NEW DELHI, India – Afghan President Babrak Karmal resigned as head of the Afghan Communist Party on Sunday amid speculation that he had fallen out of favor with Moscow.

In a broadcast from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the government radio said Karmal has been replaced as party head by the Afghan security chief, Najibullah. Karmal will remain as president and also as chairman of the Revolutionary Council, the Afghan legislature, the Radio Kabul broadcast said.

Karmal, 57, has reportedly been suffering from poor health, and the broadcast said he was replaced at his own request due to health reasons. Rumors of his fall from grace began circulating when he failed to attend on April 27 parades marking the eighth anniversary of the Communist revolution in Afghanistan.

The parade is considered the country’s most important political event. Karmal’s failure to appear immediately prompted speculation that he was very ill or that he would soon be replaced,

Karmal had dropped from sight after going to the Soviet Union a month ago, ostensibly for medical treatment.

His replacement as party leader is expected to have little effect on the policy of the government, since both Karmal and Najibullah, 39 — who has no given name—are members of the same Parham (Banner) faction of the ruling People’s Democratic Party. Afghanistan has been described as a country of “two party communism” as there are bitter, often violent, rivalries   between two factions, the Parham and the Khalq  (Masses).

“We will not attach undue importance to the changeover in leadership in Kabul,” State

Department spokeswoman Anita Stockman, Said in Washington.

“The identities of those who hold leadership positions are of less significance than the continued presence of 120,000 Soviet troops in Afghanistan,”

Beyond Afghan government policy, the elevation of Najibullah to the top party post may have

Significance in Afghanistan’s important tribal political arena, possibly as a move aimed at winning key Pushtun tribal support for the Soviet backed regime.

In the Afghan tribal scheme, Najibullahisa member of the large Pushtun tribe in Paktia province. An estimated 55 percent (8 million) of Afghanistan’s population is Pushtun. Even more important, most Pushtuns live in the border areas where most of the fighting is taking place between Soviet supported rebels.

Karmal was installed in power after the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

Although sometimes claiming Pushhtun ethnic ties, he is generally viewed inside Afghanistan as a member of Dari speaking urban elite, as are most of the members of his Parchami faction of the party.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 9, 1986