Many Kabul officials want to leave, ex-editor says

Ali Muhammad Baryalai, assistant editor of afghanistan's only English-language newspaper, who fled the country earlier this month, said most government officials in Kabul who are not members of the ruling People's Democratic Party are also trying to leave. He said urban Afghans who were initially sympathetic to socialist ideals and who had backed Babrak Karmal before he became President last December were disillusioned.

"If socialism means killing, looting other people's property, and Russian intervention, they do not like it," he said. People are not joining the People's Democratic Party, he said, "because they see Babrak Karmal's policies are not succeeding."