The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1989 (12. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1989-01-01 / 1. szám
BI-MONTH L Y B 20435 Ir THE GUARDIAN OF LIBE RTY (NEMZETŐR) Vol.*| XXXIII JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1989 "Everyone lias the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" Aliidé 18 üntversal Declaration of Human Rights BOMBING WAS MAIN KILLER MILLION AFGHANS DIED IN WAR B y the end of 1987 nine per cent of the population of Afghanistan had died, 3.1 per cent had been disabled and about 33 per cent were living as refugees in neighbouring countries, according to the report of a research project on the demographic and social effects of the war which engulfed the country after the Communist seizure of power in 1978 and the Soviet invasion in 1979. The report — “Afghanistan 1978—87: War, Demography and Society“ — points out that the death toll of nine per cent is among the heighest in recent history.* Estimating the 1978 Afghan population at between 12 and 15 million, this figure means that more than a million Afghans have died as a result of the war. The report, prepai-ed by Dr. Marek Sliwinski, a member of the Political Science Department of Geneva University, in neutral Switzerland, is based on the evidence of 18,680 Afghans interview in refugee camps in Pakistan. The families and individuals questioned were selected so as to reflect the distribution and make-up of the Afghan population as a whole. The main cause of causalties, the report says, was the bombing of villages and refugee columns by Soviet and Afghan-regime aircraft (46 per cent of all casualties), followed by bullet wounds (33 per cent), artillery fire (12 per cent) and mines (three per cent). The highest level of casualties was in the northern provinces, where more than 16 per cent of the population was killed or incapacitated. The report attributes this high figure to the proximity of the Soviet border and the location of main trunk roads and military bases in these areas. Refugees on the move were especially vulnerable to air attacks and their average death rate was 2.27 times as high as among those Afghans who remained in the country. he year in which the main exodus of refugees took place varied significantly from province to province and this leads to the conclusion, Dr. Sliwinski says, that the progressive depopulation of Afghanistans was * The massive death toll in most of the countries involved in the Second World War included 18 per cent of Poland’s population and 11.1 per cent of Yugoslavia's. “the result of a conscious, ordered and planned policy“. Analysis of the number of refugees year by year reveals the pattern of the Soviet strategy: creation of a buffer zone next to T The Consultative Assembly of the Afghan freedom fighters made on February 24th an appeal to the countries of the world requesting them to grant recognition by their government formed one day earlier. Together with the newly elected premier, Mr. Abdul Rab Rasool Sajaf (left), the head of State taking up office, President Sibghatullaj Moudjadidi (right), introduced the members of government to the international press in Rawalpindi, former capital of Pakistan. The new guerrilla government is supposed to assume power in Kabul, whenever the present marxist regime of Premier Nadjibullah would collapse. the Pakistan border between 1978 and 1981; clearing the area round the capital between 1982 and 1985; and, from 1986, controlling and developing major trunk roads linking the central area of the country to the USSR. Significant too is the fact that 97 per cent of the refugees came from the countryside. Because rural populations were generally the most hostile to its policies, the regime’s efforts to establish its authority would be assisted by the disintegration of traditional rural communities. Most of those country-dwellers who did not flee abroad migrated to the towns, and there they could be more easily controlled an influenced. Between 1978 and 1987, the report says, one third of all Afghans fled the country and 11 per cent became “internal refugees“. As a result the rural population declined from 85 per cent to 23 per cent, while the urban population rose from 15 per cent to 24 per (Continued on page 2) IN THIS ISSUE Afghanistan: "Invasion Was a Mistake"... 2 Wanton Destruction in Afghan Valley 3 Violent Sequels to Human Rights Declaration 4 "A Common European Home" 5 Counting the Gulag Victims 6 Ministries Blamed: Vast Lake's Pollution 7 Violations on Religious Freedom 8 Nomination Rigged 9 Various from Hungary 9 Concerns of Scholarships 10 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago 11