Bloody Coup in Kabul

An obscure colonel takes over on the second try

The announcements by Radio Kabul in Persian and Pushtu were brief but to the point: tanks and infantry loyal to a "military revolutionary council" had surrounded the presidential palace in Afghanistan's capital. President Mohammed Daoud, 68, and his younger brother and political confidant, Mohammed Nairn, had been killed after they "madly" resisted the coup. A new regime was in control, led by Col. Abdul Kadir, 37, the air force chief of staff.

For Afghanistan, where settling old political scores through the barrel of a gun is practically a tradition, the coup was relatively tidy. The rebels struck just after the Daoud regime had sealed the country's borders to tighten security before a meeting of foreign ministers of 25 non-aligned countries that was due to begin in Kabul late this week. Though some 200 people had died in five hours of fighting in the capital, by week's end the new rulers appeared to be consolidating their power. Their first priority seemed to be to explain to Afghanistan's mostly Moslem population of 18 million that they had moved against the Daoud regime because it had become "a symbol of injustice, oppression, exploitation and corruption."

That echoed Daoud's own coup in 1973. His target then was his cousin and brother-in-law, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, whom he had once served as prime minister. While the king was abroad for medical treatment, Daoud and a group of military insurgents -including the then and still obscure Col. Kadir -overthrew the Zahir monarchy, which Daoud condemned as corrupt and ineffective. But the Zahir family kept a tight hold on the top jobs and other spoils of power, and this time Col. Kadir vowed to throw them out once and for all.

A Kojak-bald Moslem, Daoud had been beset by rising unrest. Complaints about climbing prices and feckless administration mounted, and were exploited by an increasingly active Communist movement called Khalq (the masses). Last month, a Communist leader was killed in Kabul, sparking a demonstration by thousands of mourners, who took the occasion to protest the murder and, for some reason, to shout anti-American slogans. The subsequent arrest of half a dozen leftist leaders may have triggered the coup.

Surrounded by such ideologically diverse powers as the Soviet Union, China, Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan has traditionally pursued a neutral foreign policy, and the new regime endorsed that posture. Although Daoud had bargained for Soviet arms aid when he was Prime Minister, he had lately shown a distinct admiration for antiCommunists, including the Shah of Iran, with whom he dickered for a big aid program, and Saudi Arabia's King Khlid, whom he visited in February. Daoud's successors could want to replace his Western-tilted "neutrality" with a Soviet-leaning version. qed

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