Afghan President Najibullah on the "Mujahideen"

And you all agree this is an important interest to us all. You care about the situation of the entire nation not just yourselves.

The entire land of Afghanistan belongs to you. We begin with the big issue and then we will come

to everything else. You have time? You have the patience to listen to all of our problems?

The first issue, is the issue of our nation's situation. And what is it...

...our nation has been destroyed. This is the second or third attack on Jalalabad.

From who? The so called opposition ("Mujahideen")? No, from the intelligence services

of Pakistan. From their commando forces. From their Arab masters.

With weapons that come from outside. And indeed, the whole of Nangrahar (province)

has been condemned to destruction by them. Over Khost, they fire rockets daily. The same with Kandahar.

The entire country is engulfed in killing. Agriculture has been destroyed. Construction has stopped.

Have not the factories closed? Because without the cotton you grew, how can we continue the textile industry?

Without the sugar beets, how can you make sugar? Without cement how can I build houses?

Without coal, how can I run the silo, and how can I give the people bread to eat?

The schools have been destroyed. Streets are destroyed. Telephone lines are gone.

Hospitals do not exist any longer. Who does this all belong to, the government?

This is all the people's, all built on your backs, by your calloused hands.

They even destroyed Mosques. I don't understand, in a house if a fire breaks out,

The entire family, from the young and old run to put it out, one tries with his shirt, one throws dirt,

one brings water in a bucket. The reason...so the fire burning in this house is extinguished.

Is this not right? Afghanistan is our home and it is burning. It is the responsibility of us all

not just the office of President. This fire that is burning in our home, whether it be by

your sweater or otherwise we must extinguish it, if we are really a family.

But, what do we do instead? Someone hands me a rocket, someone else a rifle, another a mortar

and we destroy our own house. Rather than put out the fire, we pour fuel onto it. If one house is on

fire, we say let the fire spread to the neighbor's house and let all of Afghanistan burn.

Some of them ("Mujahideen") say, "we want victory in this conflict." I will tell you one thing, "victory"

by killing is the worst failure, the worst "success." Over who will you be victorious? Over who

will you triumph? Over your own people? Over mass graves? Over tombs?

And who will they rule over? Who will they subjugate, a nation of illiterates?

Of widows and cripples? Children who because they fire rocket barrages into cities, are

without legs and arms? Is this success? Is that your victory? There is no greater failure,

no greater revenge of ignorance, than to rule proudly over their destruction, over mass graves. Over

the remains of your own dear ones, brothers, mothers, daughters. Is this the victory they want?

It is and they say "we will take this fight to the end.".... "Until one Afghan is left we'll continue."

Is this success? They have killed their own mothers, fathers, brothers, etc and

and over what remains of their children they will rule,

and then what, you have won the "Jihad?" You won the war? You are victorious?

No one will see the horror of this conflict, but the people of Afghanistan.

Not Pakistan, not Saudi Arabia, not the United States...no foreign country.

Not even the Soviet Union, if yesterday they had a presence, today they too have left.

It is only Afghan people, their livelihood and nation that will be the casualty of this conflict.

That is why your blood must boil and you must understand whose country will be destroyed.

The Weaponry? They are not ours, is even a bullet manufactured here?

You might say, "Najib, you too receive weapons from abroad."

And they say I am an infidel because I receive support from the Soviet Union.

I say in response, I receive weapons from one infidel, you receive weapons from twenty different

infidels. Let us agree on this, we will gather all the weapons and send them back to their country

of origin and from the forehead of the people of Afghanistan will remove the rifle

that terrorizes them. Let them have freedom, to decide who they support and who they elect.

This conflict has destroyed us. Our homes, our families' homes, while they were still inside.

And now people are living in their ruins. Over this soil, how many have died?

Our forefathers who were victorious over the British did not leave this land for destruction.

They united for their nation, their people, their Islam, their famous Afghan honor. Let us do the same.