|
Feb 15th 1989
This was a concluding chapter in a ten year story: the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. All of the 115,000 occupying troops left the country, through the northern border city of Mazaar e Sharif.
In the 10 years of the war the number of Russian soldiers, who paid with their lives in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan exceeded 14,000, which means, the Soviet Union was losing an average 1,400 servicemen per year Causes of Death: KIA 9,511 , by wounds 2,386 , Disease and Accidents 2,556 , Total: 14,453 Combat Equipment Losses: Aircraft 118 , Helicopters 333 , Tanks 147 , Armored , Personnel Carriers 1,314 , Artillery 433 , Cargo and fuel tanker trucks 11,369 On a day when the United Nations mercy flight was still grounded in Pakistan, the Aleutian transporters were delivering Russian flour for Kabul's hungry poor. For two weeks now these deliveries have been keeping the bakeries of Kabul open. In the last four days, the Soviets say they've flown in 3,000 tons of flour, their immediate target 12,000 tons. They left behind a city effectively under siege. The daily food queues testify to the effectiveness of the rebel blockade of Kabul. Children waited for hours in the freezing early morning to buy bread for their families. The irony was that there was food on sale in the Kabul bazaar, but shortages had forced prices up beyond the reach of the poor. Meat was available but at black market prices three times what they were the year before.
Female party members have been encouraged to join neighborhood militia movements.
In a move seen as an admission that not all his forces can be relied upon, the president formed an elite special guard being trained in the old British army barracks in Kabul. These were the troops who will guard key installations and probably the president himself, the government apparently confident they'll be more than a match for the rebels. Despite all of the weaponry supplied by the Russians, the greatest ally of the Najibullah regime today was probably the weather, the harshest winter for 16 years, making life difficult for their own forces but almost impossible for the Mujahadeen to make a concerted move on the capital.
|
