Outcry Over Russian Debt Demands

A Soviet tank lies rusting by the roadside. Moscow wants billion of dollars for the arms it sent to Afghanistan. Picture by Jean MacKenzie.

Moscow's demand that Kabul repay loans estimated at 10 billion US dollars has sparked anger and threats of counter-claims from Afghanistan for reparations for the Soviet invasion 25 years ago.

The debt issue has also revived dissent between those Afghans who supported the mujahedin and those who backed the Soviet-backed communist regime after the invasion of December 1979.

Many Afghans think Moscow has no right to demand repayment of money that was spent on military hardware used to further the Soviet Union’s aims in their country, killing and maiming people and destroying cities, crops and infrastructure.

“Our country was set back 50 years by the Russian invasion, which cannot be compensated for even by hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Engineer Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former mujahedin leader who served as prime minister in the post-communist regime of the early Nineties.

“If Russia demands its loans back, we will demand hundreds of billions for the damage inflicted by the Russians who left our country in ruins,” he added.

In August, Russia's finance ministry invited an Afghan delegation headed by Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi to discuss the debt issue.

During the talks, Moscow demanded repayment while Kabul asked for the loans to be written off as they were incurred during the war.

According to Afghan finance ministry spokesman Azizullah Shams, Moscow then indicated it might be prepared to write off 70 per cent of the debt, which had been used for military supplies sent to Afghanistan.

“These loans include the money that the Russians gave to Afghanistan during the communist regimes,” said Shams, adding that Kabul was not prepared to pay the balance and the matter would now go to the Paris Club, an informal group of creditor nations which seeks to resolve payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations.

The Soviet Union spent the money for its own political and strategic purposes, not to benefit the Afghan people, Shams told IWPR, adding that if Russia pursued repayment, Kabul would demand war reparations for the invasion.

“We hope to overcome this problem in a friendly way in an upcoming meeting,” he said.

The Russian embassy in Kabul would not comment, despite being contacted several times by IWPR.

Afghan analysts see the repayment demand as a fresh form of intervention by Moscow in their country, and a way of putting pressure on Washington and the US-backed Afghan government.

Qasim Akhgar, a political analyst in Kabul, rejected Moscow's claims out of hand, saying that the Afghan governments that received the loans were illegitimate and did not represent the people, so the country was not obliged to honour the debt.

If Russia sees itself as the heir of the former Soviet Union, then before it asks for debt repayment it should compensate Afghanistan for the damage inflicted by the Soviet Army, he said.

“Can Moscow compensate for all those people who died under the Russians and [for the fate of] the thousands of survivors?” said Akhgar, adding that two million Afghans had been killed and thousands taken prisoner and shifted to Russia, many of whom were still missing.

Another political analyst, Abdul Karim Khuram, said Russia made the loans to a puppet regime set up in a coup that was not supported by the Afghan people. It was that regime that received the loans, not the Afghan people, owed the money to Russia.

Those who still retain sympathies for the communist regime, however, say the government of the time was legitimate, and was supported by the international community and the United Nations.

“It is true that the communist government was formed based on a coup, but 85 nations of the world used to recognise it, and it had representatives in the United Nations,” said Nur al-Haq Ulumi, leader of the United National Party, Hizb-e Mutahid-e-Milli, which is regarded as a successor to the moderate wing of the now defunct communist party, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

“Anyway, the government of that time was a [proper] government, and had to get loans to meet the country's needs,” he told IWPR. These loans were not just for military equipment but also to build schools, bridges, houses and scores of other public works projects which are still being used by Afghans, he said.

Ulumi said that the mujahedin themselves were responsible for the destruction of many of the facilities the loans had put in place. On balance, the Soviet loans, some of which he said dated back some 50 years, had a positive impact on the country, he said.

He said Afghanistan is now completely dependent on other countries, and the UN should resolve the debt issue.

Sheikh Mohammad Asef Mohseni, leader of Harakat-e-Islami, one of the former mujahedin factions, disagreed, arguing that the loans paid for military supplies such as artillery, tanks and aircraft, delivered to the puppet government of the time.

“The economic infrastructure of Afghanistan was destroyed because of the invasion by Red Army troops. Afghanistan didn’t enjoy political independence for 14 years, and Russia was told several times by the UN to leave Afghanistan, but did not do so,” said Mohseni.

“Russia spent money in Afghanistan in order to achieve its aims, not to help the Afghan people.”

He added that Kabul was under no obligation to pay for the invasion. The Russian state, as the successor to the Soviet Union, should make amends for all the damage inflicted by its intervention and its support for the communist regime, he said.

By the time the last Russian troops pulled out in 1989, the conflict had left two million dead, thousands more disabled, and a ruined country strewn with mines.

In the Paghman district of Kabul province, Shir Mohammad recalled two of those dead - his sons. “Now Russia is calling in its debts. Can it bring back my sons?” he demanded.

“We suffered a lot from the Russians. We saw nothing from them except exploding rockets and artillery shells and the killing of innocent people,” said Shir Mohammad, whose house was also destroyed in the conflict.

Kabul resident Abdul Hamid, who is still working on rebuilding his mud-brick house, destroyed during the warfare that continued after the Soviet withdrawal, said, “Russia's entire contribution was the ruins and wars they left behind them.

“The Russians have no conscience or sense of shame. If they had, they wouldn’t make such claims.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif. Abdul Baseer Saeed is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.