imagine (Maley, 1991b). A British journalist, visiting the ravished
countryside, remarked that it was if someone had dropped a bomb in
the Garden of Eden (Bell, 1987). Mud-brick buildings, of the kind
which predominate in Afghan villages, were no match for aerial
bombardment, rockets, and artillery. In addition, abundant testimony
emerged as to the atrocities committed by the occupation force
(Laber and Rubin, 1988). It is worth noting here that these tactics
involved major violations of international humanitarian law; and
arguably genocide (Fein, 1993). In an argument which has not been
seriously contested, Reisman and Silk (1988) maintained that the
Afghanistan conflict was covered by the entirety of the First, Third,
and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, which Afghanistan had
ratified on 26 September 1956, and not simply by the more limited
‘Common Article 3’ which applies to armed conflict ‘not of an inter-
national character’. However, it is equally clear that even the provi-
sions of Common Article 3 were routinely violated by Soviet forces.
As one of countless examples, one might note the experience of a
woman from the vicinity of Mazar-e Sharif who reported an
encounter with a Soviet search party in August 1985: ‘They asked
me if I knew where the mojahedinwere hiding. I had my little boy
in my arms. I said I didn’t know. So they took a kalashnikovand
just shot my little boy in front of me’ (Barry, Lagerfelt, and
Terrenoire, 1986: 95). Such tactics advanced the short-term objective
of clearing territory, but did nothing to establish an independently
sustainable basis for regime authority. After the Soviet withdrawal, a
courageous Soviet journalist called upon Soviet authorities to ‘pun-
ish the guilty to clear ourselves of the filth’ (Batkin, 1989). Instead,
the USSR Supreme Soviet issued an amnesty for crimes committed
in Afghanistan (USSR Supreme Soviet, 1989).
Mine warfare
Mines played a significant role in the Soviet Union’s military tactics,
as Afghanistan’s grim legacy of minefields bears witness. A mine is
a munition placed under, on, or near the ground or other surface area
which is designed to be exploded by the presence, proximity, or con-
50 The Afghanistan Wars