Mohammad Najibullah
Dr.
Mohammad Najibullah (
Pashto: محمد نجيب الله; born
1947, died
September 27,
1996) was the fourth and last President of
Afghanistan during the period of the communist
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He is also considered the 2nd President of the
Republic of Afghanistan.
Najibullah's achievements as a mediator between factions, an effective diplomat, a clever foe, a resourceful administrator and a brilliant spokesman who coped with constant and changing turmoil throughout his six years as head of government, qualified him as a leader among Afghans.
He downplayed Marxist ideology of the
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan and annulled most of the early radical
reforms of the Saur Revolution. His regime collapsed under the pressure of Islamic militants while it still possessed military superiority. The
Afghan Civil War followed soon after.
Najibullah was born in
Kabul of an Ahmadzai Ghilzai
Pashtun family. He was educated at Habibia High School and
Kabul University, where he graduated with a degree in Medicine in
1975.
He joined the
Parcham faction of the communist
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in
1965. Despite being regarded as an intelligent man, he was referred to as
Najib-e Gaw (the Bull) by his opponents due to his physique. The PDPA staged a successful coup in
1978, but the
Khalq faction of the PDPA gained supremacy, and after a brief stint as ambassador in
Tehran, Najibullah was dismissed from government and went into exile in Europe.
In 1977 he joined the
Central Committee, and in 1978 the
Revolutionary Council. After the Khalqis pressured the Parchamis, the former banished him to
Iran as ambassador. Soon it dismissed him and deprived him of Afghan citizenship.
He returned to Kabul after the
Soviet invasion in
1979. In
1980, he was appointed the head of
KHAD, the secret police. Under Najibullah's control, it is claimed that KHAD arrested, tortured and executed tens of thousands of Afghans. In 1981 he was promoted to full membership in the
Politburo.
Meanwhile, a change had taken place in Kabul. On May 4, 1986, Karmal resigned as secretary general of the PDPA and was replaced by Najibullah. Karmal retained the presidency for a while, but power had shifted to Najibullah
His selection by the Soviets was clearly related to his success in running KHAD, the secret police, more effectively than the rest of the DRA had been governed.
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Flag of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan during Mohammad Najibullah's rule. The Red Star was removed, the cogwheel was relocated to the bottom and the green "horizon" below the sunburst is now curved. |
In November 1986, Najibullah was elected president and a new constitution was adopted. Some of the innovations incorporated into the constitution were a multi-party political system, freedom of expression, and an
Islamic legal system presided over by an independent judiciary.
However, all of these measures were largely outweighed by the broad powers of the president, who commanded a military and police apparatus under the control of the
Homeland Party (Hizb-i Watan, as the PDPA became known in 1988). In September he set up the
National Compromise Commission to contact counter-revolutionaries "in order to complete the
Saur Revolution in its new phase." Allegedly some 40,000 rebels were contacted.
In this way, Najibullah had stabilized his political position enough to begin matching
Moscow's moves toward withdrawal. On
July 20,
1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced..
It was also during his Administration that the peak of the fighting came in 1985-86. The Soviet forces launched their largest and most effective assaults on the mujahedin supply lines adjacent to
Pakistan. Major campaigns had also forced the mujahedin into the defensive near
Herat and
Kandahar.
Najibullah made an expanded reconciliation offer to the resistance in July, 1987 including twenty seats in State (formerly Revolutionary) Council, twelve ministries and a possible prime minister-ship and Afghanistan's status as an Islamic non-aligned state. Military, police, and security powers were not mentioned.
The offer still fell far short of what even the moderate mujahedin parties would accept.
Najibullah then reorganized his government to face the mujahedin alone. A new constitution took effect in November, 1987. The name of the country was reverted to the
Republic of Afghanistan, the
State Council was replaced by a
National Assembly for which "progressive parties" could freely compete.
Mir Hussein Sharq, a non-party politician, was named Prime Minister.
On June 7, 1988, President Najibullah addressed the
UN General Assembly for peace solution of crisis in Afghanistan.
Soviet withdrawal and Civil War
Immediately after the Soviet departure,
Najibullah pulled down the façade of shared government. He declared an emergency, removed Sharq and the other non-party ministers from the cabinet. The Soviet Union responded with a flood of military and economic supplies. Sufficient food and fuel were made available for the next two difficult winters.
