Page 212 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
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Muslim mujahadeen to the communist regime in Afghanistan as a pre-
text to occupy the country. The savagery meted out to the people of
Afghanistan grew in scope still further.
The Red Army remained in the country as an occupying power for
exactly 10 years. It tried to put down the entirely justified resistance of
the mujahadeen groups by employing the most ruthless and savage
methods imaginable. One Afghan fighter describes the methods em-
ployed by the Red Army:
The Soviets attacked every single house, looting and raping the
women. The barbarism was worse than instinctive, and appeared to
have been planned. They know that in carrying out such acts they were
destroying the very foundation of our society. 54

The Soviet Army used the most cowardly methods possible against
the Muslim Afghans: mines were made in the shape of toys to encourage
unwitting Afghan children to pick them up, captured guerrillas were
horribly tortured, and civilians deliberately bombed. Instead of pursuing
individuals one by one, they preferred to massacre entire villages at a
time.
In an interview, Felix Ermacora, special rapporteur for Afghanistan
for the U.N. Human Rights Commission, maintained that the United
Nations was covering up the Russian savagery in Afghanistan. By refer-
ring to the Laghman massacre committed by the Russian administration,
Ermacora stated that all the villages of this pretty city to the northeast of
Kabul were wiped off the face of the map. Almost the entire population
was wiped out. In the Karga district alone 1,500 people were killed,
mainly women and children. All the animals there were killed too, right
down to the dogs. All the houses were pillaged, and the tea and sugar
stolen right out of the kitchens. Red Army soldiers drove over homes in
their tanks, knowing full well there were women and children taking
refuge within. Parts of bodies were visible between the tank tracks. 55
By the end of the decade-long Soviet occupation, tens of thousands of
people had been killed, and as many again crippled. Afghanistan today
imports more artificial limbs than any other country on earth. Red Army
landmines robbed tens of thousands of Afghans of their arms and legs.