Execution of a traitor during the war in Afghanistan, 1980

 

It was June 1980, when the Soviet Union invaded its southern neighbor to prevent the collapse of the pro-Soviet government in Kabul. The Russians were condemned by an Islamic war tribunal for condemning nine families, the man in the photo being taken to be hanged 20km outside Kabul.

The photos were taken by French photographer Alain Mingham who was covering Mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan. Largely because he was sympathetic to the Mujahideen's cause against the Soviet invaders, Mingam was specially brought in to witness an execution.

"For someone like me who didn't cover the Vietnam War, the Mujahideen's fight against the world's largest army was David vs. Goliath: those bearded, turbaned men fascinated me. If I hadn't been there, I would The man would not have been shot and then beheaded,” Mingham later said. For months, he admitted, he could not sleep because he felt like a companion.

Sometimes referred to as the Soviet version of the Vietnam War, the Soviet War in Afghanistan became a losing battle for the Soviet Union, and in many ways, accelerated the disintegration of communism in the East.

The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) was formed in 1978 after the Solar Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of the Afghan monarchy with the strategic support of the Soviet Union.

In 1978, the year leading up to the war, the president of the DRA, Noor Mohamed Taraki, implemented socialist land reforms and modernization reforms, including changing marriage customs, which conservative Afghan citizens felt were affecting their Islamic culture. There is danger.

The following year, Taraki was executed and replaced by Hafizullah Amin, but rising insurgency from the country as well as China, Pakistan and Iran, known collectively as the Mujahideen, soon led to the newly established DRA government. will become a problem for ,

The DRA largely requested Soviet support, and the Soviets did much to their dismay. Due to heavy financial aid and arms supplies to the Mujahideen by the US and Saudi Arabia, the rebel forces became too much for the Soviet Union, eventually forcing them to withdraw their troops from the country in 1989.