The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1980 (3. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

1980-01-01 / 1. szám

Asia Outraged Students Burn Karmai Effigy Many Malaysian students, politicians and reli­gious leaders have protested against the Soviet military action in Afghanistan. At the University Kebangsaan Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur, more than a thousand students burned an effigy of President Babrak Karmai and called upon Mus­lim nations to assist the Afghan Muslims in whatever way they could, including the imposi­tion, of an oil embargo. They also urged the Ma­laysian Government to provide the Afghan guerril­las with „moral, materia1! and defence aid“. At ocher student demonstrations, effigies of Presi­dent Brezhnev were burned. Earlier, a Malaysian Government Press sate­­ment expressed „grave concern and anxiety“ over the „foreign armed intervention“ in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. INDONESIA: President Suharto has told par­liament that the intervention „shakes the founda­tions of world peace . ..“ Vice-President Adam Malik has in a press statement described the So­viet presence in Afghanistan as „a violation of the Bandung Conference principles“. (At this con­ference, held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April, 1955, representatives of 29 Asian and African na­tions took the first step towards the foundation of the non-aligned movement in 1961). Moderate Muslim politicians have farmed a solidarity com mittee to campaign for the withdrawal of Soviet armed forces from Afghanistan. Many politicians and religious leaders have protested against the intervention, which has also been denounced by students and youth organisations demonstrating outside the Soviet Embassy in Djakarta. THAILAND: Prime Minister Kriangsak has condemned the USSR’s forcible ousting of the Afghan Government. He told a press conference that the intervention in Afghanistan, like the si­tuation in Kampuchea, was a threat to the secu­rity, peace and stability of Asia and of the world. Afghan students in Bangkok have said that it is now time for Afghans living abroad to „again wage a holy war against the Russian aggressor“. Thai and foreign Muslims have burned an effigy of President Brezhnev outside the Soviet Embassy. BANGLADESH: A government statement has described the presence of foreign troops in Af­ghanistan as a „serious violation“ of fundamen­tal principles related to independence, sovereignty amd territorial integrity. Crowds have stoned the Soviet Cultural Centre in Dacca and the Soviet Consulate in Chittagong and have attacked the headquarters of the Bangladesh Communist Party. SÍRI LANKA: A gorvernment statement has strongly criticised the invasion of Afghanistan. An editorial in the Sun, an independent daily, con­demned the „naked aggression of the Soviets on a sovereign country“. NEPAL: An official statement reiterated the government’s belief in teh inviolability of national soverignty and said that recent developments in Afghanistan were „fraught with dangers to peace and stability“. Later, it was officially an­nounced that a Soviet Tass agency report of a declaration on Afghanistan by the Nepalese For­eign Minister „is not only a distortion but a com­plete reversal of fact“. Indians demonstrate in Calcutta against Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ANTI-ISLAM DRIVE HOTS UP (Continued from page 1) overcoming vestiges of religion, the religious ques­tion demands deeper study. At present, religious marriages are still encountered among the popu­lation, as well as christenings, circumcisions, re­ligious funerals, bowing to holy places and appeals to mullahs and wise men for cures“. Later in the article, the professor said that „considerable concern“ was being aroused by a tendency among certain intellectuals „to under­estimate the reactionary role of Islam in the life, conduct and awareness of the Soviet people, clearly passing over in silence, or being totally conciliatory to, survivals of religious lifestyles, the observation of old and harmful traditions, ceremonies and customs“. He continued: „To count on religion to wither away naturally in the conditions of our society is to cause great harm in atheist work. Such a concept is unacceptable from both the theoretical and the practical viewpoints. Every day it is becoming more obvious that the problem of over­coming religious survivals is a broad and complex problem whose solution depends on the combination of socio-economic, national, moral, family-life and other everyday problems“. Professor Dzhabbarov then hinted at the need to improve methods of propagating atheism among parents and others involved in bringing up child­ren. He commented regretfully: „... being reli­gious, they try to inculcate religiousness in the children, as we often observe in the life of Uzbek families with many children". 2 IN TSARIST-STALINIST TRADITION The Soviet military action in Afghanistan „conforms to the Tsarists-Stalinist tradition“, the authoritative Times of India sa'id in a recent editorial. It added that Stalin regarded the Red Army as „the principal instrument of communist revolu­tion and Soviet influence“. The editorial infer­red from „past experience“ and from Afghanis­tan’s „considerable strategic importance” that Russian troops were in that country „to stay“ It added: „The Kremlin may reduce the number if it succeeds in smashing the insurgents as it is trying to do. But it will not withdraw for a long. long time“. go out of Afghanistan“. An editorial in The Hindu, a leading south In­dian newspaper, said that the „Soviet onslaught on Afghanistan was reprehensible on two counts: first, for its blatant violation of national sove­reignty supposed to be guaranted in international l-w and the UN Charter: secondly, as a manifesta­tion of Super Power bullying that threatens peace (in that it triggers new tensions and offers fresh precedents for violating the peace) as well as regional security“. On January 2, there was a huge demonstration outside the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi. The demonstrators briefly occupied the building, across the front of which they wrote: „Bloody Russians JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1980

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