Afghan at UN conference seeks asylum in West

October 27, 1980

Afghan government delegate Akhtar Mohammed Paktiawal, who denounced the Soviet intervention in his country at a UNESCO conference in Belgrade, flew to West Germany and asked for political asylum. Mr. Paktiawal told a conference of 150 nations earlier that the Soviet Union was dominating his country and killing and repressing its people. Stopping here on his way to Frankfurt, he told journalists he had made his unexpected statement "because someone had to speak up for my people."