Muhammad Najibullah

Muhammad Najibullah (1947-1996), Afghan politician, President of Afghanistan (1986-1992). Nicknamed “the Ox” because of his burly physique and strength, as a young man Najibullah was an activist of the pro-Moscow Parcham Party, organizing students of Kabul University during a long career as a student of the medical faculty. A Ghilzai Pushtun by origin, Dr Najibullah never practised as a medical doctor, but remained in politics. Shortly after the coup d’état of April 1978, he was sent away from Kabul by the rival Khalq faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDPA) to Tehran as ambassador, going on to France and Russia. Najibullah returned to Kabul in the wake of the Soviet military invasion in December 1979, as head of KHAD, the Afghan secret police. In 1981 he was made a member of the Politburo, succeeding Babrak Karmal as PDPA general secretary in May 1986. Najibullah tried hard to end the damaging factionalism within the party. As President of the Revolutionary Council established in Kabul, Najibullah made strenuous efforts to attract elements of the “armed opposition”, and had some successes with mujahedin commanders who agreed to form militia groups supporting the government.

The Najibullah regime survived withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, but acute security problems gradually became apparent. Najibullah offered to resign as President if an interim government was formed, under a plan drafted by the United Nations (UN); however, alleged violations of the terms by his opponents caused him to reimpose his authority on the government in Kabul. Abandoned by senior generals of the regular army and militia forces, Najibullah was trapped in Kabul in April 1992, while trying to fly out from the airport, and was forced to take refuge in the office of the UN mission in the capital, where he remained, since successive governments refused to permit his departure, insisting that he be tried for war crimes. He was taken from the compound and summarily executed by Taliban Islamic fundamentalist forces when they took Kabul in September 1996.