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I am trying to find online versions of memoirs in the same vein as M Hassan Kakar's regarding the Afghan Soviet conflict.
Perhaps a collection can be posted in the library section
He goes into great detail regarding the various transition points and interactions between groups that led to the particular outcomes we have witnessed:
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpresse...;brand=ucpress
Kakar provides a lot of valuable information from the vantage point of the Kabul elite, and is very clear regarding the mistakes made by KhAD and the various other groups.
I do however take exception to his partiality since in his writing he clearly takes the royalist stance.
The decadant Mohammadzai style approach to life and legacy is typified in the outcomes of his sons (Sabawun Kakar):
http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainm...-sabawun-kakar
http://bubblelounge.com/champagneloungeblog/179/
And Kawun Kakar:
http://www.bma.com.af/about/supervisors/chairman.aspx
I find the hypocrasy of this group of people, the royalists a bit startling because on the one hand they jeer at Najib and are very sure to take great pains to attack Khalq and Parcham for their gross injustices, yet at the same time their own policies set the way for increased Soviet involvement in the first place.
However, he gives fascinating evidences about the deceit of the Khalqi and Parchami folks:
e.g
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpresse...s;query=alam#1
It was, however, the Soviet invasion and the policies of the new rulers that changed the attitude of the people. Their attitude was changed not only toward the regime but also toward modern education and local leaders. As one observer writes:
"In the process of modernization, the Afghan middle class
, composed of the educated elements, increased in numbers from a few hundred to nearly a hundred thousand.[21] These educated persons were mainly from rural areas. The state-run free educational system had made it possible for industrious students of the rural areas to have access to institutions of higher education in Kabul, where they had been concentrated. The founding members of the Islamic movement were from rural areas associated with modern educational institutes, not traditional madrases. They were neither part of the political ruling circles nor dependent on the state, a point that may account for their militancy."
and this pearl:
"Because of the headway the Islamists had made, the leftist groups had gone on the defensive. The decline of the leftists was also evident in the results of the 1969 parliamentary election, in which only two of them were elected. The Islamic movement appeared to be on the way to becoming a party of the masses. Among other things, this threat prompted the communists to help Daoud to topple the monarchy in 1973."
This is the nail in the coffin of the propaganda that the native resistance movements were spawned by Brzenzski and not an innate response to a foreign ideology.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Nilofar Pazira
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1059165.html
Is of the same vein as Kakar and less informative.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Zahir Ghazi Alam is a Physician from Logar who writes from a rural middle class Pashtun background. He wrote his memoirs in Pashto and they are hard to access.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sharq's memoirs narrate from the viewpoint of a Dauod loyalist and eventual communist government member under Najib as well.
Sharq, M. H. The Barefooted Coarse Cotton Wearers; or, Memoirs of Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sharq, 1931-1991
The memoirs have not been translated out of persian and we have access to select quotes from secondary authors
He confirmed important information directly to Kakar such as:
"He had stated how the non-Pashtun ethnic minorities could be made oversensitive to each other and how, at the same time, they could be persuaded to form an anti-Pashtun front. Politburo members and others were made responsible for the affairs of ethnic groups. Each was also to supervise contingents of militias of the ethnic group assigned to him. To implement the policy, they earmarked billions of afghanis free from state audit. In the name of “international socialism,” Pashtun and non-Pashtun members of politburo alike undertook to make the policy a success. It was to be implemented through the new Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Nationalities, which replaced the former Ministry of Frontiers."
True to what I have been saying:
"These persons deafened the Afghans by preaching that they toiled for the welfare of toilers, but in actuality, and on instruction from the Soviets, they devised ways and means to embroil the toilers in wars of hatred among themselves so that they themselves could stay in power. Having already sacrificed national sovereignty, they now showed that they were more loyal to socialism than to their own people or the land of their birth."
Sharq named the following names:
"To make sure that the scheme was real, on 3 March 1993 I held a telephone conversation with the author, Dr.
Mohammad Hassan Sharq , who now lives in Laguna Hills, California. He stuck to the words in his book on the subject and, further, disclosed for the first time the names of those “who, to defeat the mujahideen, split Afghanistan, and consolidate the Soviet order in Afghanistan, had undertaken to implement the scheme.” He named the following:
Abdul Salaam Zaeef's Pashto memoirs translated into English provide representation of the view from the rural masses who had not ever found their way into the educational system.
Perhaps a collection can be posted in the library section
He goes into great detail regarding the various transition points and interactions between groups that led to the particular outcomes we have witnessed:
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpresse...;brand=ucpress
Kakar provides a lot of valuable information from the vantage point of the Kabul elite, and is very clear regarding the mistakes made by KhAD and the various other groups.
I do however take exception to his partiality since in his writing he clearly takes the royalist stance.
The decadant Mohammadzai style approach to life and legacy is typified in the outcomes of his sons (Sabawun Kakar):
http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainm...-sabawun-kakar
http://bubblelounge.com/champagneloungeblog/179/
And Kawun Kakar:
http://www.bma.com.af/about/supervisors/chairman.aspx
I find the hypocrasy of this group of people, the royalists a bit startling because on the one hand they jeer at Najib and are very sure to take great pains to attack Khalq and Parcham for their gross injustices, yet at the same time their own policies set the way for increased Soviet involvement in the first place.
