The massacre in the villages of Bala Karz. Mushkizi and Kulchabad. clustered on the outskirts of Qandahar. occurred Oct. 12 after two days of fierce fighting between Soviet troops and Moslem mujaheddin fighters. The killings appeared to have been committed in revenge for heavy Soviet casualties. said survivors who have become refugees in this dusty Pakistani border city 140 miles south of Qandahar. There have been repeated claims of massacres by Soviet troops since Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. but the stories have been difficult to confirm because of secrecy and poor communications. Last fall western diplomats in New Delhi gave sketchy reports of large numbers of civilians killed near Qandahar. But the first details from witnesses emerged only last week after survivors crossed Afghanistans southern border into Pakistan. More than a dozen survivors and witnesses were interviewed through independent Pathanspeaking interpreters in hospitals and refugee camps in Pakistan. All spoke of heavy Soviet reliance on helicopter gunships and artillery in the prelimi nary battles against the Afghan guerrillas. The effectiveness of such tactics and the retreat of the mujaheddin into the surrounding fields left the civilians defenseless when Soviet armored columns rumbled into the three hamlets on the morning of Oct. 12.
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refugee refugees