Abstract

Unwilling Allies: Pakistanis Want an Afghan Peace

With the most crucial round of the Afghanistan peace talks scheduled to begin in Geneva on February 11, 1987 Soviet and Afghan government forces have inflicted a series of reverses on the guerrillas and brought the war to the Pakistani border. The pro-Soviet regime in Kabul declared a unilateral six-month cease-fire, which has severely embarrassed the hawks in Washington and Islamabad. The seven-party guerrilla alliance responded, after much coaxing by Saudi diplomats in Peshawar, with a unanimous rejection of the cease-fire, but some of the more moderate groups remain interested in a negotiated settlement. Analysts in Peshawar concur that the Russians are pushing the guerrillas toward the Pakistani border and blocking their routes into Afghanistan. Soviet strategy calls for creating a vast free-life zone, twenty to forty miles deep along the length of the border. Guerrilla supply trains trying to cross this belt over the past few months have been regularly ambushed by Soviet commandos and special militia units.