Mohammed Daoud Khan
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Mohammed Daoud Khan
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| In office 17 July 1973 – 27 April 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Mohammed Zahir Shah (King of Afghanistan) |
| Succeeded by | Abdul Qadir (Chairman of the Military Council of Afghanistan) |
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| In office 07 September 1953 – 10 March 1963 |
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| Monarch | Mohammed Zahir Shah |
| Preceded by | Shah Mahmud Khan |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad Yusuf |
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| Born | 18 July 1909 Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Died | 28 April 1978 (aged 68) Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Political party | National Revolutionary Party |
Mohammed Daoud Khan (July 18, 1909 – April 28, 1978) was a politician in Afghanistan who overthrew the monarchy of Zahir Shah and became the first President of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in 1978 as a result of a revolution led by the Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Khan was known for his progressive policies, especially in relation to the rights of women, for initiating two five-year modernization plans, and for being a Pashtun nationalist.[1]
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[edit] Early life and background
He was the son of Sardar Mohammed Aziz Khan and grandson of Sardar Mohammed Yusuf Khan.
[edit] Royal Prime Minister
He was appointed Prime Minister in September 1953 in an intra-family transfer of power that involved no violence. His ten-year tenure was noted for the foreign policy turn to the Soviet Union, the completion of the Helmand Valley project, which radically improved living conditions in southwestern Afghanistan, and tentative steps towards the emancipation of women.
By 1956, having been rebuffed by the US for both sales of arms and loans, and with the independence of the former parts of the British Empire in Southeast Asia, his government turned Afghanistan toward the Soviet Union. His main reason was to train both the Afghan Army and Afghan Air Force as a defense against provocations by the Pakistanis.
His obsession with Pashtunistan and his hostility to Pakistan proved disastrous for the economy. Daoud supported the reunification of the Pashtun people under Afghanistan, but this would involve taking a considerable amount of territory from the new nation of Pakistan.
With the creation of an independent Pakistan the Durand line had become an international border dividing the Pashtun people.
In 1961, to discourage Pashtun reunification efforts Pakistan closed its borders with Afghanistan causing a crisis and greater dependence on the USSR and the USSR became Afghanistan's principal trading partner. Within a few months, the USSR had sent jet airplanes, tanks, heavy and light artillery for a heavily discounted price tag of $25 million.
In 1962 Daoud sent troops across the border into Bajaur in a foolhardy, unsuccessful attempt to manipulate events in that area and to press the Pashtunistan issue, but Afghan military forces were routed by the Pakistan military. During this period the propaganda war, carried on by radio, was relentless.[2]
The crisis was finally resolved with the forced resignation of Daoud in March 1963 and the opening of the border in May.
In 1963 Zahir introduced a new constitution, for the first time excluding all members of the royal family from the council of ministers. He quietly stepped down.
[edit] President of the Republic
On July 17, 1973, Daoud seized power from his cousin (and brother-in-law) King Zahir with the assistance of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (the Parcham party wing). Departing from tradition, and for the first time in Afghan history, Daoud did not proclaim himself Shah, establishing instead a republic with himself as President.
In 1974 Daoud signed one of two economic packages that would enable Afghanistan to have a far more capable military because of increasing fears of lacking an up to date modern army when compared to the militaries of Iran and Pakistan. For every night for two years Kabul International and Baghram Air Base received a great flow of Soviet advanced weapons to rapidly increase modernization of a Soviet-trained military.
Zahir Shah's democratic constitution with elected organs and the separation of powers was replaced by a now largely nominated Loya Jirga. A new constitution backed by a Loya Jirga was promulgated in February 1977 but failed to satisfy all the factions.
In 1976, in a rift with the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, Daoud sought to increase relationships and trade with other Muslim countries and made a tentative agreement with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on a solution to the Pashtunistan problem. Internally, Daoud attempted to distance himself from the communist elements within the coup. These moves were highly criticized by Moscow, which feared that Afghanistan would soon be closer to the West, especially the United States; the Soviets had always feared that the United States could find a way to influence the government in Kabul.
Daoud's administration and the army squelched a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement whose leaders fled to Pakistan. There they were supported by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and encouraged to continue the fight against Daoud.
Any resistance to the new regime was suppressed. A coup against Daoud, which may have been planned before he took power, was subdued shortly after his seizure of power. In October 1973, Maiwandwal, a former prime minister and a highly respected former diplomat, died in prison at a time when Parchamis controlled the Ministry of Interior under circumstances corroborating the widespread belief that he had been tortured to death.
