The-Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 10, 1980-Page 13
eavy fighting grips Afghanistan
NEW DELHI, India (AP)-Afghan
rebels and Soviet troops are engaged in
fierce fighting in the eastern
Afghanistan province of Ghazni where
thousands of women and children were
killed two weeks ago, according to
reports from Kabul received here
yesterday.
A Soviet column with hundreds of
armored vehicles backed by M124
HIND helicopter gunships and Mig
jetfighters advanced last Thursday on
entrenched rebel positions manned by
thousands of Moslem tribesmen, the
reports said.
THE DEATHS OF 18 members of
Afghanistan's national field hockey
team, attacked by rebel tribesmen,
were confirmed by relatives this week
in Kabul, said a delayed report
received here yesterday. It said only
two members of the team survived the
attack.
Moslem guerrillas, known as "holy
warriors," have been fighting forces of
the Marxist central government for two
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television's freedom of expression, PBS
rules were drawn up separating the
funding organizations from those which
produce PBS programs.
The controversy centers around a
British-produced program depicting
the beheading of a Saudia Arabian
princess and her commoner lover,
which the filmmaker claims is based on
a true account of a 1977 incident.
THE SAUDI GOVERNMENT,
believing the program falsely portrays
its society, expelled a British am-
bassador sfter the BBC showed the film
last month.
But criticism has also come from
Mobil, which placed a quarter-page ad-
vertisement in Thursday's New York
Times, questioning the veracity of the
program and saying that it "raises
some very serious issues."
Mobil produces nearly 75 per cent of
all oil from Saudi Arabia, which is the
leading U.S. oil exporter.
A SPOKESMAN FOR Mobil said
yesterday that the PBS should "look at
their decision closely" because the
show could "give an inaccurate portrait
of life in Saudi Arabia." The spokesman
also commented on statements about
the oil company printed in yesterday's
New York Times. He said that Mobil,
contrary to the Times' reports, never
asked PBS not to run the show, and
asserted that future Mobil funding is
not an issue in the current controversy.
He did say, however, that the showing
of the program will strain relations
between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Dan Alpert, public information direc-
tor for WTVS, Channel 56 in Detroit,
said the program will be aired locally
"as long as PBS feeds it to us."
Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled
yesterday that a Houston public
television station, which originally
junked plans to air the drama, must
show the program Monday night
because "This -is not-ar private-owhed
television station.'
years in the Jaghatu region, about 100
miles southwest of Kabul. Fierce
fighting continued, the report said, but
no casualty figures were cited for either
side.
The Soviet troops have been in
Afghanistan since December, helping
fight the Moslem rebels.
A Kabul informant quoted
information reaching the capital that as
many as 5,000 Afghans, mainly women
and children left behind by their rebel
husbands and fathers, were slain in an
April 26-29 bombardment, shelling, and
strafing of Andar and Shilgar villages,
10 miles north of Ghazni, the provincial
capital.
AFGHAN CASUALTY figures, as
well as estimates of Soviet armor have
proved to be exaggerated in many
cases.
However, there was clear evidence
that the number of wounded children,
women, and 'the elderly has swamped
local hospitals, forcing families to
make the dangerous trip to Kabul for
emergency medical treatment.
A reliable Afghan source, who
arrived recently in New Delhi, said he
saw 24 maimed children, most with
missing arms and legs, taken to
Kabul Children's Hospital last week.
The shooting of unarmed
schoolchildren triggered anti-Soviet
agitations in several provincial towns.
(
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