Afghan President Names Former Foe to High Post

Afghan President Najibullah has appointed a former political foe to serve as first deputy prime minister in a move seen as an attempt to consolidate the position of his Soviet-backed regime, officials said Sunday.

Mahmood Baryalai, 45, is the half-brother of former President Babrak Karmal, whom Najibullah ousted in December, 1986.

“Our doors are open to anyone who wants to join the national reconciliation plan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Nabi Amani told reporters.

The appointment makes Baryalai the No. 2 official behind Prime Minister Soltan Ali Keshtmand in the 27-member Council of Ministers.

Baryalai was a member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party but was disgraced, imprisoned and kept under house arrest in Kabul for several months in a 1987 purge that followed his brother’s ouster.

Politicians and government officials said Sunday that the announcement took many of them by surprise. But the presence in Moscow of Afghan Foreign Minister Abdul Wakil was a sign that it had been agreed upon in advance with Moscow.

In Moscow, the Tass news agency reported that Wakil had left for Kabul after talks with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze. Tass earlier said the two had discussed possible ways of reaching an Afghan settlement, including holding an international conference with the participation of the Soviet Union, the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.