REPORTER' S NOTEBOOK: KABUL FAMILY GRIEVES AND SWEARS REVENGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100140002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 11, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100140002-5 STAT
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Reporters Note&o&R:
Kxb dFamily Cdeves
And Swears.,Rne. e
By PRANAY B. GU PTA
Spxial ofw$ewYork Time,-
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 7-Four
days after his wife had given birth to
their second :.hild, Amir Faryabhl died. A
fusillade of bullets fired from a Soviet ar-
mored personnel carrier tore through his
body as the 28-year-old bricklayer par-
ticipated In a huge anti-Russian demon-
stration in Jadeh Maiwand Square. He
was among scores of Afghans killed that
afternoon in Kabul, two weeks ;.go. ..
Zehnab Faryabhi. his wife, remembers
how cold and sunny it was that day, and -
she remembers"how hastily the funeral
arrangements had to be made because
unde-Shiite-Moslem custom a dead per-
son must be buried by sundown. Amir Fa-
ryabhi's grave is marked- by a simple
whitewashed stone, on Karte Sakhi hill,:
just a mile or two from the mud-walled,
two-room house that he shared with his
brothers, Sultan and Aziz.
Only Hazara Moslems, like Mr. Fa-
ryabhi, are buried in this graveyard.
There are perhaps 200 simple white tomb-
stones on this site; only Mr. Faryabhi's
grave Is decorated with two. tiny flags
that his family makes certain stay in
place there.
4iie of the flags is stark white, the other
is a very bright red. The flags are crossed
and pushed into the hard soil just in front
of Mr. Faryabhi's tombstone. "Such
crossed flags in Afghanistan mean that
the dead man's family will some day
avenge his. death," Aziz Faryabhi, a
gangly 17-year-old, said.' We will avenge
Amir's murder." ' - -
Zehnab Faryabhi hides her grief well
and even manages to smile occasionally
as she tends to her newborn boy and
keeps watch over her.other son, two-year=
old Hassan:.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
11 March 1980
"They have come to save Afghanistan,
these Russians - that. is what we are
told," Mrs. Faryabhi said, speaking in
Dart. "But what we know is that we are
being butchered, especially us J-lazaras."
In recent weeks, there appears to be a
campaign by the Soviet-supported Gov-
ernment of President Babrak Karmal
against the Hazara Moslem community
of Kabul. The Hazaras are mostly poor,
among the poorest in a country of poor
people, and they work at menial jobs like
street-sweeping or in trades like brick-
laying. But there seems to be a belief
among the authorities that the Hazaras
are at the heart of the rebel movement in
Afghanistan.
Every day, Soviet and Afghan soldiers
sweep through areas like Karte Sakhi to
look for hidden arms, and every night
some Afghan sentry gets shot at. The
Russians send only Afghan troops to such
neighborhoods at night.
e
Here in Kabul, residents have a spe-
cial, derisive, name for the Soviet sol-
diers. They call them "mamaa," a sar-
castic use of the word "uncle."
"Look, mamaa is rumbling around,"
Ajit Singh, a Sikh money-changer in the
Shehzadeh market in the old section of
Kabul, said to his 15-year-old son, Jagjit,
as a column of Soviet tanks passed near
their shop the other morning.
"You mean mamaa is. stumbling
around," the youth replied.
The Russian troops do not mingle with
Kabulites. They live in barracks beyond,
the airport, or in a heavily fortified camp:
on the Bala Hissar hill. Their officers and
the Russian civilian "advisers" live
mostly in a section of town called Mikro-
ryan, where there are tall apartment
blocks.
Kabulites have been puzzled about the
ethnic origins of the Soviet troops. A re-
cent experience added to the confusionI
for one young Indian expatriate who;
works for a German pharmaceutical con-'
cern here.
It was about eight o'clock in the eve-
ning, the time when the curfew started,
but the streets of Kabul had long been
deserted except for the roving tanks
,and the military police jeeps. The Indian,
a bachelor, had just fixed himself a
Scotch, when there was a loud banging on
his front door.
Soviet Soldiers Ask for Drinks
A dozen Russian soldiers stood there.
;They pushed thenseive* in and, in Ger-
man, asked for cigarettes and drncs.
I Since the Indian spoke German, he was I
table to get along cc:.veersatiofailY wan t
the troops. the
They were passing by the house,
soldiers said, and they just wanted a rest
and a bit to drink and eat. The Indian's;
servant, an Afghan, cooked additional
kebabs for the "g.lests." The Russians'
kept- drinking and left the kebabs un-i
touched. The Indian grew worried and he
slipped away for a moment and surrepti-
tiously called the local police station. The
policeman be spoke to said there was
nothing he could do about the situation.
The "guests" talked about. how they
missed their families, how dull things
were in Kabul. They grew boisterous, ac-
cording to this Indian, and soon ribald
jokes were being made about Afghans. It
was six o'clock the next morning when
the soldiers left_ li
"But they voluntarily emptied out the
ashtrays and offered to wash the glasses
before they left my house," the Indian
latersaid. " - -
As more and more Soviet troops flood
into this capital city, there are fewer and
.fewer other foreigners left here.
Not only have the Pakistanis evacuated
most of their embassy personnel, so have
the Saudis, the French, the British and
others.
There is little- doubt among embassy
people in Kabul that, with the obvious ex-
ception of the Soviet diplomatic com-:
pound, every foreign Government repre-
sentative in the city is kept under surveil-
lance by the Afghan secret police force, I
which is now being supervised, according
to Afghan military officials, by the
' K.G.B. All phones of foreigners are
itapped, too.
In particular, local Afghans who are
employed by these embassies are sub-
jected to house searches and prolonged"
questioning by the authorities.
Some of these Afghans who have been
question say that the authorities
wanted to k .ow of any links Yr.sident.I
a i Amin, who was killed in the
takeover, may .ave a wt t, a entr
Intelligence Agency of the United States:: i
Recentiv, the American Embassy got a
formal letter from the rmal r= me
urging that it turn over to the Govern-
l ment all C.I.A. files on President Arun.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100140002-5