AFGHANISTAN: The Sorrow of Parting

The scene at Kabul airport was heartrending, according to one observer: parents and relatives were held at gunpoint behind police barricades, prevented from gathering their departing children in a final embrace. Amid tears and anguish, earlier this month some 370 Afghan children between the ages of seven and nine were herded aboard a Soviet airliner. Their destination: the Soviet Union, where for the next 15 to 20 years they will be put through a course of political indoctrination. According to Radio Kabul, the official voice of Afghan President Babrak Karmal's Soviet-backed regime, the children will be taught "Marxist-Leninist thinking, and...

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