Afghanistan in 1993

Afghanistan is a landlocked Islamic republic in central Asia. Area: 652,225 sq km (251,825 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 20,269,000 (excluding Afghan refugees estimated to number about 1.5 million in Pakistan and 2.3 million in Iran). Cap.: Kabul. Monetary unit: afghani, with (Oct. 4, 1993) a free rate of 1,520 afghanis to U.S. $1 (2,304 afghanis = £1 sterling). President in 1993, Burhanuddin Rabbani; prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (designated on March 8, sworn in on June 17).

Afghanistan marked the first anniversary of the fall of the communist regime and the birth of an Islamic government, but in general the country had little to celebrate in 1993. One year after a rebel coalition triumphantly ousted the communist president, Mohammad Najibullah, and declared an Islamic government on April 28, 1992, Afghanistan remained a battleground, with rival factions fighting for power and pounding the capital with rockets. An estimated 10,000 people were killed, 750,000 were displaced, and many neighbourhoods in Kabul were devastated. Most UN officials and foreign diplomats left Afghanistan. Although the fighting lessened somewhat in the latter half of 1993, it was still unclear if the nation, which withstood 14 years of civil war, ultimately would be governable. Meanwhile, Najibullah, who had received a promise of safe passage from the UN when it negotiated his abdication, remained in the UN office in Kabul, suffering from a kidney ailment. The UN had been unable to secure his freedom.

Continuing hostilities also delayed the homecoming of an estimated 3.8 million refugees in Iran and Pakistan, the largest refugee population in the world. The UN believed it would take until the end of 1995 for the 1.5 million Afghans remaining in Pakistan to return home.

In early January a national assembly of tribal and religious leaders confirmed the acting president, approved the creation of a parliament and a new army, and set a strict Islamic path for Afghanistan. Despite allegations of vote buying, bribery, and threats of renewed civil war, the assembly voted to keep Burhanuddin Rabbani as president. The 53-year-old Islamic scholar was sworn in on January 2. Five of the 10 main rebel groups denounced the council as unrepresentative, however, and described Rabbani’s reelection as a declaration of war. The 1,335-member assembly further ordered that only Muslims work for the government, banned all non-Muslim organizations, and declared that radio and television had to conform to Islamic law.

Despite continuing fighting among the various rebel leaders--principally between government forces under Defense Minister Ahmed Shah Masood and Hezb-i-Islami faction troops loyal to fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar--a 22-member Cabinet was named on May 20. Hekmatyar was designated prime minister in March after his forces captured Masood’s ministry building in Kabul, which Hezb-i-Islami troops had been shelling for a year.

Acceding to Hekmatyar’s demands, the May cease-fire agreement called for the Defense Ministry to be run by a commission under President Rabbani. Other Cabinet posts were divided among the 10 major rebel groups, including Mohammad Yunus Khalis’ breakaway faction of the Hezb-i-Islami, which had boycotted all past agreements. Afghanistan’s minority Shi’ites, allies of Hekmatyar who had been demanding greater representation, were given the Finance and Health ministries.

Hekmatyar ventured into Kabul in mid-June for the first time since 1992. On June 17 he was formally sworn in as prime minister in a low-key ceremony in a village outside Kabul, the capital. The state-controlled Kabul radio reported on September 27 that the Afghan leadership, after five days of negotiations, had approved an interim constitution and that elections would be held in 1994.

On the international front Afghanistan made efforts to win support and money from Islamic nations. Prime Minister Hekmatyar visited Tehran in August and returned with a pledge that Iran would help repair roads destroyed in the war and help Afghanistan look for oil and gas. In the same month, Afghanistan said that it would not return Stinger missile launchers supplied by the U.S. to anti-Soviet rebels during the 1978-92 Afghan war. Washington wanted to buy back the antiaircraft weapons to keep them from falling into the hands of terrorists.

Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium grower, according to the UN, produced an estimated 2,000 tons in 1992. This was a concern not only for the West, where the production fueled the illegal heroin trade, but also at home, where it was estimated that 15% of all adult Afghan males age 15-40 were addicted to hard drugs.