Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan

Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan (Persian: سازمان آزادی‌بخش مردم افغانستان‎, Sazman-e Azadibakhsh-e Mardom-e Afghanistan, SAMA) was a Maoist insurgent group operating in Afghanistan, and based in Parwan Province.[1] It was the main leftist politico-military organization in Afghanistan that fought in opposition to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime and the Soviets. SAMA was led by Majid Kalakani, who intended to turn SAMA into a Maoist styled United Front of forces opposed to the Soviet-backed PDPA.

Liberation Organization of the People of Afghanistan
Sazman e Azadibakhsh e Mardom e Afghanistan
Participant in Soviet–Afghan War
Active1977–1989
IdeologyMaoism
National Democratic Revolution
Marxism-Leninism
LeadersMajid Kalakani
Opponent(s) Soviet Union
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Hezb-i Islami

SAMA was a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist group with links to the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement[2] although not all of its members were Maoists, it rejected the Three Worlds Theory in opposition to Faiz Ahmad's ALO. SAMA had its origins in the Shalleh-ye Javiyd Maoist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

SAMA was known for its spectacular guerrilla attacks. They often recruited armed outlaws and bandits as guerrillas. SAMA guerrillas attacked Soviet convoys, robbed the government of money supplied to it by the Soviets, and carried out assassinations. In one instance SAMA fighters dressed in army uniforms broke into a military base and looted it of its weapons, and even kidnapped a Soviet general.

After Kalakani's death SAMA stagnated and declined, fighting between SAMA and Hekmatyar's Party of Islam had driven SAMA out of Kalakan and Koh Daman by 1983.[3] By 1983 government forces had infiltrated the SAMA organization and attempted to encourage SAMA to join the Government. When this did not occur the government arrested 60 of the organization's leaders. The new SAMA leadership entered into discussions with government and begun to abandon Maoism and its strategy for New Democracy, causing splits and desertions occurred as well as the emergence of new Maoist groups. By 1989 the organization ceased to exist.

References
  1. AFGHANISTAN: History, Diplomacy and Journalism: History, Diplomacy ..., Volume 1 by Dr. M. Halim Tanwir
  2. "Interview with Afghan revolutionary", A World to Win, June 1986, pp. 48-56
  3. Military Intervention, Stabilisation and Peace: The Search for Stability by Christian Dennys
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