their headquarters into the tribal
tracts, is problematic. It is also of crucial importance for
Pakistan. Many of the rebel groups are concerned that if
dispersed their usefulness as arms conduits to guerrillas in-
side Afghanistan will be weakened and their contact With
visiting dignitaries and the foreign press will be restricted.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030098-1