ch ea aaa Nia

——————EE

, U.S. urged tostay 2) *
out of El Salvador | Sie.

On March 24, while celebrating
mass in his chapel in El Sal-
vador’s Capital of San Salvador,
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Rom-
ero was shot and killed by right
wing terrorists. _

Most recently, the Archbishop
pleaded with the United States
not to enter E] Salvadorian poli-
tics on the side of the wealthy and
the military. On February 17,
1980, he sent this letter to U.S.
president Carter:

|

Dear Mr. President:

Because you are a Christian ©

and have said that you want to
defend human rights, I take the

liberty of expressing my pastoral.

point of view on this matter and of
making a specific request.

I am deeply disturbed over the
news that the United States
government is studying a way to
accelerate. El] Salvador’s arms
race by sending military teams
and advisors to ‘‘instruct three of
El Salvador’s batallions in logis-
tics, communications and in-
telligence techniques.” If this in-
formation is true, the contribution
of your administration, instead of
favoring greater justice and peace
in El Salvador will almost surely
intensify the injustice and repres-
sion of the common people who
are organized to struggle for re-
spect for their most basic human

ts. :
Unfortunately the present -

government junta, and especially
the Armed Forces and security
forces have not demonstrated any
ability to solve structurally or in
litical practice our serious na-
tional problems. In general, they
ve only resorted to repressive
violence and this has resulted ina
much greater toll of dead and
wounded than in previous mili-
tary regimes whose systematic
violation of human rights was de-
nounced by the Inter-American
Commission on’ Human Rights.
The brutal way in which: sec-

urity forces recently evicted an.
assassinated persons who oc-
cupied the Christian Democratic
Party headquarters, in spite of the
fact that the government junta
and the party — it seems did not
authorize said operation, is evi-
dence that the junta and the Chris-
tian Democrats do not govern the
country. Rather, political power

is in the hands of unscrupulous

military personnel who only
know how to repress the people
and favor the interests of the Sal-
vadoran oligarchy.

There is a report that last
November ‘‘a team of six North
Americans was in El Salvador.
... They gave out some $200,000
worth of gas masks and bullet-
proof vests. They also gave in-
structions on how to use them in
riot control.’’ You should be in-
formed that there is evidence to
show that beginning then the
security forces, with greater per-
sonal protection and efficiency,
have repressed the people even

‘more violently, using deadly

weapons. — :

Therefore, sirice I as a Salvado-
ran and archbishop of the San
Salvador archdiocese have the
obligation to work for the reign of
faith and justice in my country, I
urge you, if you really want to
defend human rights
e To prohibit the giving of mili-
tary assistance to the Salvadoran
government;
e To guarantee that your
government will not intervene di-
rectly or indirectly with military,
economic, diplomatic or other
pressure to determine the fate of
the Salvadoran people.

We are going through a serious
economic dnd political crisis in
our country, but without a doubt

-the people are more con-

scientized. and organized and
thereby are becoming agents re-
sponsible for the future of El Sal-
vador and are the only ones capa-
ble of ending the crisis . .”.

PHOTO — TASS

There are several million nomadic herdsme

n in Afghanistan. Traditionally they have spent their summers in —

Afghanistan and winters in Pakistan. Now the western media is trying to turn them into “refugees”.

By YURI VOLKOV |

KABUL, (APN)-— The Af-
ghan press carries daily reports
from provinces bordering on
Pakistan about the return of hun-
dreds of families to their homes
from across the border. Who are
they, Afghan refugees?

I have put this question to
Meftahuddin Safi, Afghanistan’s
Deputy Minister of Frontier Af-
fairs and Tribes. ;

‘‘Naturally, the enemies of the
April revolution fied from Af-
ghanistan to Pakistan,’ he said.
‘‘There they have been taken
under the wing of the intelligence
services of the U.S., China, Bri-
tain and Pakistan, and it is those
people who are staging savage
raids on our land. But among the
refugees there are many who fled
the country to save themselves
from the terror and violence of
former Amin regime. ~

“True, some of the ordinary
people have been taken in by the
anti-Afghan propaganda of the
American, British, Chinese,
Egyptian and Pakistani media.

They have found themselves in -

dire straits abroad and are being
brainwashed in Pakistan in an ef-

fort to involve them in counter-
revolutionary activities. ‘But the
truth about the April revolution
and the events of December 27,
1979 when the healthy forces of
the People’s Democratic Party
overthrew Amin’s tyranny and
when a new stage of our revolu-
tion was ushered in, is getting
through to many who are begin-

INSIDE
AFGHANISTAN

Fourth in a Series

ning to return home. This is tak-
ing place everywhere.

‘*Recently a meeting took place’
in Peshawar of representatives of
several Pushtun tribes in support
of the April revolution.” The De-
puty. Minister continued. ‘‘Meet-

ings of chiefs of those tribes have
been convened/ in a number of

provinces. The appeal of Ghafar
Khan, the recognized leader of
the Pushtun’s, to get together and
resolve our internal problems in a
peaceful way is being listened to.
‘“‘The ~counter-revolutionary
groups based in Pakistan and as-
sisted by their masters on the

elcome them as brothers

other side of the ocean-are carry-
ing on subversive propaganda
under Islamic slogans among the
so-called Afghan refugees on Af-
ghan territory as well. But their
influence is diminishing.
_ **Western propaganda is trying
to inflate the problem of the so-
called Afghan refugees. by
speculating on the attitude of Af-
ghan nomad tribes which number
several million people. Histori-
cally these tribes have never rec-
ognized borders and are still rais-
ing their cattle on their traditional
pasture lands: in winter they go to
Pakistan and in the spring come
back. The nomads have never
been considered immigrants, let
alone refugees, as anti-Afghan
propaganda alleges. We have al-
ways maintained that no obsta-
cles will:-be created to the passage
of nomadic tribes into Afghan-
istan. If there are any obstacles,
they are raised by Pakistani au-
thorities, who have set up a spe-
cial section of the secret police to
‘carry out work among them.
‘It is still cold in Afghanistan,
but as soon as it gets warmer,
nomads will come back, and we
will welcome them as brothers.”

