Rebels 'out To Blast Peace Plan'
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday April 30, 1987
BANGKOK, Thursday: Afghan guerillas have received 1,600 US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to subvert Kabul's drive for reconciliation between the Government and its opponents, an Afghan Cabinet minister has said.
A raid by Afghan guerillas on Soviet territory earlier this month was also aimed at undermining the cease-fire and amnesty Kabul offered them as the only alternative to war, Mr Ghulam Jilani Kargar said here last night.
But Mr Kargar, president of the Cabinet's management office, told a news conference he was sure the anti-communist rebels would not succeed even with their new missiles.
"Our peaceful policy will not be affected by those things," he said.
"The war is exhausting all our people, destroying them. Let's stop it. National reconciliation is the only alternative to war."
Mr Kargar was here as head of the Afghan delegation to the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
The rebels have been fighting Kabul since a communist coup on April 27, 1978. Soviet troops intervened in December 1979 to defend the embattled Government and now number about 115,000.
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald