Afghanistan - Najibullah profile

(27 Sep 1996) T/I: 10:11:04 The victorious Taliban militia justified the hanging of former Afghan president Najibulla in Kabul on Friday (27/9) by condemning him as a communist “murderer.“ A senior Taliban official said Najibullah was “unanimously“ sentenced to death by religious scholars and the Taliban’s central council for “violating“ the rights of Afghan people. Najibullah was dragged out of the United Nations office where he had sheltered for the past four and a half years and was hanged on a public street. The fifty-year old former President had been under UN protection since sweeping victories by the Mujahadeen in 1992 ended his six-year iron rule under the patronage of the Soviets. Najibullah’s government collapsed after a civil war led by Mujahedeen groups who have now been swept aside by the Taliban. As chief of the notorious“ Khad,“ the former Afghan secret police, Najibullah was responsible for the killings of many Afghans. Tens of thousands of people flocked to see his body, and t