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C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	A.P. often includes a phrase in stories about Afghanistan "explaining"
C00003 00003	a285  1914  25 Nov 84
C00006 00004	a225  1240  25 Dec 84
C00015 00005	a232  1336  25 Dec 84
C00022 00006	n097  1859  27 Dec 84
C00026 00007	a071  0707  28 Dec 84
C00032 00008	    MOSCOW (AP) - Anti-Marxist rebels detonated a mine in a mosque in an
C00041 ENDMK
C⊗;
A.P. often includes a phrase in stories about Afghanistan "explaining"
that the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan "to help the
Communist government oppose the insurgents".  Considering that
they surprised the Afghan government, killed the prime minister
and replaced him by Karmal whom they imported with them, this is
a distortion, introduced with the inadvertent or intentional
object of making an analogy with the American intervention in
Vietnam.

	Not all stories have this editorial distortion.  Where the
distortion or something else appears, I have put an *.
a285  1914  25 Nov 84
AM-Afghan-Attack,0190
Kabul Says Afghan Rebels Launch Rocket Attack on Capital
    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Anti-Marxist rebels fired rockets at
Kabul, the Afghan capital, killing four people and injuring 17
others, the state-owned radio in Afghanistan said Sunday.
***
    The rebels are fighting both government forces and some 100,000
Soviet soldiers sent into Afghanistan nearly five years ago to help
the Communist government oppose the insurgents.
    In a broadcast monitored in neighboring Pakistan, Radio Kabul said
two sections in the southeast part of the capital, Qalai Zaman Khan
and Cement Khana, were the targets of an attack that began on
Saturday night and lasted into Sunday morning.
    The report claimed the rebels fired Chinese- and American-made
rockets but did not say how many. It said the rockets collapsed
several houses.
    Immediately after the attack, security forces fired ''long-range
rockets'' at the rebels, the broadcast said.
    In another development, Radio Kabul said three rebels were executed
Saturday after being sentenced to death by a special military court
in Ghazni city, southeast of Kabul. It said they belonged to the
Islamic Revolutionary Movement group and had attacked the Ghazni jail
and freed prisoners.
    
AP-NY-11-25-84 2209EST
***************

a225  1240  25 Dec 84
AM-Afghanistan, Bjt,0741
Soviet Troops On Alert For Attacks On Invasion Anniversary
An AP Extra
By MICHAEL GOLDSMITH
Associated Press Writer
    PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - The 115,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan
have been placed on alert for an expected wave of attacks by
Mujahedeen Islamic guerrillas Dec. 27, the fifth anniversary of the
Soviet military intervention.
    Mudjahedeen leaders based in Peshawar, and Western diplomatic
observers who watch the UFHAN WAR FROM THIS Pakistan border city say
the guerrillas are planning attacks on Soviet military installations
and convoys throughout Afghanistan to demonstrate that the
five-year-old Soviet campaign to ''pacify'' Afghanistan has failed.
    ''We intend to drive home to them that they are fighting virtually
the entire Afghan people in a war they can never win,'' said Massoud
Khalili, spokesman for Jamiat Islami, one of the main resistance
movements.
    Western intelligence sources reported that the Soviets have set up
strongpoints in the capital, Kabul, and other major cities and have
intensified their anti-guerrilla sweeps in the countryside in
anticipation of the anniversary attacks.
    In recent weeks, the Mujahedeen have launched almost daily rocket
attacks on Kabul and its strategically vital airport from positions
in the surrounding hills. The guerrillas' Western-made rocket
launchers are highly mobile and have survived carpet-bombing by
high-altitude planes and search-and-destroy operations by airborne
troops.
    The Mujahedeen movement is sharply divided on political, religious,
regional and tribal lines, and all attempts to mold the guerrillas
into a unified fighting force under a single command have collapsed.
The leaders in exile in Pakistan agree that their own divisions are
the Soviets' greatest strength.
    ''To overcome these divisions completely would require obliterating
the memory of centuries of religious and tribal feuds,'' Khalili
said. ''It has not proved possible in five short years, but we are
making progress.
    ''Meanwhile, we are at least united in our determination to get the
Godless invaders out of our country.''
    The Soviets' anti-guerrilla campaign has devastated the mountainous
rural areas, destroyed hundreds of villages and driven millions of
Afghans from their homes.
    International relief officials estimate that one-third of
Afghanistan's 18 million inhabitants have fled from the war, 3
million to camps in Pakistan, 1 million to Iran, and about 2 million
living as ''internal refugees'' under surveillance of the
Soviet-backed Afghan army.
*** Correct 
    Those in Pakistan, by far the largest accumulation of refugees in
the world, are fed and housed by United Nations agencies and other
relief organizations that have collectively spent more than $500
million on aid since Soviet tanks, infantry and paratroopers entered
Afghanistan before dawn on Dec. 27, 1979.
    The ''internal refugees'' remain at the mercy of the Afghan
communist regime of President Babarak Karmal. Lars Nelson, acting
head of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, a private relief
organization, said the Karmal government was making a ''minimum
effort'' to feed them.
    The London-based Afghan Aid Committee reported recently that the
exodus of Afghanistan's rural population and the continuous Soviet
bombing and crop-burning raised a threat of famine for these homeless
Afghans.
    In Pakistan, the refugees mostly live in primitive adobe huts in
hundreds of camps scattered across the Northwest Frontier Province.
Officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
estimate that 48 percent of them are children and 28 percent are
women. There are hardly any men under 40 - they live mostly in
privately financed ''bachelor camps,'' a local euphemism for
guerrilla training camps.
    Although the United Nations has strict rules against giving
assistance to the guerrillas, Soviet diplomats have repeatedly
protested to Pakistan authorities that the international relief
operation constitutes ''illegal assistance to bandits.''
    The Mujahedeen receive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms
and other aid from the oil-rich Islamic states.
    Last month, an overwhelming majority of the U.N. General Assembly
for the sixth time demanded the ''immediate and total withdrawal'' of
Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The pro-Soviet minority included the
delegate of the Karmal regime, who said the Russians were legally
invited to Afghanistan to ''crush criminal, counterrevolutionary
bandit groups armed, trained and controlled by Pakistan and China.''
    Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, sympathizes
with the guerrillas and gives them sanctuary. Nearly 150 Pakistanis
have died this year in border raids by Afghan planes and artillery.
    The Karmal regime has systematically rejected Zia's protests and, in
turn, accused him of launching attacks across the border.
    Four sessions of U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva between Pakistan and
the Karmal regime to obtain a Soviet withdrawal have come to nothing.
    
