Mohammad Najibullah
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| Dr. Mohammad Najibullah محمد نجيب الله |
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| In office 30 September 1987 – 16 April 1992 |
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| Prime Minister | Sultan Ali Keshtmand Mohammad Hasan Sharq Sultan Ali Keshtmand Fazal Haq Khaliqyar |
| Preceded by | Haji Mohammad Chamkani |
| Succeeded by | Abdul Rahim Hatef (Acting) |
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| Born | August 1947 Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Died | 28 September 1996 Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Political party | People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan |
Mohammad Najibullah (Pashto: محمد نجيب الله; born August, 1947, killed September 27, 1996) was the fourth and last President of the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the second President of the Republic of Afghanistan.
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[edit] Early years
Mohammad Najibullah was born in August 1947 to the Ahmadzai sub-tribe of the Ghilzai Pashtun tribe. Though born in Kabul, his ancestral village was located between the towns of Said Karam and Gardez in Paktia Province. He was educated at Habibia High School and Kabul University, where he graduated with a doctor degree in medicine in 1975.
[edit] Political career
In 1965 Najibullah joined the Parcham faction of the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and in 1977 joined the Central Committee.
In 1978 the PDPA took power in Afghanistan, with Najibullah a member of the ruling Revolutionary Council. However, the Khalq faction of the PDPA gained supremacy over his own Parcham faction, and after a brief stint as ambassador in Iran, he was dismissed from government and went into exile in Europe.
He returned to Kabul after the Soviet invasion in 1979. In 1980, he was appointed the head of KHAD, the secret police. Under Najibullah's control, it is claimed that KHAD arrested, tortured and executed tens of thousands of Afghans. Amnesty International provided evidence of ‘widespread and systematic torture of men, women and children’. Survivors of his prisons have accused him of personally torturing and killing inmates, often by beating them to the ground and kicking them to death.[1] In 1981 he was promoted to full membership in the Politburo.
Meanwhile, a change had taken place in Kabul. On May 4, 1986, under pressure of the Soviet Union Babrak Karmal resigned as secretary general of the PDPA and was replaced by Dr. Najibullah. Karmal retained the presidency for a while, but power had shifted to Najibullah.
His selection by the Soviets was clearly related to his success in running KHAD, the secret police, more effectively than the rest of the DRA had been governed.
[edit] President of the Republic (November 1986 - April 1992)
In November 1986, Najibullah was elected president and a new constitution was adopted. Some of the innovations incorporated into the constitution were a multi-party political system, freedom of expression, and an Islamic legal system presided over by an independent judiciary.
However, all of these measures were largely outweighed by the broad powers of the president, who commanded a military and police apparatus under the control of the Homeland Party (Hizb-i Watan, as the PDPA became known in 1988). In September he set up the National Compromise Commission to contact counter-revolutionaries "in order to complete the Saur Revolution in its new phase." Allegedly some 40,000 rebels were contacted.
In this way, Najibullah had stabilized his political position enough to begin matching Moscow's moves toward withdrawal. On July 20, 1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced.
It was also during his Administration that the peak of the fighting came in 1985-86. The Soviet forces launched their largest and most effective assaults on the Mujahedeen supply lines adjacent to Pakistan. Major campaigns had also forced the mujahedeen back to defensive positions near Herat and Kandahar.
Najibullah made an expanded reconciliation offer to the resistance in July 1987, including twenty seats in State (formerly Revolutionary) Council, twelve ministries and a possible prime ministership and Afghanistan's status as an Islamic non-aligned state. Military, police, and security powers were not mentioned, and the offer still fell far short of what even the moderate mujahedeen parties would accept.
Najibullah then reorganized his government to face the mujahedeen alone. A new constitution took effect in November, 1987. The name of the country was reverted to the Republic of Afghanistan, the State Council was replaced by a National Assembly for which "progressive parties" could freely compete. Mir Hussein Sharq, a non-party politician, was named Prime Minister.
On June 7, 1988, President Najibullah addressed the UN General Assembly for peace solution of crisis in Afghanistan.
[edit] Soviet withdrawal and Civil War
Immediately after the Soviet departure, Najibullah pulled down the façade of shared government. He declared an emergency, removed Sharq and the other non-party ministers from the cabinet. The Soviet Union responded with a flood of military and economic supplies. Sufficient food and fuel were made available for the next two difficult winters.
