Word: karmal
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...Afghanistan's new Soviet-sponsored strongman, Babrak Karmal, toppling governments is old hat. In 1973, as parliamentary leader of the pro-Moscow Parcham wing of the Communist People's Democratic Party, he helped to plot the overthrow of King Mohammed Zahir Shah by Mohammed Daoud. Five years later, he blithely joined in the subsequent plot that ousted Daoud's regime. For that purpose, Karmal had aligned himself with his bitter political rival, Noor Mohammed Taraki, leader of the more radical Khalq faction of the P.D.P., who set himself up as President. But the alliance between...
According to Neumann, the Soviets decided on a combination of the last two options. In the event of a failure by Karmal, Neumann has no doubt that the Soviets will be prepared to deploy their own forces. Indeed, the large Soviet buildup of perhaps 50,000 troops on Afghanistan's borders was a clear indication of the Soviets' own uncertainty about Karmal's chances...
...Instead, Karmal, a 50-year-old bachelor, went into hiding with other members of the Parcham group. Among them was his longtime mistress, Anahita Ratebzad, who had been packed off as Ambassador to Yugoslavia. When Taraki was overthrown-and killed-by Hafizullah Amin last September, Karmal was still underground. Diplomats speculated that the Soviets stashed him away in an Eastern European capital as a sort of strongman-in-reserve. As one expert puts it, "The Russians were keeping [him] on ice until [he was] needed...
...well-born son of a general, Karmal has been a Marxist ever since his days as a student at Kabul University; his graduation was delayed by a stint in prison for left-wing agitation. His Parcham Party always leaned more dependably toward Moscow than Taraki's more broadly based faction, which sometimes espoused a Maoist-flavored brand of Marxism. Says former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Neumann: "Karmal is the original Communist, a dyed-in-the-wool article...
...record suggests that Karmal will continue to be Moscow's man, a custom-tailored partisan, as it were. But no matter how slavishly he follows the policies of his Soviet mentors, Karmal does not appear to have the agility necessary to reconcile the tribal, religious and ideological disputes that divide his volatile country. Concludes Neumann: "He is not a very flexible fellow...