 
 
AP-NY-12-25-84 1540EST
***************

a232  1336  25 Dec 84
AM-Soviets-Afghanistan, Bjt,0647
Afghan War Almost Unmentioned By Soviets
An AP Extra
EDITOR'S NOTE - Five years after the Soviet Union intervened on the
side of Afghanistan's government against Moslem rebels, Soviet troops
remain in the rugged, mountainous land. But they are seldom mentioned
publicly.
---
By ALISON SMALE
Associated Press Writer
    MOSCOW (AP) - Five Decembers ago the Soviet Union sent more than
80,000 Red Army troops across the border into Afghanistan in an
intervention that shocked world leaders.
    Five years later, the Kremlin has sent more troops but has failed to
crush the Moslem insurgents battling the the Moscow-supported Afghan
government. And in a country that daily extolls the 20 million
Soviets who died in World War II, the fighting and casualties in
Afghanistan are rarely mentioned in public.
    The Soviet military, among the most secretive institutions in a
society obsessed with secrecy, had kept preparations for the Dec. 27
incursion so quiet that it took Western intelligence by surprise.
    Reports from Afghanistan in the state-controlled Soviet news media
have lately changed in tone. Reports call the fighting there a
''war'' and make plain that Soviet soldiers face fierce resistance
and are getting killed and injured.
    But such reports are few and still are outweighed by stories about
how the ''limited contingent'' of Soviet troops helps Afghans build
schools, form collective farms and learn to read.
    Soviets rarely discuss the war with foreigners, although several
report Afghanistan is often discussed privately - especially by
mothers anxious that their sons will have to fight there.
    A Moscow student in her early 20s recently complained, ''There are
no men around. They are all being sent to the army, to Afghanistan.''
    Soviets and diplomats in Moscow say soldiers from the Moslem
republics of the Soviet Union formed the bulk of the contingent
originally sent to Afghanistan.
    Foreign diplomats and the Soviets willing to talk about the war
spoke on condition they not be identified.
    But an Arab diplomat generally well-informed about the military said
recently commanders now rely on ethnic Russian recruits and raid
northern institutes and colleges to make up manpower quotas.
    The military is even depriving its key Western front of some men, to
send them to Afghanistan, the diplomat said.
    Soviet soldiers who defected and were interviewed by Western
reporters this year said recruits are often not told they will go to
Afghanistan, and know only by the ''280'' code stamped on their draft
papers.
    A defector identified as Vladislav Naumov said he was trained in
house-to-house fighting in Tadzhikistan near the Afghan border. He
said that afterward, on the plane to Afghanistan, recruits were told
they were going to Poland.
    Another defector, Sergei Busov, said he spent 2 1/2 months training in
mountainous terrain in Turkmenia before going to fight in similar
conditions in Afghanistan.
    Such training indicates the Soviet military has been adapting to
fighting its first land war since World War II in the very different
circumstances of Afghanistan, where the tanks beloved by Soviet
commanders on flat European plains are virtually useless.
    Tactics have switched to razing rebel villages and bombing
guerrillas, who have few anti-aircraft missiles and no air power.
    An Asian diplomat says senior Soviet foreign policy officials are
nonetheless ''very worried'' that the sophisticated equipment going
to Afghanistan is not helping the Soviets win the war.
    One reason is the backing the guerrillas receive - from such
countries as Saudi Arabia, China and the United States.
    For many Islamic countries, some of them wealthy from the sale of
oil, it is a religious war and a duty to give the Moslem guerrillas
money.
    The Soviet government newspaper Izvestia in October carried a
detailed report on the organization and financing of the guerrillas.
    Diplomats in Moscow saw the report as an indication the Soviets are
facing the fact that, although a superpower, they confront
well-organized opposition that cannot easily be crushed.
    
