Moscow Renews Call for Afghan Truce : Troop Pullout Over, Soviets Urge End of Arms Flow to Both Sides

With its troops out of Afghanistan, the Soviet government Wednesday renewed its proposal for an immediate cease-fire there and a halt in arms shipments to both the Kabul government and the rebel moujahedeen .

The Soviet statement said that the withdrawal, agreed upon last April by Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Soviet Union and the United States, should provide a good basis for restoring peace to the country. Immediate steps are needed, it said, to ensure that the opportunity is not lost.

The last Soviet troops crossed from Afghanistan into the Soviet Union on Wednesday morning. The U.N. official who negotiated the withdrawal said at U.N. headquarters in New York that he believes fewer than 10 Soviet military advisers remain in the country.

“I am told that there will be an absolutely minimum number left . . . something less than 10,” the official, Diego Cordovez, told reporters. He said he understood that a small number of other Soviets would stay on to complete logistical and accounting tasks and serve as embassy guards.

Other sources have indicated that as many as 150 advisers may be staying.

According to Soviet sources, Yuli M. Vorontsov, the first deputy foreign minister who also serves as Moscow’s ambassador to Kabul, will resume his diplomatic efforts in a few days to promote a political settlement, starting with negotiations on a cease-fire.

“Whether the Afghan situation will develop along the lines of national accord . . . or along the lines of escalating war and tension depends to a large extent on those who have over all these years aided and abetted the armed opposition,” the Soviet government statement said.

Moscow has said in the past that its military aid to Kabul was in accord with its bilateral obligations but that Western aid to the rebels was interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. It has said it would be willing to halt its aid to Kabul in return for a matching agreement as part of a cease-fire package. Washington rejected the proposal when it was first made in December.

‘Stop the Bloodshed’

Yuri Kornilov, a political observer with the Soviet news agency Tass, said that “Moscow is aiming to promote actively a stable political settlement, to stop the bloodshed and start a constructive dialogue between the warring factions” in Afghanistan.

Putting distance between Moscow and its ally, the government of President Najibullah in Kabul, Kornilov said: “It is crystal clear that a Kabul government really representing the will and interests of all layers of Afghan society can be formed only when military activities are stopped in Afghanistan.”

In Kabul, the Najibullah government thanked the Soviet Union for its help in the war but said future relations should develop on the basis of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

The Soviet government and Communist Party, anxious to heal the rifts the war has caused in Soviet society, issued a statement praising Soviet soldiers for “fulfilling your patriotic and internationalist duty honestly and courageously.”

“At the request of the lawful government of Afghanistan,” the statement said, “you were protecting its people, women and children, the aged, peaceful cities and villages. You were protecting the national independence and sovereignty of a friendly country.”

The government and party called for assistance to the veterans, particularly the 2,000 invalids, and to the families of nearly 15,000 who died.

The Soviet press, continuing its reflections on how the country became embroiled in Afghanistan, welcomed the troops home--and declared that they must not be sent on such a mission again without a full and open discussion.

The Communist Party newspaper Pravda joined with liberal reformers who have called for shifting from top party levels to the Supreme Soviet, the national Parliament, the authority to declare war or commit Soviet troops to battle. Legislation, perhaps in the form of a constitutional amendment, is expected to be offered to the Supreme Soviet in April.

In the same spirit of reflection, the journal Literary Gazette reported an incident in Afghanistan that led to a Soviet officer being sent to prison. It said a group of Soviet soldiers opened fire on a car carrying seven civilians thought to be guerrillas. They fired, it said, because the civilian car’s driver ignored their warning shots.

The article suggested that all seven civilians were killed, either by gunfire or later when it was crushed by an armored personnel carrier.

Literary Gazette quoted the soldiers’ commanding officer as telling them, “I don’t need prisoners.”

The officer was said to have been sentenced to six years in prison but freed under an amnesty.

Discussing the atmosphere of fear and revenge in which such events could occur, the journal commented: “The situation is not a justification of the cruelty but only a precondition for it.”