The following information is based on a telephone conversation with an Afghanistan specialist at Portland State University in Oregon on 2 May 1997.

Members of the Afghan Mellat party were mainly "persona non grata" throughout most of the period of communist rule in Afghanistan, in the sense that it was common knowledge ( though officially denied ( that they would be arrested or killed if their whereabouts became known to the authorities.

An Afghanistan specialist at Ohio State University, contacted by telephone on 7 May 1997, told the DIRB that the Afghan Mellat was operating as a completely underground organization throughout the period from the Soviet invasion to the resignation of President Najibullah in 1992.

The following information comes from an Afghanistan specialist at Boston University, contacted by telephone on 5 May 1997.

The Afghan Mellat party experienced an internal split about 1980. At that time, some party members went into exile in Pakistan and some stayed in Afghanistan. Also at that time, some members began to refer to the party as the Social Democratic party. In May 1983 several Afghan Mellat Party members were arrested for anti-state activities, and in July 1983 the Afghan government announced that it had abolished the Afghan Mellat Party.

The Afghan Mellat Party was referred to as "disbanded" in an Associated Press report of 13 October 1979 and in a New York Times report of 14 October 1979. The reports contained no other information about the Afghan Mellat Party.

According to Rosanne Klass, editor of Afghanistan: The Great Game Revisited, the Afghan Mellat leadership "inside Afghanistan was decimated" after the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) coup in 1978, and the party then operated in exile as a Social Democratic party (1987, 452).

In Political Handbook of the World: 1991, the "Social Democratic Party," headed by Muhammad Amin Wakman (for more information about Muhammad Amin Wakman, please see Response to Information Request AFG26804.E) is listed among the opposition parties and groups of Afghanistan (1991, 8).

In Political Parties of Asia and The Pacific, the "Afghan Social Democrat Party," headed by Muhammad Amin Wakman from March 1979, is described as an anti-Communist party which had been underground since late 1979 (1985, 14).

For more details on relations between the Afghan Mellat Party and the Afghan and Soviet authorities between 1979 and 1992, please see the attachment below.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Associated Press (AP). 13 October 1979. PM Cycle. Barry Shlachter. "International News." (NEXIS)

Klass, Rosanne. 1987. "Pre-1978 Afghan Political Organizations and their Present Status." Afghanistan: The Great Game Revisited. Edited by Klass. New York: Freedom House.

The New York Times. 14 October 1979. The New York Times Company: Abstracts. (NEXIS)

Political Handbook of the World: 1991. 1991. Edited by Arthur S. Banks. Binghamton, NY: CSA Publications.

Political Parties of Asia and The Pacific: Afghanistan-Korea (ROK).1985. Edited by Haruhiro Fukui. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Professor of anthropology specializing in Afghanistan, Boston University. 5 May 1997. Telephone interview.

Professor of political science specializing in Afghanistan, Ohio State University. 7 May 1997. Telephone interview.

Professor of political science specializing in Afghanistan, Portland State University. 2 May 1997. Telephone interview.

United Press International (UPI). 13 December, 1980, BC Cycle. Suzanne F. Green. "Hundreds of Arrests Reported in Afghan Crackdown." (NEXIS)