AP-NY-12-25-84 1635EST
***************

n097  1859  27 Dec 84
AM-AFGHAN
By GERALD M. BOYD
c.1984 N.Y. Times News Service
    LOS ANGELES - President Reagan, marking five years since Soviet
forces joined the fighting in Afghanistan, said Thursday that the
event was ''a day of infamy'' reminiscent of Pearl Harbor.
    ''There is no legitimate excuse for a great power like the Soviet
Union that is doing what it is doing to the people of Afghanistan,''
Reagan said as he left Washington for five days of vacation here and
at Palm Springs.
    The president, recalling Franklin D. Roosevelt's characterization of
the the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, said:
    ''A president once called a similar day a 'a day of infamy. I guess
that's exactly what this is also, the anniversary of a day of
infamy.''
    The Soviet Union entered the struggle in Afghanistan on Dec. 27,
1979.
    On Wednesday, U.S. assistance to Afghan guerrillas fighting Soviet
troops came under criticism this week. Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey,
R-N.H., charged Wednesday that the covert aid is being lost because
of mismanagment.
    ''It appears most of our aid is being lost in a leaky pipeline,''
Humphrey said. ''It appears there is serious mismanagement of our aid
program, perhaps of scandalous proportions.''
    Reagan, without confirming that such assistance was being provided,
disputed the charge.
    ''We do the best we can in anything of this kind, under very
difficult circumstances,'' he said.
    The president termed the Soviet combat role in Afghanistan ''a
serious impediment to the improvement of our bilateral relations''
and said the American people would continue their support for the
''noble struggle'' of anti-Soviet rebels there.
    The statement came two weeks before Secretary of State George P.
Shultz and the Soviet foreign minister, Andrei A. Gromyko, were
scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to talk about how to limit
nuclear weapons, the first such American-Soviet talks in more than a
year.
    Later, the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, while also refusing
to confirm that covert American assistance was being provided, said
that one should ''look at the success of the Afghan rebels'' to
determine if the criticism was valid.
    
