Reagan to Urge Overt Afghan Aid

The Reagan Administration wants to send overt refugee aid to Afghan resistance groups battling the Soviet military occupation of their country, a senior State Department official said today.

Under Secretary of State William Schneider Jr. said Congress will be asked to approve $4 million for the remainder of the current fiscal year and $5 million for 1986.

If the House and Senate agree, the decision would mark a shift in U.S. policy from covert to open assistance.

Schneider testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee examining the criteria for American support of various insurgency groups around the world.

Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and installed a government under their control, and Afghan guerrillas have been seeking to force them to withdraw ever since.

‘From Crisis to Crisis’

Before making the disclosure about the refugee aid request, Schneider came under heavy criticism from Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.). The senator faulted the Administration’s policy of refusing to openly provide aid to the resistance fighters, even though the United States supports their efforts to resist Soviet domination.

“I can’t believe it,” D’Amato said. “It’s ridiculous.”

“I think we have a peculiar policy of jumping from crisis to crisis,” he added. “We’re like little kids.”

Most U.S. military and refugee aid is sent covertly to the resistance troops, called moujahedeen, and passes through Pakistan, whose government wants to avoid a confrontation with the Soviet Union over the use of its territory, according to U.S. officials.

Nonetheless, Schneider disclosed that the State Department will soon ask for an immediate $4 million for food and medical help for the refugees to be delivered by Sept. 30.

No Weapons Included

He said that while it might include ambulances and medical supply vehicles, no weapons would be included.

Schneider did not provide further details about the proposal, although he said the money would be administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In other testimony, a leader of the Afghan resistance forces said U.S. covert aid is running in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Mohammed Nabi Salehi said only a fraction of that actually reaches the resistance troops because “the people delivering the aid on the ground are doing it in a way that aggravates rivalries, jealousies and accusations of corruption.”

He said the U.S. assistance is minimal compared to the well-supplied and well-armed Soviet occupying force.