a house divided, 1933–73‘to ever increase the stability and consolidation of the Republican Order’,
declaring that it was ‘the duty of all people of Afghanistan’ to be loyal to the
‘Republican Order’ and not to harm ‘the objectives of the Revolution’. As
for democracy, this meant a One Party State, for the Constitution outlawed
all political parties other than the state-run National Revolutionary Party
(nrp). The nrp also appointed 50 per cent of the members of the Milli
Jirga, the new name for the Lower House, which met for just four months
each year. The creation of the nrp was a catalyst for further confrontation
between President Da’ud and his Communist allies. The pdpa refused to
disband, while Da’ud condemned those who refused to join the nrp as
‘saboteurs’. 25 A month after the Constitution passed into law, Da’ud replaced
most of the remaining pdpa members in his cabinet with Muhammadzais
and former ministers.
The Moscow confrontation and the pdpa’s re sp on s eWhen Da’ud paid a state visit to Moscow in April 1977, the Soviet leadership
was determined to make sure the Afghan President knew his place and
make it quite clear that the ussr was deeply dissatisfied with his govern-
ment’s policies. Da’ud for his part was equally determined to re affirm
Afghanistan’s neutrality and independence. The clash that ensued proved
disastrous not just for Da’ud but for Afghanistan and, ultimately, the ussr.
In his speech at the state banquet held in his honour, President Da’ud point-
edly reaffirmed Afghanistan’s ‘active and positive neutrality’ and declared
that ‘the main and fundamental objectives of our policy, more than
anything else, [are] the preservation of independence, sovereignty [and]
national integrity’ and ‘non-interference in the internal affairs of others’. 26
When the two sides met in private session, Da’ud accused the pdpa of
‘subversion’ and told General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev to ‘advise his
comrades... to obey the new order in Afghanistan’. 27 Brezhnev responded
by complaining about the increasing numbers of Western ex patriates arriv-
ing in Afghanistan and noted that ‘in the past... the Afghan government
at least did not allow experts from nato countries to be stationed in the
northern parts of the country’. The Soviet Union, Brezhnev continued,
‘took a grim view of these developments’ and demanded Da’ud remove
these foreigners for they ‘were nothing more than spies bent on promoting
imperialism’. Da’ud was furious: ‘We will never allow you to dictate to us
how to run our country and whom to employ in Afghanistan,’ he retorted,
‘how and where we employ the foreign experts will remain the exclusive
prerogative of the Afghan state.’ 28 Da’ud then rose and walked out of the