nyt-12-27-84 2157est
***************

a071  0707  28 Dec 84
PM-Soviet-China,0487
Soviet Envoy Signs 3 Pacts
By JEFF BRADLEY
Associated Press Writer
    PEKING (AP) - Soviet Deputy Premier Ivan V. Arkhipov, the
highest-ranked Kremlin envoy here since 1969, climaxed a nine-day
visit today by signing three cooperation agreements with China.
    Arkhipov's tour, however, while warmly received, did not resolve
longstanding political differences between the two communist nations,
diplomatic sources indicated.
    ''The visit has given a boost to economic cooperation, but has made
no political progress,'' said one senior diplomat in Peking.
    The three accords call for technological exchanges, scientific
collaboration including the sharing of research, and the
establishment of a joint committee to promote trade and other
cooperation.
    The official Chinese news agency Xinhua said Arkhipov and Vice
Premier Yao Yilin signed the pacts on behalf of their governments.
    Arkhipov also met today with Peng Zhen, 82-year-old chairman of
China's National People's Congress.
    State-run television showed the two men embracing warmly. Peng,
former mayor of Peking, said it had been 25 years since they last saw
each other. ''Of course I wanted to see you,'' he told Arkhipov
through a Russian interpreter.
    Arkhipov, 77, was senior Soviet adviser here in the 1950s when
Moscow poured aid into the newly established People's Republic of
China. He returns home Saturday.
    Despite the two countries' 25-year-long estrangement over strategic
and ideological differences, Arkhipov gave his nod to the texts of
the three agreements within three days of his Dec. 21 arrival.
    Xinhua said the scientific pact calls for exchanges of scholars and
research data, while the technical agreement foresees cooperation on
production technology, industrial renovation and training.
    The two countries also reached agreement on a 1986-1990 trade pact
to be signed in the first half of next year.
    Although the talks have focused on economic issues, the Chinese
reminded Arkhipov of three major political ''obstacles'' to
rapprochement - the massing of Soviet troops on the Chinese border,
Moscow's backing for the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, and the
Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
    Unlike past years, however, the Chinese media refrained from marking
the Dec. 27 anniversary of the 1979 Soviet-backed coup in
Afghanistan, an occasion which usually draws harsh words from Peking
about superpower hegemony.
    Diplomatic sources said the Soviets raised the possibility of
opening consulates in Shanghai and other major cities, but there was
no Chinese response. Currently, the neighbors have embassies in their
respective capitals but no consulates. The United States runs
consulates in Shanghai, Canton and Shenyang.
    Chinese-Soviet trade has expanded from $300 million in 1982 to at
least $1.05 billion this year with an agreed 35 percent increase next
year. Although far below levels of the 1950s, commercial relations
improved when political normalization talks began in 1982.
    A sixth round of talks is scheduled in Moscow next April.
    According to diplomatic sources, Moscow has been asked to help
renovate about 40 plants designed by Soviet experts before Nikita
Khrushchev abruptly withdrew all aid in 1960.
    
AP-NY-12-28-84 1004EST
***************

    MOSCOW (AP) - Anti-Marxist rebels detonated a mine in a mosque in an
Afghan village, killing five people, the Soviet news agency Tass said
in a dispatch from Afghanistan.
    Tass said in the dispatch from Kabul, the Afghan capital, that the
bombing in the Herat province of Fushfar caused an undisclosed number
of injuries.
    Tass said the rebels, ''encouraged and financed by the Western
secret services,'' also had burned down other mosques in Afghanistan
and killed religious figures. Tass provided no details on other
incidents.
    Soviet soldiers entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to support the
Marxist government of President Babrak Karmal in its fight against
the rebels.
a242  1556  11 Mar 85
AM-Gorbachev Speech,0511
New Soviet Leader Avoids Criticism of West in Acceptance Speech
With Chernenko-Gorbachev
    MOSCOW (AP) - Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Monday accepted the most
powerful post in the Soviet Union - general secretary of the
Communist Party - and pledged to strive for arms control so ''the
peoples of the world would sigh with relief.''
    His address to an extraordinary meeting of more than 300 members of
the Communist Party Central Committee was marked by an absence of the
standard Kremlin criticism of the United States and suggestions that
Washington is pursuing military superiority.
    Gorbachev also called for a ''cardinal improvement of relations''
with China.
    He described his predecessor, Konstantin U. Chernenko, as ''a true
Leninist, an outstanding figure of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union and the Soviet state, of the international Communist movement,
a person with a responsive heart and of a great organizational
talent.''
    But the 54-year-old leader also stated his admiration for
Chernenko's predecessor and his own mentor, the late Yuri V.
Andropov.
    In discussing Soviet relations with capitalist nations, Gorbachev
said, ''We value the successes of the relaxation of international
tensions achieved in the 1970s'' and would welcome peace accords
based on mutual respect and cooperation.
    ''New steps along these lines could duly mark the 40th anniversary
of the great victory over Hitler fascism and Japanese militarism,''
Gorbachev said.
    He noted that Tuesday will mark the beginning of new efforts toward
arms control, with U.S. and Soviet negotiators meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland, to discuss reductions in nuclear and space weapons. He
asserted that the Soviet Union does not seek military advantage over
the United States and wants ''a real and major reduction of the arms
stockpiles.
    ''We would like our partners in the Geneva negotiations to
understand the Soviet Union's position and respond in kind. Then
agreement will be possible. The peoples of the world would sigh with
relief.''
    The new Soviet leader noted, however, that ''in the complex
international situation, it is of importance as never before to
maintain the defense capacity of our motherland at such a level that
potential aggressors would know well:
    ''An encroachment upon the security of the land of the Soviets and
its allies, upon the peaceful life of Soviet people will meet with a
crushing retaliatory strike.''
    He said the party's ''first precept'' would be strengthening ties
with other socialist nations. ''We would like a cardinal improvement
of relations with the Chinese Peoples' Republic and believe that,
given reciprocity, this is quite possible.''
    On domestic matters, he said, ''We are to achieve a decisive turn in
transferring the national economy to the tracks of intensive
development.
    ''We should, we are bound to, attain within the briefest period the
most advanced scientific and technical positions, the highest world
level in the productivity of social labor.''
    Goked his felloween the superpowers.
    In Afghanistan, President Babrak Karmal expressed ''grief and
sorrow'' at the death, according to Radio Afghanistan, monitored in
Islamabad, Pakistan. Karmal was installed with Soviet backing in a
1979 coup.
    In the Middle East, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said he wanted to
''underline our keenness on continuity and development of the
existing relationship of friendship and cooperation between Iraq and
the Soviet Union.''
    Syrian President Hafez Assad praised Chernenko for his support ''in
our struggle against Israeli occupation'' and said he ''is worth our
deepest respect.''
    East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania declared official days of
mourning. Flags were ordered flown at half staff on some public
buildings and black banners draped on others.
    In East Berlin, hundreds of East Germans lined up outside the Soviet
Embassy to sign the official book of condolences, set up before a
black-draped portrait of Chernenko.
    Lech Walesa, leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity free trade
union, said a traditional Polish prayer for the dead, according to
his spokesman.
    
