Word: zahir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...past seven years. Dismissing charges that he would withdraw Soviet troops only if a Moscow-dominated government remained in power, Gorbachev invited the Afghans to seek new leadership "in their own country, among refugees and emigrants abroad, or maybe in . . . Italy." That was an apparent reference to Mohammed Zahir Shah, 72, who served as Afghanistan's monarch from 1933 until he was overthrown in 1973, and now lives near Rome. Some rebel groups have said that Zahir would be an acceptable leader...
Foreign Minister Shah Mohammed Dost, 52, is a remarkable study in survival. He has been a career diplomat for 25 years, serving King Zahir until he was deposed in 1973, Mohammed Daoud, who was overthrown and killed in 1978, and then a succession of three Communist leaders, Nur Mohammed Taraki, Amin and now Karmal...
...with an American journalist, the President and party leader kissed Talbott on both cheeks in the traditional Afghan greeting, urging him to "come back some time and hunt Marco Polo sheep in our beautiful mountains." Karmal spoke mostly in English, which he said he learned in King Zahir's prisons during the 1950s, and proudly recited the opening lines of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, explaining that he ad mired Americans as people with "a great revolutionary and anticolonialist tradition." Karmal's chef de cabinet and one of his principal military aides were more comfortable speaking Russian...
...AGREE ON THE repressiveness of the current Kabul cabal. Not everyone apprehends the degree of democracy under the pre-Marxist regimes. During the '60s King Zahir Shah retained ultimate authority, yes, but he allowed a parliament to be chosen in elections quite free of political parties. Press freedom prevailed for newspapers that could pass the government censors. After his military coup in 1973, Mohammed Daud let dynastic rule continue, but he proclaimed a republic. He relaxed his dictatorial grip so much that his top ministers were authorized to spend up to 70 pounds without his personal approval. So popular...
...Burhanuddin Rabbani, 40, a former professor of religion at Kabul University. Although Jamiat is considered more tolerant than Hekmatyar's group, Rabbani has no personal following outside of his native Badakhshan province, and his proposed alternative to Communism in Kabul seems woefully quaint: bring deposed King Mohammed Zahir back from exile in Italy...