From: OMARS@auvm.american.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.afghanistan
Subject: Afghan news item #7
Date: 2 Oct 92 19:26:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: auvm.92276.152700OMARS
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center

From: clarinews@clarinet.com (RALPH JOSEPH)
Subject: Hekmatyar's faction warns of renewed fighting near Kabul
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 8:14:51 PDT
Location: afghanistan, pakistan


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        ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (UPI) -- A mujahideen guerrilla faction headed by
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar warned Friday that renewed fighting
could erupt near Kabul next week if the interim government did not fully
implement a peace accord signed in August.
        A spokesman for the Hezb-i-Islami, Hekmatyar's party, said a neutral
council of mujahideen commanders who brokered the Aug. 26 cease-fire
between his and government forces after two weeks of fighting has set
Sunday as the deadline for the accord to be implemented fully.
        An Afghan diplomat in Islamabad said he had heard of no deadline, but
the information may have been delayed because of communications
difficulties.
        The spokesman for Hekmatyar's guerrilla group said the forces of
militia Gen. Rashid Dostam, loyal to interim President Burhanuddin
Rabbani, early Friday launched a major attack on Hekmatyar's guerrillas
near Baghlan, some 120 miles north of Kabul.
        Fighting was still going on when last reports came in, but casualty
figures and details of the attack were not immediately available, he
said.
        Tension was high in the Kabul area, and renewed fighting could erupt
next week if the interim government did not remove communist generals
from the army and Dostam's militia forces from Kabul by Sunday, the
Hezb-i-Islami spokesman said.
        Under the Aug. 26 peace accord, Rabbani and his defense minister
Ahmed Shah Massoud agreed to withdraw Dostam's militia forces from Kabul
and purge the army of communist officers, from the rank of general down.
        Hekmatyar, for his part, agreed to remove his mujahideen guerrilla
forces from strategic hills around Kabul.
        Pakistani sources in Islamabad said both sides appeared to have
implemented the accord only partially. The Hezb-i-Islami accused Rabbani
and Massoud of dragging their feet.
        The party spokesman said the accord was supposed to have been
implemented within one week of being signed, but five weeks have since
passed and Dostam's militia forces were still in Kabul, and communist
officers still held posts in the army.
        A diplomat in the Afghan embassy, controlled by the council of
neutral mujahideen commanders, said however that communist Gen. Asif
Dilawar was removed this week from his post as chief of the army staff.
He was replaced by Gen. Rahim wardak, a non-communist and neutral
officer.
        Wardak took up his post along with 34 other high-ranking officers who
have replaced communists appointed by ousted President Najibullah during
the decade-long civil war, the diplomat, who did not wish to be
identified, said.
        There were still some 2,000 men from Dostam's militia inside Kabul,
but they too would be removed soon, he said. Dostam reportedly had a
militia force of 20,000 men in Kabul when Najibullah fell from power in
April.
        Dostam's defection to the mujahideen in April led to the collapse of
the Najibullah regime and the end of communist rule in Afghanistan.
        The militia chief has since backed Rabbani and Massoud, both members
of the Jamiat-i-Islami party and now in effective control of the interim
government.
        But political analysts in Islamabad said a ``third force'' has
emerged in Afghanistan over the past five weeks, and has been
increasingly asserting its authority.
        This is the council of neutral commanders representing the eight
other parties, formerly based in Peshawar, Pakistan, which controlled
the mujahideen forces in Afghanistan during the civil war.
        Calling itself the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan (NIFA), the
``third force'' is headed by mujahideen commander Haji Shoomali Khan and
backs the return King Zahir Shah to Afghanistan. NIFA reportedly has
sufficient clout to enforce its writ.
        The Hezb-i-Islami party spokesman said Afghanistan may be heading for
an all-out civil war again, this time between Hekmatyar's and Massoud's
forces, who could between them ultimately split the country into two
parts, but the analysts said the neutral commanders are set on
preventing this from happening.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.afghanistan