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Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai, commonly known as Najibullah or Dr. Najib, was an Afghan politician who served as the leader of Afghanistan from 1986 to 1992 and as well as the President of Afghanistan from 1987 until his resignation in April 1992, shortly after which the mujahideen took over Kabul. After a failed attempt to flee to India, Najibullah remained in Kabul. He lived in the United Nations headquarters until his death at the hands of the Taliban after their capture of the city.
The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), renamed the Republic of Afghanistan in 1987, existed from 1978 to 1992, during which time the socialist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) ruled Afghanistan.
The Soviet–Afghan War was a conflict wherein insurgent groups, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside. The Mujahideen were variously backed primarily by the United States, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United Kingdom; the conflict was a Cold War-era proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 Afghans were killed and millions more fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. The war caused grave destruction in Afghanistan and is believed to have contributed to the Soviet collapse, in hindsight leaving a mixed legacy to people in both territories.
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in that year's parliamentary elections, reduced to two seats in 1969, albeit both before parties were fully legal.
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf is an Afghan politician and former mujahideen commander. He took part in the war against the PDPA government in the 1980s, leading the Afghan mujahideen faction Ittehad-al-Islami.
The Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan, previously known as the Communist Party of Afghanistan, is an underground communist party in Afghanistan oriented around Marxism–Leninism–Maoism (MLM). The party was founded in 2004 through the merger of five MLM parties. It was a member of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM).
The Geneva Accords, known formally as the agreements on the settlement of the situation relating to Afghanistan, were signed on 14 April 1988 at the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations, between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the United States and the Soviet Union serving as guarantors.
Gustav Lascaris Avrakotos was an American case officer and the Afghan Task Force Chief for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The National Workers' Union of Afghanistan (NUWA) was the sole labour body of Afghanistan, from 1990 until the Mujahideen rose to power in 1992. Previous to 1990 the Central Council of Afghan Trade Unions (CCATU) fulfilled the same role.
This article covers the Afghan history from the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan on 15 February 1989 until 27 April 1992, the day after the proclamation of the Peshawar Accords proclaiming a new interim Afghan government which was supposed to start serving on 28 April 1992.
The Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen, also known as the Seven Party Mujahideen Alliance or Peshawar Seven, was an alliance formed in 1988 by the seven Afghan mujahideen parties fighting against the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan forces in the Soviet–Afghan War. The alliance sought to function as a united diplomatic front towards the world opinion, and sought representation in the United Nations and Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The mujahideen were also supported by Britain's MI6, who conducted separate covert actions. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups, including groups with jihadist ties, that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Soviet-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention.
The following lists events that happened during 1980 in Afghanistan.
Some sources have alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had ties with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda and its "Afghan Arab" fighters when it armed Mujahideen groups to fight the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Since the 1970s, the CIA has engaged in multiple operations in Afghanistan. The first major operation, code named Operation Cyclone, began in 1979. It was a program to arm and finance the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan prior to and during the military intervention by the Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan had supported an expansion of the Reagan Doctrine, which aided anti-Soviet resistance movements. The program also supported militant Islamic groups that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan, at the expense of other resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken; costing over $20–$30 million per year in 1980, and rising to $630 million per year in 1987. Funding continued after 1989 as the mujahideen battled the forces of Mohammad Najibullah's PDPA during the civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992). After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the CIA's objective was to topple the Najibullah government, which had been formed under the Soviet occupation. The three main factions that the CIA supported were: Ahmed Shah Massoud, Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and Jalaluddin Haqqani. Another civil war developed in 1990, as the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Hekmatyar sought to violently eliminate all rivals, including Massoud. In spite of this internecine warfare, ISI and CIA formulated a plan to topple the Najibullah government in a winter of 1989–1990 offensive on Kabul. As part of this offensive, the CIA paid Massoud $500,000, over and above his monthly stipend of $200,000, to close the Salang Pass, which Massoud failed to do. During this period, the U.S. became increasingly concerned with the relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban. Their support of the Taliban escalated tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan. It was concerning for the U.S. as the Taliban grew to be a more extreme and direct threat to the United States, its citizens, and its foreign dignitaries.
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations involve bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The two neighbouring countries are bordered with one another ; each has declared itself an Islamic republic and both have become members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Relations between the two countries have been strained since 1947, when Pakistan gained independence and Afghanistan was the sole country to vote against Pakistan's admission into the UN. Afghanistan immediately armed separatist movements in the nascent Pakistan and made irredentist claims to large swathes of Pakistani territory—which prevented the emergence of normalised ties between the two countries. Further tensions have arisen with various issues related to the War in Afghanistan (1978–present), and with the millions of Afghan refugees who have sought shelter in Pakistan since the start of that war, water rights, the growing relations of India and Afghanistan.
Mujahideen or mujahidin is the plural form of mujahid, an Arabic term that broadly refers to Islamic guerrillas who engage in jihad, the fight on behalf of Islam/Allah or the Islamic community (ummah). The English term jihadists grammatically corresponds to it.
Called together in the Sudan by Hassan al-Turabi, the 1991 Popular Arab and Islamic Congress Conference sought to unify Mujahideen and other Islamic elements in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Iraqi defeat in the Gulf War. It sought to provide an alternative to the Saudi-dominated Organization of the Islamic Conference, although it did not have its financial means.
The Afghanistan conflict is a series of wars that has been fought in Afghanistan since 1978. Starting with the Saur Revolution military coup, an almost continuous series of armed conflicts has dominated and afflicted Afghanistan. The wars include:
Dr. Zabihullah Mojaddidy is an Afghan politician. He served as the Governor of Kabul Province between July 2009 and until resigning in March 2011. His resignation was due to a lack of support from development ministries and the Presidential Palace in regard to his ideas for the reconstruction of Kabul City. Prior to becoming governor, he served as the Deputy Minister of Higher Education.
References
- 1 2 ICTUR; et al., eds. (2005). Trade Unions of the World (6th ed.). London, UK: John Harper Publishing. ISBN 0-9543811-5-7.
