Speech #980000629

To: Director Charles Wick. From: Gilbert Robinson. MEMO In November Kirk Douglas accepted an invitation from the Government of Pakistan to visit Afghan refugees in that country in order to bring international attention to their plight and to the brutal Soviet war against the Afghan people. I want to give you a report of his visit and its effect. Kirk spent the five days around ThanksgivingNovember 2327in Pakistan. talking with officials concerned with refugee affairs and visiting refugee camps near the Afghan border. At one camp. he shared a Thanksgiving meal of mutton stew and unleavened bread with the refugees. He visited refugee schools. saw camps for widows and orphans. and toured the Red Cross hospital for warinjured Afghans in Peshawar. In the hospital he talked with men and women with bullet and shrapnel wounds and. most tragically. children whose legs had been blown off by the gaily colored plastic mines shaped like toys which the Russians drop from helicopters. In Islamabad on Thanksgiving evening. he met for an hour with President Mohammad Ziaul Haq. who had been very pleased by Kirks public comments about Pakistans extraordinary generosity toward the refugees. Illness prevented Kirk from staying for dinner. but the following evening. learning that he had visited another refugee camp. the President broke protocol by calling on him at his hotel. (The two met again at the White House State dinner in honor of President Zia. There the President warmly embraced Kirk. and all members of his entourage commented very favorably on the positive effects of the visit.) Wherever he went. Kirk was warmly received by the Pakistanis and the Afghans alike. He was struck by the generous hospitality of Pakistan in receiving the refugees as guests. and by the unbroken spirit of the refugees in their determination to continue resistance to the Soviet invaders until their country is restored to them. In Pakistan. close onthespot coverage of Kirks activities and several press conferences generated more than a hundred very favorable stories in the domestic press and daily items on the evening television news. Pakistan Television subsequently did an excellent onehour program on Kirk. his career. and the visit.