By slaughtering innocent people. bombing farms. killing animals. and wrecking fragile irrigation systems. the U.S.S.R. is trying not only to force the local people into obedience. but also to destroy completely the economic and social structure of more than 80 percent of the country. According to a member of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan. headquartered in Pakistan. "The Russians are turning every region that does not bend to their will into a wasteland." Unfortunately. Soviet tactics are succeeding. Between onequarter and onethird of the prewar population of Afghanistan has fled the country. Countless other refugees have hidden in the mountains. Although reliable statistics are virtually nonexistent. experts believe that hundreds of thousands of people have died as a direct result of the occupation. American protests have accomplished nothing.
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refugees