Much of the military equipment belonging to Soviet units evacuating Eastern Europe was shipped to Afghanistan. Assured adequate supplies, the Afghan Air Force, which had developed tactics minimizing the threat from Stinger missiles, now deterred mass attacks against the cities. Medium-range missiles, particularly the Scud, were successfully launched from Kabul in the defense of Jalalabad, 145 kilometres away.
Victory at Jalalabad dramatically revived the morale of the Kabul government. Its army proved able to fight effectively alongside the already hardened troops of the Soviet-trained special security forces. Defections decreased dramatically when it became apparent that the resistance was in disarray, with no capability for a quick victory.
Soviet support reached a value of $3 billion a year in 1990. Kabul had achieved a stalemate which exposed the mujahedeen weaknesses, political and military. Najibullah's government survived for another four years. Eventually divisions within his own ranks, including the defection of General Abdul Rashid Dostam fatally weakened the government's resolve.
In March 1990 his government successfully withstood a Khalqi coup d'état, headed by Defense Minister Shahnawaz Tanai. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was one of the main supporters of the coup.
Najibullah had been working on a compromise settlement to end the civil war with Ahmad Shah Massoud, brokered by the United Nations. However, talks broke down and the government fell, and by 1992 Najibullah agreed to step down in favor of a transitional government. He also announced that a bicameral parliament would be established "within a few months," on the basis of "free and democratic elections."
[edit] Downfall
The regime collapsed, as Kabul was short of fuel and food at the end of winter in 1992. Najibullah announced his willingness on March 18 to resign in order to make way for a neutral interim government. On April 16, having lost internal control, was forced to resign by his own ruling party, following the capture of the strategically important Bagram air base and the nearby town of Charikar, by the Jamiat-i-Islami guerrilla group.
Najibullah tried to meet Benon Sevan - director and senior political advisor to the UN Secretary-General's representative on the Afghan conflict at Kabul International Airport, but he was blocked by Abdul Rashid Dostum. On April 17, he sought sanctuary in the UN compound in Kabul. Burhanuddin Rabbani refused to let him leave the country, but made no attempt to arrest him.
On the day Sarobi fell to the Taliban, Najibullah sent a message to the United Nations in Islamabad, asking them to arrange the evacuation of himself, his brother Ahmadzai and some of his bodyguards, but the UN did not respond due to the intervention by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI) in the process.
[edit] Death
His wife Fatana and his three daughters had lived in exile in New Delhi since 1992. He spent the rest of his days in virtual detention, and remained there until he was killed in September 1996 by the Taliban who captured Kabul.
Ahmad Shah Massoud, commander-in-chief of Burhanuddin Rabbani's Army, fled Kabul and surrendered Kabul to the Taliban to avoid further war in the city. There are rumors about Massoud who made attempts to secure Mohammad Najibullah's life and that of his brother, secretary, and bodyguards, but Najibullah rejected the offer. This is supported by General Tokhi's letters. Tokhi was with Najibullah at the UN compound when he was taken away by the Taliban, castrated and brutally murdered. His blood soaked body was hung in public from a traffic light post.[2] His secretary and bodyguards were hanged the following day.
There was widespread international condemnation[3], particularly from the Muslim world[4]. Mohammad Najibullah's body was removed and sent to Gardez in Paktia Province, where he was buried by his Ahmadzai tribesmen.
[edit] References
- ^ Christopher M Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (2005). The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. Basic Books, p.409. ISBN 0465003117.
- ^ Guardian.co.uk: They can't see why they are hated
- ^ " Endorses the Special Rapporteur's condemnation of the abduction from United Nations premises of the former President of Afghanistan, Mr. Najibullah, and of his brother, and of their subsequent summary execution;" United Nations Resolution 51/108 article 10
- ^ "After the execution, even Taliban acknowledged that such behavior was 'un-Islamic' " p.25 in In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Milton Viorst, published by Westview Press 2001; ISBN 0813339022.
[edit] External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Haji Mohammad Chamkani |
President of Afghanistan 1987 – 1992 |
Succeeded by Abdul Rahim Hatef Acting |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Asadullah Amin Head of the KAM |
General Secretary of the State Information Agency 1980 – 1986 |
Succeeded by Ghulam Faruq Yakubi |
| Preceded by Babrak Karmal |
Chairman of the Revolutionary Council 1986 – 1987 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Babrak Karmal |
General Secretary of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan 1986 – 1992 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
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