Reagan Assails Soviets for ‘Barbaric’ Afghan Fighting

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan on Friday accused the Soviet Union of employing “barbaric methods of waging war” in Afghanistan, and called on Moscow to withdraw its troops and consent to U.N.-sponsored talks for a political settlement.

Reagan, in a written statement marking the sixth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, said the United States “stands squarely on the side of the people of Afghanistan and will continue in its support of their historic struggle in the cause of liberty.”

An estimated 115,000 Soviet troops remain in Afghanistan to help battle Muslim guerrillas trying to overthrow the Marxist government of President Babrak Karmal.

Saying that the Afghan resistance has grown increasingly effective, Reagan said: “The Soviets and their Afghan surrogates have resorted to barbaric methods of waging war in their effort to crush this war of national liberation.

‘Calculated Destruction’

“Indiscriminate air and artillery bombardments against civilian areas, savage reprisals against noncombatants suspected of supporting the resistance and the calculated destruction of crops and irrigation systems have ravaged the Afghan countryside,” the President said.

“Thousands of young Afghans are being shipped to the Soviet Union for ‘re-education’ in summer camps, universities and specialized institutions,” Reagan added.

He said a negotiated political settlement is “the only reasonable alternative to the bleak prospect of an open-ended military struggle.”

During his summit in Geneva last month with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reagan said, he reiterated U.S. support for U.N.-sponsored talks.

“We also indicated that the continued Soviet occupation of Afghanistan remains an obstacle to overall improvement in our relationship,” the President said.

“Although we welcome any suggestion that the Soviets are prepared to back U.N.-led peace efforts, we will await positive developments on the ground and concrete evidence of Soviet willingness to agree to a timetable for withdrawal of their troops,” Reagan added.

Students March in Pakistan

In Islamabad, Pakistan, riot police and security agents clubbed and beat hundreds of demonstrators in breaking up a protest march by Afghan students on the Soviet Embassy to mark the sixth anniversary of the Soviet military intervention in their country.

Police and plainclothes agents repeatedly charged into the estimated 1,000 marchers about half a mile from the embassy, arresting many and driving the rest back into the center of the capital.

Among those beaten by police and arrested were Afghan guerrillas who lost their legs in Afghan fighting and wore artificial ones. More than a dozen lay helpless on the street as police charged them with bamboo rods.

The protest marked the Dec. 27, 1979, anniversary of the installation of the Karmal government in Kabul by Soviet forces, who entered Afghanistan three days earlier.

Most of them marchers were students at Pakistani universities. They carried banners denouncing the Soviet Union and chanted anti-Soviet slogans.