The following information was provided in 19 January 1995 and 26 January 1995 telephone interviews with a representative of the Afghan Association of Toronto. Formed in 1982, this association is a non-profit organization that serves 1,500 families. In addition to being a community organization, it is also a refugee advocacy group and helps Afghan refugees settle and integrate into Canadian society. The representative contacted by the DIRB is an Afghan who has 15 years-experience working with Afghan refugees in both Canada and Germany. He has also been involved with refugee advocacy groups. The information he has provided below comes not only from his own personal knowledge and experience, but also from the knowledge and experience shared with him by colleagues and recent Afghan arrivals to the Afghan Association of Toronto.

The source was unable to provide information on the relationship and involvement of KhAD and the civilian police force from 1987 to 1992. He provided instead general information on KhAD, its creation and its structure.

KhAD was created by the communist government in 1978 on the model of the KGB. Its members were trained and supervised by the KGB and became more "sophisticated" after the September 1979 Soviet invasion. Soviet advisors were always visible and involved in KhAD operations.

Functioning as an independent department, KhAD was accountable to and dealt directly with the prime minister's office. During the government of President Muhammad Najibullah from Nov. 1986 to April 1992, KhAD became the ministry of national security. The representative was unsure of the date of this change.

Based on media reports and other sources, as well as information provided by recently arrived Afghan refugees to Canada and by Afghan refugees who have been in Canada a longer time, it appears as though KhAD consisted of three levels: (a) the external affairs KhAD which dealt with international intelligence and counter-intelligence; (b) the military KhAD which dealt with military intelligence; and (c) the civilian KhAD which dealt with all other aspects of KhAD. In addition to its trained agents working in the civilian departments and its official staff working within the military, KhAD also had informants, working mostly undercover, who were found throughout the society. Information was obtained either "willingly or unwillingly" from these informants.

KhAD carried out investigations of detained and arrested people, collected information on anti-government activists and opponents, and infiltrated the ranks of the mujahideen and the resistance fighters, in order to defeat and control them. It was also widely accepted that human rights abuses were carried out against prisoners in KhAD's custody.

For further information, please consult the section on KhAD and its relationship and involvement with the civilian police force in the attached information package provided to the DIRB by Mr. Anthony Arnold. The first part of the package includes informal notes by Mr. Arnold on short notice at the request of the IRB. Mr. Arnold is a former CIA officer who spent two years (1974-1976) in Afghanistan and has written the following three books about Afghanistan and its relations with Russia: Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1981 and 1985), Afghanistan's Two-Party Communism: Parcham and Khalq (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1983) and The Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan's Role in the Fall of the Soviet Empire (Novato: Presidio Press, 1993). He also wrote contributing chapters for many books on Afghanistan and South Asia during the 1980s and early 1990s. Mr. Arnold has no present academic affiliation.

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.

Afghan Association of Toronto. 26 January 1995. Telephone interview with representative.

_____. 19 January 1995. Telephone interview with representative.

Arnold, Anthony, former CIA officer and Afghanistan specialist, California. 19 January 1995. Package of information faxed to the DIRB in response to various questions on Afghanistan.