Kremlin Troops Reinforced

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The last month has seen major changes in . the position of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

There has been a renewal of the massive Soviet build-up and thousands of reinforcements have arrived along with new arms to supply them.

This amounts to an admission of the failure of the Red Army's tactics of indiscriminate terror bombing of villages as a means of subduing imperialistbacked rebels. 1 In fact the bombing has led to a vast influx of refugees into Kabul, thus threatening Soviet control of the city.

The new troop build-up also points to the fraudulence of the idea that any significant sections of the Afghanistan population support the Soviet occupation.

Even their puppet President Barbak Karmal was impelled to demand some elbow room from his Stalinist patrons.

Last month Karmal reconstructed his government removing virtually all remaining members of the Khala (People) faction and replacing them with members of his own Parcham (Flag) faction of the Afghanistan Peoples Democratic Party (CP).

Arrested

Some of the replaced Khalq ministers were reportedly arrested.

The reshuffle turned out to be the prelude to a renewal of the barbaric gangsterism which has always characterised the internal life of Afghani Stalinism.

Unfortunately for Karmal and his Moscow backers, a large section of the Afghanistan army, already much reduced in size •through • desertions, supports the Khalq.

That-and not support for the Isiamic right-wing opposition-appears to have been the main reason behind the mutiny of the whole 14th tank division in Ghazni (south of Kabul) in the last week of July.

The mutiny was reportedly suppressed by the Red Army.

Karmal, meanwhile, unable to rely on his own army, has volunteer form• Pro-Parcham neYV oro- areualu function is as a kind of antiKhalq death squad.

The Khalq conducted a similar death feud when it was in power under Taraki and Amin before last December's coup.

Isolated

The intensification of such gangsterism is partly a response by the isolated regime to fears for its own life.

Within a few weeks both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education have been assassinated.

It was the Minister who gave Afghan soldiers orders (which they disobeyed) to fire. on student demonstrations in April and May.

With the paranoia characteristic of isolated dictators Karmal responded by closing all the schools and colleges as a punishment.

And he constantly fumes against the lesser bureaucrats for "doing nothing for the good of the country"

It has also been widely reported (though later denied by the Kremlin) that a prominent Soviet General was also assassinated.

At least it is certain that if he was killed he would have found few mourners in Afghanistan.

As well as the guerrilla war in the hills, signs of mass resistance to the Soviet presence continue in the towns.

Though the latest call for a general strike of shopkeepers and traders was not widely followed, lunlike the previous one in February), this was probably because of a massive increase in the Soviet troops presence in the streets of Kabul.

The facts are in stark contrast to the statement issued two weeks ago after the Third Plenum of the Afghan CP: "The process of consolidation of all patriotic and democratic forces and their regroupment in a single national front is developing successfully in the country".

The Soviet leadership is now further than ever from achieving its objectives in Afghanistan and the political, military and economic costs are proving much higher than predicted.

This fact now takes on a double significance as a result of the growing working class upsurge in Poland, not to mention the growing signs of discontent and anti-bureaucratic mobilisation among the working masses of the Soviet Union itself.