AP-NY-03-11-85 1853EST
***************

a036  0208  14 Mar 85
PM-Gorbachev, Bjt,0644
Gorbachev, Now in Kremlin Statesman's Role, Meets With World Leaders
With Laserphoto NY5
By ALISON SMALE
Associated Press Writer
    MOSCOW (AP) - Mikhail S. Gorbachev, wearing the mantle of Kremlin
statesman, held a second day of talks with world leaders today after
his first meeting with a top U.S. official, Vice President George
Bush.
    Bush and Gorbachev met for an hour and 25 minutes Wednesday, and the
vice president said afterward: ''If there was ever a time when we
could move forward with progress in the last few years, I'd say that
this is a good time for that.''
    Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain, who met Gorbachev in
Britain in December, said after her 55-minute meeting she found him
''anxious'' for success in the superpower arms negotiations in
Geneva.
    President Francois Mitterrand of France, who spent 45 minutes with
Gorbachev, echoed the sentiments of some other Western leaders by
cautioning against expecting ''profound modifications of policy.''
    Gorbachev, named Communist Party chief following the death of
Konstantin U. Chernenko, received West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
and Finnish President Mauno Koivisto in the Kremlin today, and was to
meet later with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada.
    The official news agency Tass said Kohl and the new Soviet leader
discussed ''key issues of Soviet-West German relations, the situation
in Europe and in the world.'' Kohl was to brief reporters later.
    At age 54 the youngest man to assume Kremlin power in six decades,
Gorbachev presided over Chernenko's Red Square funeral Wednesday. He
then met with Bush, Mrs. Thatcher, Mitterrand and a host of other
world leaders who had come to Moscow to pay their respects to
Chernenko.
    The sesssion with visiting heads of state and government were the
latest signs of a swift transition that began publicly hours after
the announcement of Chernenko's death Monday with the proclamation
that Gorbachev had been selected to succeed him as Communist Party
leader.
    The Soviet Union had remained in official mourning for Chernenko
until his burial by the Kremlin wall. But life swiftly returned to
normal afterward. GUM, the giant department store on Red Square,
reopened 20 minutes after the funeral ended.
    By nightfall, a giant portrait of Chernenko on the House of Unions
had been removed. Red and black flags that had fluttered on city
buidings for two days were also gone.
    Bush, who reportedly carried an invitation from President Reagan to
a summit, told reporters Reagan is ready to meet with Gorbachev
whenever the Soviet leadership is ready.
    In its report on the Bush-Gorbachev meeting, Tass made no mention of
a summit, but said Gorbachev ''reiterated the Soviet Union's
readiness, provided the U.S. side was also ready, to work in practice
to improve'' Soviet-American relations.
    After her meeting with Gorbachev, Mrs. Thatcher said, ''I believe
that he is anxious that the Geneva talks on arms control should
result in success.''
    She said Reagan's ''Star Wars'' proposal for a space-based missile
defense system was the major subject in her talk with Gorbachev.
    Mrs. Thatcher said she stressed that space research was allowed
under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by both
superpowers, but that deployment of any system developed would have
to be negotiated.
    Gorbachev ''took the point very firmly that deployment required
negotiation under a treaty,'' she said.
    In a funeral oration delivered in strong, clear tones that rang
round the vast square, Gorbachev praised Chernenko as a leader who
had initiated efforts to halt the arms race.
    He struck the same tone as Chernenko did when eulogizing Yuri V.
Andropov in February 1984, praising the deceased, pledging peace and
setting general guidelines for the future.
    In this, he stressed - as did his mentor Andropov - the need for
discipline, law and order and adherence to communist ideals.
    ''We shall fight any manifestations of showiness and idle talk,
swagger and irresponsibility,'' Gorbachev said.
    