Reneging on his promise to make progressive reforms, he ran a repressive regime with hundreds of arrests and political executions of opponents.
He lessened the country's dependence on the Soviet Union and went to Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran for aid. Surprisingly, he did not renew the Pashtunistan issue; relations with Pakistan improved thanks to interventions from the US and Iran.
The next year, he established his own political party, the National Revolutionary Party, which became the focus of all political activity. In January 1977, a loyal jirgah approved the constitution establishing a presidential, one party system of government.
[edit] Diplomatic relations with the USSR
President Daoud met Leonid Brezhnev on a state visit to Moscow from April 12 to 15, 1977. He had asked for a private meeting with the Soviet Premier, to discuss with him the increased pattern of Soviet actions in Afghanistan. In particular the intensified Soviet attempt to unite the two factions of the Afghan communist parties, Parcham and Khalq.
Brezhnev described Afghanistan's non-alignment as important to the USSR and essential to the promotion of peace in Asia, but warned him about the presence of experts from NATO countries stationed in the northern parts of Afghanistan.
In 1977 President Daoud made plans that the Government in Kabul would no longer have any personal relationships with the Soviet Union and try to make Afghanistan closer to the West, especially with other oil rich Middle-East nations. Afghanistan signed a co-operative military treaty with Egypt and by 1977 the Afghan military and police force were being trained by Egyptian Armed forces. This angered the Soviet Union because Egypt took the same route in 1974 and distanced itself from the Soviets. Fearing Afghanistan would do the same, the KGB was ready to get rid of Daoud and set up a puppet government far more friendly to the Soviets.
[edit] Communist coup and assassination
The April 19, 1978, the funeral for Mir Akbar Khyber, the prominent Parchami ideologue who had been murdered, served as a rallying point for the Afghan communists. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 persons[3] gathered to hear the stirring speeches by PDPA leaders such as Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal.
Shocked by this demonstration of communist unity, Daoud ordered the arrest of the PDPA leaders, but he reacted too slowly. It took him a week to arrest Taraki, Karmal managed to escape to the USSR and Amin was merely placed under house arrest. According to PDPA documents, Amin sent complete orders for the coup from his home while it was under armed guard using his family as messengers.
The army had been put on alert on April 26 because of a presumed "anti-Islamic" coup. On April 27, 1978, a coup d'état beginning with troop movements at the military base at Kabul International Airport, gained ground slowly over the next twenty-four hours as rebels battled units loyal to Daoud Khan in and around the capital.
Daoud Khan and most of his family were shot in the presidential palace the following day.[4] His death was not publicly announced after the coup. Instead, the new government declared that President Daod had "resigned for health reasons."
On June 28, 2008, the body of President Daoud and those of his family were found in two separate mass graves in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison compound, District 12 of Kabul city. Initial reports indicate that sixteen corpses were in one grave and twelve others were in the second. No further details were available (Source: Azadi Radio/BBC News).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rubin, Barnett "DĀWŪD KHAN". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online Edition). Ed. Ehsan Yarshater. United States: Columbia University. Retrieved on January 2008.
- ^ Afghanistan - Daoud as Prime Minister, 1953-63
- ^ 15,000 is the number given on page 35 of Sena, Cāṇakya and Gupta, Bhabani Sen (1982) Afghan Syndrome: How to Live with Soviet Power Croom Helm, London, ISBN 0-7099-0477-0 and Vikas, New Delhi, ISBN 0-7069-1349-3
- ^ "There was, therefore, little to hinder the assault mounted by the rebel 4th Armoured Brigade, led by Major Mohammed Aslam Watanjar, who had also been prominent in Daoud's own coup five years before. Watanjar first secured the airport, where the other coup leader, Colonel Abdul Qadir Dagarwal, left by helicopter for the Bagram air base. There he took charge and organized air strikes on the royal palace, where Daoud and the presidential guard were conducting a desperate defense. Fighting continued the whole day and into the night, when the defenders were finally overwhelmed. Daoud and almost all his family, including women and children, died in the fighting. Altogether there were possiby as many as two thousand fatalities, both military and civilian." p. 88 of Ewans, Martin (2002) Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics HarperCollins, New York, Page 88 ISBN 0-06-050507-9
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Shah Mahmud |
Prime Minister of Afghanistan 1953 – 1963 |
Succeeded by Mohammed Yusuf |
| Preceded by Mohammed Zahir Shah King of Afghanistan |
President of Afghanistan 1973 – 1978 |
Succeeded by Abdul Qadir Chairman of the Military Council of Afghanistan |
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