Another Carter cold war front? EC

A reader asks ‘‘What’s behind the

The so-called Cuban refugee affair

news that 10,000 Cubans are squatting

in the Peruvian Embassy in Havana

seeking refuge in Peru? Being a Peru-
vian, it seems unreal to me, for living
standards and social conditions in Peru
jn no way can compare with Cuban
standards and conditions.’”

Our Peruvian friend is not the only -
one who looks askance. at this latest —

cold war exercise. To try to visualize

10,000 persons crammed into the.

grounds of the Peruvian Embassy in
Havana boggles the mind. And, to im-

agine these benighted souls wanting to

go to Peru stretches one’s imagination
to the breaking point.
Be x * *

Perhaps a clue to the whole point in
this exercise can be gleaned from the

” daily press. The Globe and Mail for
April 8 says: ‘The Peruvian Govern-

ment, calling the massive plea for
asylum an unprecedented human
tragedy’, said it;cannot take all of those.

_ wanting to leave Cuba. Many are ex-

pected to seek asylum in the’ United
States.” Further from the same source:
“In Washington, the U.S. State

- Department said it would be willing to

consider applications for refugee

admission to the United States from

_ Cubans who could reach Peru.” And,
by mid-afternoon the Toronto Star in-

dicated the U.S. was ready to accept all.

10,000. : 2

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

The Globe’s editorial of the above
date notes that these 10,000 refugees

_are ‘‘not seeking freedom from want”’,

but rather they are ‘‘seeking freedom’”’,
period. ‘‘They are people’’, says the
Globe that favor ‘‘leaving that kind
(socialist, A.D.) of government’’. The
punch line of the editorial which we
emphasize is ‘‘Canada should be one of

the countries ready to receive the

refugees.”’
i i eae
A 10,000-strong group of “‘refugees’”
requires some sort of organization,

- some sort of preparation, and some sort |

of follow-up. One would be naive in-
deed to think it could all happen spon-
taneously. So, who did the organizing?
We think it could be taken for granted
that the Cuban Government didn’t, for
it had no reason to do so. And, besides,
Cuba has a long-standing policy that its

_ nationals are free to leave the country if

they so wish, and providing they have a
country that will admit them. It would
appear, on the surface at least, that
Peru was not the initiator, because by

__ its own.statement it cannot handle that

many refugees.

This leaves only one possible suspect
on our list. Our choice is the CIA, act-
ing on behalf of the U.S. State Depart-

ment and Carter’s election campaign.
-. The CIA is our choice not only because

of its infamous record of internal
subversion against other countries, but
because of its expertise and facilities to
launch a coordinated international cold
war exercise, complete with cooked-up

__ press stories and prepared editorial out-

lines, supplied free of charge to repor-
ters and editorial writers.

* * *

It would be wrong to view the Cuban
‘‘refugee”’ caper in isolation, as a thing
in itself. It has to be seen as an attempt
by Carter to open up another front in
the U.S. cold war campaign. It is part
and parcel of a master cold war plan to
denigrate socialism as an alternate to
monopdly control and exploitation, at a
time of skyrocketting interest and
mortgage rates, of wholesale robbery of
working people through double-digit
inflation, outrageous price rip-offs, and
high chronic unemployment. :

~It has to be seen in the light of im-
perialism’s efforts to turn the people’s
anger, rightfully directed against the
giant banks and multi-nationals, toward
a conjured-up external enemy allegedly
out to force socialism down our throats
— the so-called ‘‘Soviet threat’’.

¥ 2k > *

-has all the earmarks of the massive

‘‘boat people’? campaign initiated by
the Chinese leaders in preparation for

__ China's ill-fated invasion of Vietnam to
teach ‘‘the Vietnamese a lesson’’. It is

well to recall at this time China’s Vice-
Premier Deng’s advice to U.S. Presi-
dent Carter when he visited the United
States in 1979 that ‘‘it might be neces-
sary to teach Cuba a lesson’.

_And speaking of opening cold war
fronts it would not be remiss to also
recall the CIA’s activities in Chile
which resulted in the overthrow of the
Popular Front government of President
Allende and installation of the fascist
Pinochet regime in power: We should
recall also the crimes of the CIA in Iran
prior to the victory of the Iranian dem-
ocratic revolution; or its criminal ac-
tivities in Afghanistan which were only
brought to an end by the timely assis-
tance of the Soviet Union to the
People’s Democratic government of
that country; nor should we fail to see
the cold war pattern in Carter’s inter-
national campaign to boycott the Mos-
cow Olympic Games.

* * ”

All of these subversive operations

are an integral part of the expansionist

* aims of U.S. imperialism. Canada

should have no part of such aims which,
if not checked, could erupt into world
nuclear war. :

~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 18, 1980—Page 9