AP-NY-03-14-85 0505EST
 - - - - - -

a068  0625  14 Mar 85
PM-Grbachev, 1st Ld, a036,0658
Eds: LEADS with 19 grafs on Gorbachev meeting Kohl, Karmal, other
details
With Laserphoto NY5
By ALISON SMALE
Associated Press Writer
    MOSCOW (AP) - The new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, told West
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl today he opposed Western European
participation in President Reagan's space-based defense research
plan. But, Kohl said, there was no warning, as in the past, about
jeopardizing arms control agreements.
    ''Gorbachev indicated that he doesn't want Western Europe to go
along with or participate in'' the Strategic Defense Initiative, Kohl
told reporters after the meeting. But the West German leader declined
to elaborate.
    The so-called ''Star Wars'' plan was the major subject of
conversation Wednesday between Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, the
British prime minister had told reporters.
    Gorbachev continued to receive world leaders today after meeting for
85 minutes Wednesday with Vice President George Bush, who said
afterward: ''If there was ever a time when we could move forward with
progress in the last few years, I'd say that this is a good time for
that.''
    Bush said he thought Reagan would be ready for a summit meeting with
Gorbachev ''as soon as the Soviet leadership would be.''
    Gorbachev, named Communist Party chief on Monday following the death
of Konstantin U. Chernenko, was also scheduled to meet with Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada today.
    Kohl said he told Gorbachev that ''first of all, the Americans have
not invited anyone'' to take part in the research and it was not
clear whether it would be worthwhile for West Europeans to join in.
    Last week, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko told visiting West
German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher that German
participation would jeopardize future arms control agreements. But
Kohl said Gorbachev hadn't repeated Gromyko's warning.
    Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger told reporters last month
that the United States would welcome West German cooperation in the
''Star Wars'' program, but Bonn denied that a formal invitation has
been extended.
    Kohl said Gorbachev said ''nothing new'' on arms control and had
repeated Moscow's opposition to deployment of U.S.-built medium-range
missiles in West Germany, which the NATO alliance says are necessary
to counter new Soviet SS-20s.
    The West German chancellor said he received no signals from
Gorbachev on the likelihood of a superpower summit. Kohl said he had
stressed that it would be useful ''for the first man of the United
States to meet the first man of the Soviet Union . . . in the next
two years.''
    Asked his impression of Gorbachev, at 54 the youngest man to take
power in the Kremlin in six decades, Kohl said he seemed to be a man
''of great sovereign authority and a remarkable mastery of the
material'' before him.
    Gorbachev is ''a man in the best years of his life, a collected,
energetic and decisive man. It is no accident that he became general
secretary'' of the Soviet Communist Party, Kohl said.
    The official news agency Tass said Kohl and the new Soviet leader
discussed ''key issues of Soviet-West German relations, the situation
in Europe and in the world.''
    Tass said Gorbachev also had a ''comradely conversation'' with
Afghan leader Babrak Karmal, during which both ''resolutely condemned
the continuing aggressive actions by the outside forces against the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.''
    Soviet troops have been helping Karmal's pro-Moscow government put
down anti-Marxist guerrillas since December 1979, and Soviet media
often accuse Western nations of abetting the insurgents.
    After presiding over Chernenko's Red Square funeral Wednesday,
Gorbachev began meetings with a host of world leaders who had come to
Moscow to pay their respects to Chernenko.
    Mrs. Thatrcher, who met Gorbachev in Britain in December, said after
her 55-minute meeting she found him ''anxious'' for success in the
superpower arms negotiations now taking place in Geneva.
    President Francois Mitterrand of France, who spent 45 minutes with
Gorbachev, echoed the sentiments of some other Western leaders by
cautioning against expecting ''profound modifications of policy.''
    The sessions: 8th graf
    
