Soviets Say U.N. Observers Aren't Doing Afghan Duty

Soviets Say U.N. Observers Aren’t Doing Afghan Duty

By NORMAN KEMPSTER

Sept. 30, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. observer force in Afghanistan has failed to properly investigate Moscow’s charges of violations by Pakistan of the Geneva agreement calling for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the Soviet Union complained Thursday.

Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said Moscow is demanding a full investigation of the role of the observer team, which he said “is not doing its job properly.”

Secretary of State George P. Shultz defended the observer team, a part of the U.N. peacekeeping force that on Thursday was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Shultz said Pakistan has not violated the agreement, which was signed last April, but he accused the Soviet Union and the Soviet-backed government in Kabul of doing so.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze had implied here Tuesday that the Soviet Union might slow or stop its troop withdrawal, now at about the halfway point, unless Pakistan stops supporting Islamic guerrillas seeking to topple the Afghan government.

Gerasimov also hinted at such a move but refused to be pinned down on just what action Moscow might take.

“We don’t want to be too specific, but we are warning the other side. This is another warning,” he said.

Shevardnadze and Shultz squared off on the issue Wednesday night at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China. Shortly afterward, Shevardnadze returned to Moscow to attend today’s special session of the Communist Party Central Committee.

“We draw the attention of the members and the secretary general to the flagrant violations by Pakistan of the Geneva accords,” Gerasimov said. “We said the outcome might be unpredictable.”

Describing the same meeting, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that after Shevardnadze completed his presentation, Shultz raised the subject of “violations of Pakistani air space” by aircraft of the Afghan government and the Soviet Union.

Redman said Shultz asserted that any complaints of violations should be filed with the U.N. observer mission. He said the observers have already investigated some charges but “have not documented any violations.”

The accords, signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and the Soviet Union, call for withdrawal of Soviet forces and prohibit outside interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. At the time the agreements were signed, Shultz said that the United States would continue to supply arms to the moujahedeen rebels as long as Moscow continued to give military assistance to the Kabul regime.

Moscow has not charged the United States with violating the agreement, although it maintains that Pakistan has breached the accord by allowing its territory to be used to funnel U.S.-supplied weapons to the guerrillas.

Spelling out Soviet charges for the first time, Gerasimov said that in addition to the arms supplies, Pakistan violated the agreement by:

-- Permitting moujahedeen military training camps to function in Pakistan, some with military instructors from the United States, China and Pakistan.

-- Allowing the rebels to establish a “transition government,” headquartered in Pakistan.

-- Permitting the moujahedeen’s news agency to operate in Pakistan.

-- Impeding the return of Afghan refugees to Afghanistan.