The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1985 (8. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1985-01-01 / 1. szám

BI-MONTHLY B 20435 V THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) Vol. XXIX JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1985 "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" Article 18 Universal Declaration of Human Rights AFGHANISTAN S Villigers Massacred as Rutine ’’Punishment“ oviet troops in Afghanistan have often wiped out whole villages, killing everybody in sight as a matter of routine. That is the essence of what has been said by a former soldier in the Soviet army, an Estonian, who took part in several of these atrocities and is now deeply ashamed of what he did. The ex-soldier, anonymous for obvious reasons, spoke of his military service in Afghanistan in an interview in a recent issue of Isekiri, an un­official news-letter which is privately circulated in Estonia, one of the three formerly independent Baltic republics (the others are Latvia and Lithua­nia) which were annexed by the USSR in 1940 in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Treaty of August, 1939. The ex-soldier described how the Soviet army conducted operations against villages thought to contain active supporters of the mujahidin, the Afghan Muslim guerrillas fighting the Russian military occupation forces. „For a general punitive operation,“ he said, „the tactics were basically the same. On entering a village all even slightly suspicious individuals whose appearance aroused suspicion were shot; for example, people wearing a chador (the veiled garment worn by Muslim women). „Those who began to run or tried to hide. . . were immediately shot. These requirements were made clear to us before the start of operations.. . „In the smaller villages everybody who came before us was to be shot. Villages in Afghanistan are altogether different from our Estonian vil­lages. Houses are attached to each other, a village is like a labyrinth made of clay with small houses and inner courtyards. „It is difficult to orient yourself there, and you never know what awaits you behind the next corner. You must always fire. Whether there are people or not. it does not matter. Before you go down a side-street or enter a courtyard, you must fire a volley into dark corners and only then go in yourself. „Similarly, with regard to controlling houses, first a burst of gunfire, then you yourself enter. . . In such cases there is much bloodshed. A village can scarcely sustain life after this.. .“ The ex-soldier added, however, that this strategy of terror seemed to act against Soviet aims, as *generally those villages survive where the muja­hidin are able to defend themselves.“ But any village which put up armed resistance „would have to withstand even more thorough attacks.“ He described some punitive military actions in which Soviet soldiers engaged in frenzied killing, behaving like „complete savages.“ „Sometimes,“ he said, „when death is behind and in front of you, you will shoot, you will fire, and in this savage rage you will yourself begin to scream as if you have lost your mind... as if to give yourself courage. All this brings about a sort of ecstasy, so that you cannot give any account of yourself, you think of nothing,but only fire burst upon burst.“ The interviewer asked: „So then do you fire at Afghans indiscriminately, and do you do this on (Continued on page 2) Moscow Dr. Jürgen Todenhöfer (L), member of West German Parliament, spent the 5th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Dec. 27, 1979) in a mujahidin camp near Kandahar CONTENTS: Villigers Massacred as Rutine... 1 Appeal to Islamic Governments 2 How Communists Cheer and Boo - 8 3 Spoilt Child Loses His Temper 4 Brezhnev „Ordered Wallenberg's Arrest" 5 A „Victory" not Talked about 5 The Popieluszko Murder 6-7 Cuba Returns to Private Housing 8 Ex-Ambassador to Supervise Religion 9 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago (II) 10 The Other Europeans 11 Minority Forced to Renounce... 12

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