Settam-e-Melli
Setami Milli (Dari Persian for "National Oppression"), variously romanized as Setam-i-Milli, Setam-e-Milli, Setam-i-Meli, Setam-e-Meli, Setami-i-Milli, and Setame Melli, was a political movement in Afghanistan, led by Tahir Badakhshi. The organization was affiliated with the Non-Aligned Movement, and was opposed by both the Afghan monarchy and by the Soviet-aligned People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. National Oppression was a Marxist, Maoist, pro-Beijing group, although it also drew support from the Soviets at times. Its followers were mostly Persian speakers and included many Shia. Most of its members were non-Pashtuns—Tajik, Uzbek, and other minorities—and it has been variously described as an anti-Pashtun separatist group and as a Tajik and Uzbek separatist group.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
The group was founded in 1968 by Tahir Badakhshi, a Tajik who formerly had been a member of the Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and split with the party.[3][6] The group emphasized "militant class struggle and mass mobilization of peasants" and recruited Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other minorities from Kabul and the northeastern provinces.[3]
On February 14, 1979, the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped by four armed militants belonging to the Setami Milli party posing as police. The kidnappers demanded the release of Badruddin Bahes, the imprisoned leader of their party. The government of Hafizullah Amin denied holding Bahes, and refused categorically to negotiate with the militants, in spite of the U.S. embassy's demands.[1] Dubs was held in Room 117 of the Kabul Hotel (now called Kabul Serena Hotel). Afghan security forces and Russian advisers swarmed the hallway and surrounding rooftops, but negotiations stalled. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., an exchange of gunfire started between the militants and the Afghan security forces, and the ambassador was killed.[7]
During the Taraki-Amin period, the Setamis withdrew to the Afghan countryside, though as an urban movement this removed them from their powerbase. During the 1979-1986 rule of communist president Babrak Karmal, the Setamis became closer with the government, partially as Karmal had been personal friend of Badakhshi (who had been killed in 1979).[8] A Setami leader, Bashir Baghlani, went over to the government in 1983, and was made Minister of Justice.[9]
The Setamis continued to play a prominent role among the non-Pashtun northeastern Afghan militias, playing a part in Ahmad Shah Massoud's defeat at Shahr-i Bozorg in 1990.[10]
References
- ^ a b Diego Cordovez & Selig S. Harrison, Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 34-35.
- ^ Dan Caldwell, Vortex of Conflict: U.S. Policy Toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2007), p. 24.
- ^ a b c Senzil Nawid, Language Policy in Afghanistan: Linguistic Diversity and National Unity, in Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors (Koninklijke Brill NV 2012), p. 42.
- ^ M. Hassan Kakar, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982 (University of California Press, 1995), p. 58.
- ^ Asger Christensen, Aiding Afghanistan: The Background and Prospects for Reconstruction in a Fragmented Society (NIAS Press, 1995), p. 24.
- ^ a b Frank Clements, Badakhshi, Tahir (?-1979), in Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia (2003), p. 37.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Gilles Dorronsoro. Revolution unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the present.. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-85065-703-3, ISBN 978-1-85065-703-3
- ^ J. Bruce Amstutz. Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation. DIANE Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0-7881-1111-6, ISBN 978-0-7881-1111-2
- ^ Gilles Dorronsoro. Revolution unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the present.. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-85065-703-3, ISBN 978-1-85065-703-3
