Afghan Guerrillas React Coolly to Gorbachev’s Cease-Fire Proposals
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s proposals for a cease-fire in Afghanistan and a new international conference to guarantee Kabul’s future neutrality met with a cool response Thursday from Afghan guerrilla leaders.
“If Gorbachev wants a settlement of the Afghan problem, he should withdraw all Soviet forces and stop supporting the puppet regime in Kabul,” said Yunis Khalis, one of the seven leaders of the anti-Soviet Afghan rebel alliance.
Khalis said that a cease-fire would amount to a recognition of the Najibullah government in Kabul, something the moujahedeen have refused to consider under any circumstances.
“Gorbachev wants to politically win the battle he lost in the field,” Khalis said.
Khalis was joined in his condemnation by Abdul Rahim, spokesman for the Jamiat-i-Islami group, who said: “A cease-fire in the presence of invading forces is meaningless in Afghanistan.”
While both guerrilla spokesmen appeared to rule out a general cease-fire on Jan. 1 as Gorbachev proposed in his United Nations speech Wednesday, the issue of limiting hostilities between the moujahedeen and departing Soviet forces was discussed in talks between the rebels and Soviet officials in Saudi Arabia this week.
The talks are expected to resume in about 10 days, probably in Pakistan.
The formation of a broad-based government, a proposal Gorbachev also raised at the United Nations, also is under discussion by the two sides.
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