AP-NY-03-14-85 0923EST
 - - - - - -

a091  0855  14 Mar 85
PM-Gorbachev, 2nd Ld, a068,0337
Eds: Leads with 9 grafs, updating with Mulroney meeting, quotes
With Laserphoto NY5
By ALISON SMALE
Associated Press Writer
    MOSCOW (AP) - The new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, told West
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl today he opposed Western European
participation in President Reagan's space-based defense research
plan. But, Kohl said, there was no warning, as in the past, about
jeopardizing arms control agreements.
    ''Gorbachev indicated that he doesn't want Western Europe to go
along with or participate in'' the Strategic Defense Initiative, Kohl
told reporters after the meeting. But the West German leader decline
to elaborate.
    The so-called ''Star Wars'' plan was the major subject of
conversation Wednesday between Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, the
British prime minister had told reporters.
    Gorbachev continued to receive world leaders today after meeting for
85 minutes Wednesday with Vice President George Bush, who said
afterward: ''If there was ever a time when we could move forward with
progress in the last few years, I'd say that this is a good time for
that.''
    Bush said he thought Reagan would be ready for a summit meeting with
Gorbachev ''as soon as the Soviet leadership would be.''
    Gorbachev, named Communist Party chief on Monday following the death
of Konstantin U. Chernenko, met for 45 minutes with Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney of Canada today.
    ''He's truly in command and I think it augurs well for the future,''
Mulroney told reporters afterwards. ''I was very impressed. He
strikes me as being capable of great firmness but reasonableness as
well.''
    ''I indicated the extent to which I believed that President Reagan
is genuinely committed to the process and end result of arms
reductions and limitation and I can only assume that . . . Gorbachev
feels no less committed to the process,'' Mulroney said.
    Kohl said he told Gorbachev that ''. . .the Americans have not
invited anyone'' to take part in the strategic defense initiative
research and it was not clear whether it would be worthwhile for West
Europeans to join in.
    Last week,: 9th graf
    
AP-NY-03-14-85 1152EST
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a022  0002  10 Apr 85
PM-US-Afghan, Bjt,0479
Gorbachev Signals No Easing of Tough Afghanistan Policy
By R. GREGORY NOKES
AP Diplomatic Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior State Department official says Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev has signaled the Soviet Union isn't about to
ease its harsh crackdown against rebel forces in Afghanistan, which
has included saturation bombings and incursions into Pakistan.
    Michael H. Armacost, U.S. undersecretary of state for political
affairs, said Tuesday the administration has talked with the Soviets
on several occasions about cross-border incursions into Pakistan and
warned that the Soviets' Afghanistan policy could restrain
improvement in U.S.-Soviet ties.
    On another subject, Armacost said the United States believes
Pakistan when it says it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
    Regarding Afghanistan, Armacost said a continuation of the existing
harsh Soviet policies was signaled by the meeting Gorbachev held in
Moscow with Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq during the
funeral for Konstantin Chernenko in Moscow last month.
    ''It was in that context of a toughening of Soviet policy that
Gorbachev spoke to Zia, and it was an indicator there wasn't going to
be much change in that stance,'' Armacost told the Overseas Writers
group here.
    ''Above all, Mr. Gorbachev represented himself as a man who intended
to maintain continuity in their policies, and their policies in
Afghanistan have been pretty tough in the course of the past year,''
he added.
    He cited saturation bombings in Afghanistan and cross-border
incursions into Pakistan in which there have been ''a substantial
number'' of Pakistani casualties.
    The Soviets, who invaded Afghanistan in 1979, have about 110,000
troops in that country.
    Armacost said the administration has, in its discussions with
Moscow, ''indicated the continuity of our support for the Pakistani
government.''
    He said the administration has made clear that any ''broad
improvement'' in U.S.-Soviet relations ''would take into account the
developments in areas where we are in competition, as in Afghanistan,
or their policy toward issues like that around the world.''
    Armacost said the administration believes Pakistani assurances they
are not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
    The foreign aid bill currently before the House of Representatives
would require a cutoff of aid to Pakistan if that country exploded an
atomic device.
    ''They know the consequences as a result of our law of pursuing a
nuclear explosives program,'' Armacost said. ''Therefore we watch it
closely. And it is our belief that they are honoring their own
profession to us, public profession, that they are not seeking a
nuclear device.''
    While he said Pakistan hasn't agreed to comprehensive international
safeguards for its nuclear facilities, nor signed the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, he said the Pakistanis say ''they are
willing to accept those restrictions if India is.''
    ''Their position, and it is not an unreasonable one, is that they
are prepared to accept commitments in the area of safeguards and the
NPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) if their neighbor is,'' he
said.
    
