Robert Fisk, in Kabul. This is how he tells it:
the centre of the city. ing rubbish.' (The Times, 11.2.80.)
Press International (UPI):
rival press agency Reuters, reported from Kabul:
curate."
so stupid.
the Observer in Afghanistan, said about these briefings:
sians killed, 20.1.80.)
place in Kabul ten days ago.
being foreign agents. Not confirmed any source credited. the left and reversing the reforms started in April 1978.
DHAM SC sold every Sa se information a or cal 5. Tel. 061-682 5151.
STORE: 061236 46 d every Saturday Ipm Mersey sell emere in onion.
Sat tive Bookstall in the Trades Hall, Willesder Eigh Rd NW10 CARDIFF: SC 11-12.30. Also BATH: Son She at 1985 Book Socialist Challenge 6 March 1980 A FUNNY THING happened to 'Journalist of the Year', Not long ago, the Voice of America radio, broadcasting from Washington, reported fierce fighting in the centre of Kabul. Afghan soldiers, the station announced, were in conflict with Soviet troops at the Bala Hissar fort in 'It happened that I was listening to the broadcast as I stood on my hotel balcony which overlooks Kabul, and I naturally directed my gaze towards the Bala Hissar...
'But there was no smoke or fire, no sound of car horns from the city's traffic. Nor was there any fighting. The Bala Hissar was peaceful. There were no Soviet troops to be seen and the Afghan army... was evidenced only by a soldier drinking tea in the main street... Not to put too fine a point on it, the Voice of America was talkThe two main sources for the Voice of America broadcasts have been "travellers passing through Afghanistan to Pakistan' and 'senior diplomats in Kabul'. The former were credited with the following story which appeared in the Sun and Daily Telegraph on 28 February as the result of a despatch by United Travellers from Afghanistan claimed in Pakistan yesterday that more than 1,000 people had been machine-gunned to death in Kabul in reprisal for last week's anti-Soviet riots.
The same day, however, Robert Evans, a reporter for the 'In the past week correspondents in Kabul have consistently found foreign radio broadcasts based on insurgent accounts issued in Pakistan on the situation in the city to be very inacEvans went on to pour scorn on reports of massacres as reprisals for the riots, pointing out that it would be unlikely that either the Karmal government or their Soviet advisors would be What about the other main source: 'senior diplomats'?
The most intensive press briefings given by diplomats are, not surprisingly, those carried out by the US Embassy in Kabul.
This is what Ian Mather, one of the two correspondents for *The American Embassy here...has been feeding wildly inaccurate information to American journalists, exaggerating the number of Russian troops in the country, the number of Rusand the extent of the engagements.' (Observer There has not been time yet to sort out truth from lies about the so-called 'general strike' that was reported to have taken The only generally agreed facts, both in the Western and Soviet press, were that there was a shut-down by merchants in the bazaar; that there was disorder in the streets; that the Afghan authorities imposed a state of martial law; and that one American and sixteen Pakistanis were arrested on suspicion of The term "general strike' only started to be used when it was reported in the Daily Telegraph on 25 February that civil servants had joined the shutdown. This report was not confirmed by other British newspapers which appeared that day, nor was If large numbers of state employees had joined the street protests then it would have been a major reversal for the Karmal government, since it is generally acknowledged that one of the main sources of support for his party - the Peoples Democratic Party — come from this layer of the population.
Neither should we forget that the only political forces which have claimed responsibility for the rioting in the cities have been the Islamic fundamentalist parties whose first aim is the removal of the Russian troops as the precondition for purging 10.0212,30pmls in Fi Salisbury HUDDERSFIELD: SC
----- pull-quotes -----
11-12:30; Carin Britishooks.