TNAG-1066-FCO40-1316-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 188

E/CN.4/1503

Annex II page 5

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14. The revolutionary measures introduced from that date on in what was basically society resistant to change were responsible for extensive unrest and the start of a mass exodus which has continued throughout the 45 intervening months. Introducing a 30-point programme on 8 May 1978, Taraki indi- cated that large-scale agrarian reform would be implemented and that nomadic peoples would be settled on the land. He said that Kabul would remain non-aligned and wished to maintain its links with the West and the World Bank. Concurrently however the number of Soviet military advisers was reportedly increased and on 15 May, Tass announced that the USSR was to help Afghanistan to establish a special organization to protect its internal security. In initiating the

measures, the authorities replaced ministry personnel

on a massive scale, transferred many teachers from their posts and made numerous arrests of those associated with the monarchy. The coalition of Khalq and Parcham movements was to last only three months: Babrak Karmal and five other Parchamis were removed from the Cabinet and the three other Parchami ministers followed a few months later, while a continuous purging of their adherents from the bureaucracy and the military was carried out.

15. Amongst the radical

radical measures of 1978 which failed to meet with widespread public approval were the introduction of a red revolutionary flag modelled on those of the Soviet Repub- lics, the signing of a 20-year treaty of economic, political and military co-operation with the Soviet Union and the initiation of sweeping changes in land tenure. The latter measure included the expropriation of three million acres to be redistributed among three hundred thousand farming families a stiff administrative challenge for any executive power, let

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alone one with few trained cadres which would have to face the resistance of the tribes to encroachment by the Pushtoons, who formed Taraki's government. Attempts to abolish bride price as traditionally negotiated between families and to enforce a minimum age for marriage were

for marriage were measures seen as threatening the integrity of the family at all levels of Afghan society. The introduction of Marxist tenets into the school curricula was a further source of resentment.

16. The Afghan population was not receptive to measures to bring about a classless society. Instead, viewing the new government's ideology as incompatible with Islam, and consider- ing it dependent upon a foreign power, it faced the Khalq with outbreaks of resistance as early as the summer of 1978, and by a few months later a rural uprising had erupted involving nearly all regions and ethnic groups. After a year in power,