Afghanistan II: untold stories.

FOREIGN VISITORS often have trouble understanding why our newspapers seem so big while having very little hard news in them. The obvious answer is, of course, that most of the paper is taken up by advertisements and that it is the ads that pay for the paper. Still, there are many stories that are covered superficially or, worse, not covered at all. The five-year war in Afghanistan is an example; once in a while there appears a brief paragraph or two, but by and large it is ignored. I realize that the war in Afghanistan, like the Iraq-Iran war, is difficult to report--journalists are not exactly welcome there. On the other hand, what about the public's "right to know," the right that was so grossly "violated" in Grenada?

As an example of constructive criticism, here are three items that could have been used to tell us a littel about what is happening in Afghanistan. Any one of them would have made a good story. I will present them without comment, and I want you to decide whether the press is doing a good job of informing us.

The first one is a letter from the wife or girlfriend of a young soldier fighting in Afghanistan:

"Greetings from Dniepropetrovsk, my darling, my one and only beloved Seryozha! I am sending you all my love and all my best wishes to help with your hard soldier's life. I thought I would write you once again, my little rabbit. I hope that my letters get to you somehow. I pray God that my little rabbit is well, and that is all I need and want. Every day i read in the papers about the international situation and about Afghanistan and i wonder--why is there so much evil in the world? We will be apart for two years, but let's hope not forever. This is our fate--it's a lousy deal and bullets don't care about love. You have only 15-1/2 more months left to serve, at least that is less than two years. . . . I am miserable now and my soul is full of worry."

This letter was found on the body of Soviet soldier Seryozha Chernish. He came from the village of Rubanovka in the kherson district. He was 19 or twenty years old.

'They All Died'

The next item is a partial transcript from an interview with an Afghan refugee in Pakistan.

". . . they came with planes, helicopters, MiGs, and all kinds of arms. A whole division of the Russian army. Very powerful. They began in the morning, about 6:30. At first they bombed our villages, our settlements, the little huts on the hills and in the valley. People were at home at the time; they just led their lives. Children were killed by the bombs, women were killed. They all died. Our young men were shooting at the tanks and the soldiers of the Red Army. They killed many of them. Sometimes the Russians would break into the houses; the helicopters would land them on the roofs. . . . They came in the village and fought in the houses and the peasants resisted the best they could. Many were killed, both Russians and our people. And children and women.

"A terrible, sight, I don't know how to tell about it. Wounded everywhere. Little children and women. Screaming and crying everywhere. People resisted till they had no more bullets. Then they threw rocks and sticks at the tanks. . . . Then they ran from the valley. Now no one knows where his wife, children, relatives are. . . . They are all over the mountains and valleys.

"They bombed before the battle began. All kinds of bombs: large rockets, another kind that made it very hot and everything would start burning. Another kind of bomb gave off a bad kind of smoke--it caused headaches, a bad taste in your mouth, terrible pains in the legs.

"Now, wherever you look, there is nothing left. There is only death and the trucks and tanks of the Russian soldiers.

"I don't know what will happen to the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. The Russians have no concept of human life. . . . We lost our friends, our dear friends. We fought together hiding behind stones. Now, please turn off the light for a moment [he cries]. . . . The people who lived in the valley were very poor. But they were happy with their families, their children. Now their life is no more, it has been crushed, destroyed by the Soviet armies. For what?"

How to Succeed

The last item is a letter written by a man in the Soviet Union.

"Recently a friend of mine returned from Afghanistan. He is a doctor who has been drafted to serve two years as a lieutenant. He has been in Afghanistan from the very first day. There is no question of having been a volunteer. He participated in 29 punitive expeditions (destruction of villages and of the civilian population). He took part in torture which is used to get information about the rebels. . . .

"He was made a Communist Party member a few hours after filling out the application. He was awarded three combat decorations. He earns six hundred rubles a month. His blood type is tattooed on his left shoulder.

"The commandos usually work at night. They surround a village that has been designated for destruction. The inhabitants are killed silently, knives and bayonets only. Shooting is allowed only if armed rebels appear.

"The soldiers are told as soon as they arrive in Afghanistan that their relatives are responsible for their 'good' behavior. There are quite a few cases of suicide. If a soldier refuses to shoot at civilians, if he tries to desert--he is executed. Two soldiers were shot in [my friend's] presence. Every officer gets four days leave each month to go to Tashkent. Prostitutes are made available for them there.

"He is not an idealist or a patriot. He understands quite well what he is doing, and what he will keep on doing when he goes back there."

So there you are. I think that these stories deserve to be told by the American media. I guess that those who edit our news disagree. Why?