AP-NY-04-10-85 0259EST
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a044  0342  16 Apr 85
PM-Afghan,0316
Soviets Reported Surrounded by Rebels Near Kabul
    NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Soviet forces launched one of their biggest
ground and air offensives in Afghanistan in more than a year last
week, but anti-Marxist rebels surrounded them in a valley and
inflicted heavy casualties, Western diplomats reported today.
    Two Soviet helicopters were reported shot down in the fighting in
the Maydan Valley in Wardak province, just 28 miles southwest of the
capital, Kabul, said the diplomats who spoke on condition they not be
identified by name or nationality.
    The Soviet operation began on April 9 or 10 when at least three
convoys of hundreds of troops, military vehicles, tanks, armored
personnel carriers, self-propelled howitzers and Frog 7
surface-to-surface missiles moved out of bases in Kabul, the reports
said.
    The columns were backed by SU-25 jets, Mi-24 helicopter gunships and
Mi-8 transport helicopters fitted with rockets for supporting ground
troops, the diplomats said.
    According to the reports, the Mujahedeen guerrillas were aware of
the slow-moving operation well in advance and had set up key firing
positions and mined parts of the road.
    The Soviets bombed suspected rebel positions in the town of Jelez,
but the guerrillas had already withdrawn from the area, according to
the diplomatic reports.
    Thinking the area had been cleared, a Soviet convoy moved into the
valley near Jelez but was surrounded and ambushed by the rebels, the
reports said. According to one report, the Soviets were forced to
withdraw.
    The Soviets reportedly suffered heavy casualties. A doctor at a
400-bed hospital in Kabul was quoted as saying a large number of
wounded Soviets had been brought in from Maydan.
    Substantial casualties also were reported among guerrillas and
civilians.
    Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in December 1979 and installed a
pro-Moscow government headed by President Babrak Karmal. Western
diplomats estimate there are more than 100,000 Soviet troops battling
Moslem insurgents throughout the country.
    
AP-NY-04-16-85 0645EST
***************

a273  2039  16 Apr 85
AM-Afghanistan,0381
Report Soviets Add Missiles to Their Afghan Arsnel
By BARRY RENFREW
Associated Press Writer
    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Soviet forces battling Moslem guerrillas
in Afghanistan have been seen with ground-to-ground missiles for the
first time, Western sources said Tuesday.
    Columns of heavily armed troops moving out of Kabul, the Afghan
capital, last week carried Frog 7 missiles on portable firing
platforms, said the sources, who refused to be identified further.
    One column on April 10 contained six of the missiles, which were
later deployed in support of Soviet forces fighting in the Maydan
area near Kabul, the sources said.
    Soviet troops in Afghanistan have not been spotted before with the
missiles, which are standard equipment for Soviet ground forces in
Europe and elsewhere. The Frog 7 has a range of about 38 miles.
    Western correspondents are barred from Afghanistan and reports from
the rugged south Asian nation generally cannot be verified
independently.
    Meanwhile, Western observers reported from Kabul that large Soviet
militarymcolumns wave been moving out of the city daily. The columns
contain up to 200 vehicles, tanks and self-propelled guns, and fresh
young troops.
    The troop movements indicated the start of the annual spring
offensive against the rebels, the sources said. Heavy winters in this
rugged nation limit movement on both sides and bring a relative lull
in the fighting.
    The sources reported heavy fighting between government forces and
anti-Marxist guerrillas in several parts of the country, including a
major battle near Jalez, west of the capital, in which the rebels
outwitted the Soviets.
    According to the souries, the rebels were aware of the slow-moving
Soviet advance and withdrew from Jalez before the Soviets bombed it,
then returned and occupied key positions. Soviet troops later moved
into the area, thinking it had been cleared, and walked into a
guerrilla trap instead.
    The rebels claimed they shot down three or four Soviet helicopters
and inflicted heavy casualties during the Jalez fighting, the sources
said. They said the rebels also sustained heavy loses.
    The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, its neighbor to the south, in
late December 1979, ousted one pro-Moscow regime and installed
another headed by President Babrak Karmal. Western diplomats esimate
more than 100,000 Soviet troops remain in the south Asian nation
battling Moslem insurgents throughout the country.
    
AP-NY-04-16-85 2339EST
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