Babrak Karmal
Babrak Karmal | |
|---|---|
| File:Babrak Karmal.jpg | |
| In office December 27, 1979 – November 24, 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Hafizullah Amin |
| Succeeded by | Haji Mohammad Chamkani |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 6, 1929 Kamari, Afghanistan |
| Died | December 3, 1996 Moscow, Russia |
| Political party | People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan |
Babrak Karmal (January 6, 1929 - December 3, 1996) was the third President of Afghanistan (1980 - 1986) during the period of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He was an elegant actor, an expert propagandist, and the best known of the Marxist leadership.
Having been restored to power with Soviet support, he was unable to consolidate his power and, in 1986, he was replaced by Dr. Mohammad Najibullah. He left Afghanistan for Moscow, but returned to Kabul in 1989. He died in Moscow.
Early years
The son of a well-connected army general, although born into a wealthy Tajikized family of Kashmir origin in the village of Kamari (east of Kabul), Babrak Karmal lived in hardship following the death of his mother.
He was an indifferent student in high school and in the law school of Kabul University, quickly gained a reputation as an orator and activist in the university’s student union in 1951. He became involved in Marxist political activities while a student at Kabul University, and was imprisoned for five years as a result.
In prison, Karmal was befriended by a fellow inmate, Mier Akbar Khybar. A third inmate, Mier Mohammad Siddiq Farhang, initiated both to pro-Moscow leftist views. After graduation he entered the Ministry of Planning, keeping in close touch with those who had special knowledge on communism, among them Mier Mohammad Siddiq Farhang and Ali Mohammad Zahma', a professor at Kabul University.
Political career
On January 1 1965 the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was founded in Kabul, with Karmal serving as one of its twenty-eight founding members in its founding congress. Karmal was appointed its Secretary. As a result, he was elected and served in the National Assembly from 1965 until 1973.
In 1967, when the party split into the Khalq and the Parcham factions, Karmal became the leader of the more moderate Parcham faction. When Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrew the monarchy and instituted the Republic, Karmal’s faction shared power with him, although Karmal himself did not hold an official position. However, once President Daoud felt secure in his position, dismissed Parchamis from the presidential cabinet and tried to distance Afghanistan from the Soviet Union.
The factions reunited in 1977, and in April 1978 seized control of Afghanistan. Karmal was initially deputy prime minister but following the rise of the rival Khalq faction he was soon 'exiled' as ambassador to Prague.
The PDPA was attempting to modernize the country in line with socialist ideas, but there was major unrest. In December 1979 the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and called Karmal back to be President of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal, exiled leader of the Parcham faction of the PDPA was installed by the Soviets as Afghanistan's new head of government.
President of the Republic
In his first radio broadcasts Karmal gave hopeful promises. He said that henceforth there would be no executions and that a new constitution would be drawn up providing for the democratic election of national and local assemblies. He also promised that political parties would function freely and that both personal property and individual freedom would be safeguarded. In particular, he stressed that soon a government representing a united national front would be set up and that it would not pursue socialism.
He manage to fullfill some of his promises: the release of some political prisoners; the promulgation of the Fundamental Principles of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan; the change of the red, Soviet-style banner of the Khalq period to the more orthodox one of black, red, and green; the granting of concessions to religious leaders; and the conditional restoration of confiscated property.
However, his Government didn't enjoy International support from the beginning. The United Nations General Assembly voted by 104 to 18 with 18 abstentions for a resolution which "strongly deplored" the "recent armed intervention" in Afghanistan and called for the "total withdrawal of foreign troops" from the country.
Immediate problems also were within the party. He was the chosen man of the Kremlin, and no one within the party could openly oppose him. However, scheming men devise ways to oppose even under the strictest of circumstances. No attempt was made to televise the process by which, even within the official party and the Revolutionary Council, Karmal was elected head of the party and of the state.
Karmal’s poor performance in interviews with foreign journalists also failed to help his public image. In the first and last televised interview of his life, held before a large number of foreign and Afghan journalists after he was raised to power, Karmal divided the journalists on the basis of the Cold War line distinguishing between the imperialist bloc and the socialist bloc countries.
Thus, the civil war in Afghanistan started. This was a different type of war, however, since it was a guerrilla warfare and a war of attrition between the PDPA-Communist controlled regime and the mujahidin; it cost both sides a great deal. Many Afghans, perhaps as many as five million, or one-quarter of the country's population, fled to Pakistan and Iran where they organized into guerrilla groups to strike Soviet and government forces inside Afghanistan.
Others remained in Afghanistan and also formed fighting groups. These various groups were supplied with funds to purchase arms, principally from the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, and Egypt.
Fall from power
The regime ruled only the city of Kabul, the provincial capitals, and those strategic areas where the Soviets and the Afghan Military had stationed military contingents and militia units. Despite high casualties on both sides, pressure continued to mount on the Soviet Union, especially after the United States brought in Stinger anti-aircraft missiles which severely reduced the effectiveness of Soviet air cover.
Moscow came to regard Karmal as a failure and blamed him for the problems. Years later, when Karmal’s inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, said:
- The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help.
Not only that, but some Afghan troops who had fought for the Communist Government began to defect. In May 1986 he was replaced as party leader by Mohammad Najibullah, and six months later he was relieved of the presidency. Karmal moved to Moscow, where he remained until his death. He was burried in Hieratan. when Taliban conquered Heiratan they took him out of his grave and threw his body in to Amu river.