However, he gives fascinating evidences about the deceit of the Khalqi and Parchami folks:
e.g
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpresse...s;query=alam#1
It was, however, the Soviet invasion and the policies of the new rulers that changed the attitude of the people. Their attitude was changed not only toward the regime but also toward modern education and local leaders. As one observer writes:
The Soviet interference and the Soviet invasion provided powerful incentives to the mullas in their opposition to modern education. The Soviets, through the Parchamis and Khalqis, deceived students in schools, and in the name of a revolutionary ideology spread atheism, a sense of obedience to foreigners [ajnabiparasti] and of treason to the fatherland [watanfiroshi]. They employed sons against fathers by sending them in tanks and warplanes to destroy their homes and villages. [Seeing this], the common people took spades and destroyed schools from the foundation. The educated persons became discredited, and the mullas became unrivaled rulers.[5]
On this point an elderly man from Zadran of the province of Paktia is more eloquent. According to him, during the reign of King Mohammad Zahir the government introduced two projects in the province of Paktia: roads and schools. At first the people of all the valleys of Zadran opposed the projects, but later they acquiesced. To continue the story in the words of the elderly man himself: Advised by a great mulla, the people of our valley opposed the two projects of schools and roads. Thus, neither Khalqis nor Parchamis appeared among us. But from among the schools of other valleys there emerged Khalqis and Parchamis who later, as pilots, bombarded their own people and villages, while the Russian tanks, which arrived along the roads, did much the same. But the people of our valley were immune to such destruction. May God bless the great mulla. He was so right
He goes on to show how the Khalqi and Parchami sympathizers and their comrades across the durand line speak nonsense when it comes to claiming that Brzenzski invented the anti soviet resistence and provides excellent references:"In the process of modernization, the Afghan middle class
, composed of the educated elements, increased in numbers from a few hundred to nearly a hundred thousand.[21] These educated persons were mainly from rural areas. The state-run free educational system had made it possible for industrious students of the rural areas to have access to institutions of higher education in Kabul, where they had been concentrated. The founding members of the Islamic movement were from rural areas associated with modern educational institutes, not traditional madrases. They were neither part of the political ruling circles nor dependent on the state, a point that may account for their militancy."and this pearl:
"Because of the headway the Islamists had made, the leftist groups had gone on the defensive. The decline of the leftists was also evident in the results of the 1969 parliamentary election, in which only two of them were elected. The Islamic movement appeared to be on the way to becoming a party of the masses. Among other things, this threat prompted the communists to help Daoud to topple the monarchy in 1973."
This is the nail in the coffin of the propaganda that the native resistance movements were spawned by Brzenzski and not an innate response to a foreign ideology.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Nilofar Pazira
http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1059165.html
Is of the same vein as Kakar and less informative.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Zahir Ghazi Alam is a Physician from Logar who writes from a rural middle class Pashtun background. He wrote his memoirs in Pashto and they are hard to access.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sharq's memoirs narrate from the viewpoint of a Dauod loyalist and eventual communist government member under Najib as well.
Sharq, M. H. The Barefooted Coarse Cotton Wearers; or, Memoirs of Dr. Mohammad Hassan Sharq, 1931-1991
The memoirs have not been translated out of persian and we have access to select quotes from secondary authors
He confirmed important information directly to Kakar such as:
"He had stated how the non-Pashtun ethnic minorities could be made oversensitive to each other and how, at the same time, they could be persuaded to form an anti-Pashtun front. Politburo members and others were made responsible for the affairs of ethnic groups. Each was also to supervise contingents of militias of the ethnic group assigned to him. To implement the policy, they earmarked billions of afghanis free from state audit. In the name of “international socialism,” Pashtun and non-Pashtun members of politburo alike undertook to make the policy a success. It was to be implemented through the new Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Nationalities, which replaced the former Ministry of Frontiers."
True to what I have been saying:
"These persons deafened the Afghans by preaching that they toiled for the welfare of toilers, but in actuality, and on instruction from the Soviets, they devised ways and means to embroil the toilers in wars of hatred among themselves so that they themselves could stay in power. Having already sacrificed national sovereignty, they now showed that they were more loyal to socialism than to their own people or the land of their birth."
Sharq named the following names:
"To make sure that the scheme was real, on 3 March 1993 I held a telephone conversation with the author, Dr.
Mohammad Hassan Sharq , who now lives in Laguna Hills, California. He stuck to the words in his book on the subject and, further, disclosed for the first time the names of those “who, to defeat the mujahideen, split Afghanistan, and consolidate the Soviet order in Afghanistan, had undertaken to implement the scheme.” He named the following:Najibullah and Sulaiman Laweq, for the Pashtun “nationality”;
Babrak Karmal, Najmuddin Kawyani, and Farid Mazdak, for the Tajik ``nationality'';
Sultan Ali Kishtmand and Nabi Zadah, for the Hazara ``nationality'';
Sayyed Ikram Paigeer and Abdur Rashid Dostum, for the Uzbek and Turkomen ``nationality'';
Sattar Purduli, for the Baluch “nationality.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Babrak Karmal, Najmuddin Kawyani, and Farid Mazdak, for the Tajik ``nationality'';
Sultan Ali Kishtmand and Nabi Zadah, for the Hazara ``nationality'';
Sayyed Ikram Paigeer and Abdur Rashid Dostum, for the Uzbek and Turkomen ``nationality'';
Sattar Purduli, for the Baluch “nationality.”
Abdul Salaam Zaeef's Pashto memoirs translated into English provide representation of the view from the rural masses who had not ever found their way into the educational system.