Much of the military equipment belonging to Soviet units evacuating
Eastern Europe was shipped to Afghanistan. Assured adequate supplies, the
Afghan Air Force, which had developed tactics minimizing the threat from Stinger missiles, now deterred mass attacks against the cities. Medium-range missiles, particularly the
Scud, were successfully launched from Kabul in the defense of
Jalalabad, 145 kilometres miles away.
Victory at
Jalalabad dramatically revived the morale of the Kabul government. Its army proved able to fight effectively alongside the already hardened troops of the
Soviet-trained special security forces. Defections decreased dramatically when it became apparent that the resistance was in disarray, with no capability for a quick victory.
Soviet support reached a value of $3 billion a year in 1990. Kabul had achieved a stalemate which exposed the mujahedin's weaknesses, political and military. Najibullah's government survived for another two years. Eventually divisions within his own ranks, including the defection of General
Abdul Rashid Dostam fatally weakened the government's resolve.
In March 1990, his Government successfully withstood a
Khalqi coup, headed by Defense Minister
Shahnawaz Tanai.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was one of the main supporters of the coup.
Najibullah had been working on a compromise settlement to end the civil war with
Ahmad Shah Masood, brokered by the
United Nations. But talks broke down and the government fell, and by
1992 Najibullah agreed to step down in favor of a transitional government. He also announced that a
bicameral parliament would be established "within a few months," on the basis of "free and democratic elections."
The regime collapsed while it still possessed material superiority. Its stockpiles of munitions and planes would provide the victorious mujahedin with the means of waging years of highly destructive war.
Kabul was short of fuel and food at the end of winter in 1992.
Najibullah announced his willingness on
March 18 to resign in order to make way for a
neutral interim government. On
April 16, having lost internal control, was forced to resign by his own ruling party, following the capture of the strategically important
Bagram air-base and the nearby town of
Charikar, by the
Jamiat-i Islami guerrilla group.
Fall of Kabul and assassination
Najibullah tried to flee Kabul, but his departure was blocked by
Abdul Rashid Dostum. On
April 17, he sought sanctuary in the UN compound in Kabul. President
Rabbani refused to let him leave the country, but made no attempt to arrest him.
On the day
Sarobi fell to the
Taliban, Najibullah sent a message to the
United Nations in
Islamabad, asking them to arrange the evacuation of himself, his brother
Shahpur Ahmadzai and some of his bodyguards, but the UN did not respond due to
Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence interference in the process.
His wife Fatana and his three daughters had lived in exile in
New Delhi since 1992. He spent the rest of his days in virtual detention, and remained there until September
1996 when the
Taliban captured Kabul.
Ahmed Shah Massoud, Commander-in-chief of President
Burhanuddin Rabbani's Army, sent one of his senior generals to ask him to leave with the retreating government troops, promising safe passage to the north, but Najibullah refused. There is some speculation that he didn't want to flee with the
Tajiks because he was afraid of the reaction between the Pashtuns.
Najibullah sent a last wireless message to the UN in Islamabad early in the evening, asking for help. But it was too late: a special
Taliban unit of five men designated for the task, dragged Najibullah outside of the UN compound.
They tortured him and wanted him to sign papers related to the
Durand line, then bundled his brother and him into a pick-up and drove them to the Presidential Palace. They shot him there, together with his brother. Finally, the Taliban hanged the two mutilated bodies were hanged from a wire noose on a concrete traffic control post just outside the Palace in Kabul where he had criticized
Pakistan for its role in
Jalalabad war. It was only a few blocks from the UN compound.
Mullah
Mohammad Rabbani, designated Head of the Supreme Council in Kabul, proclaimed that Najibullah had being sentenced to death by the Taliban because he was a
communist and a
murderer. He also banned an Islamic funeral for the former President.
There was widespread international condemnation, particularly from the
Muslim world. Still, he is widely remembered by
Pashtun nationalists. His body was removed and sent to
Gardez, his birthplace in
Paktia Province. He was buried by his
Ahmadzai tribesmen.
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Biography of Najibullah - Afghanland.com 
