"In memory of comrade Issa (Yousef Momand)"

29 March 2010. A World to Win News Service. We have received the sad news that after resisting serious health problems for several years the veteran revolutionary comrade Yousef Momand from Afghanistan died of a heart attack in Frankfurt, Germany. Following is an excerpt from a statement issued by the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan on 11 March.

Comrade Yousef Momand, the secretary of the Committee of Supporters of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan in Europe, passed away. The kind and sincere comrade is no longer among us but his memory will be alive and stay with us.


Comrade Yousef was very ill with diabetes and related heart problems. But even after several operations, he did not leave his responsibilities and tasks and despite many pressures he remained in the trench of revolutionary ideas and struggle until his last moments.


Comrade Yousef started his political activities when he was a student in Kabul University, where he became one of the activists associated with Shola Javid. (Shola Javid – Eternal Flame – was the very popular newspaper of the Maoist-led Progressive Youth Movement in the 1960s that trained a generation of Maoists in Afghanistan. Many veteran Maoists first became involved in politics through this movement.)


After the 1975 coup d'état by the pro-Soviet revisionist party, like many other Shola Javid activists, comrade Yusef's life was in danger and he finally had to leave the country. Nevertheless he continued in the revolutionary struggle and joined the organization called Struggle for the Salvation of Afghanistan (one of the groups that united to form the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan) . He participated in revolutionary democratic activities in Europe, first in the Union of Students and Afghans abroad, and then in the National Democratic Organization of Afghan Refugees and also in the United Front against Imperialism and Reaction, in which along with his other comrades he played a leading role.


After the start of the process of unifying the communist (MLM) movement of Afghanistan, comrade Yousef was one of the first to support this process. A short while after the Unity Congress of the Communist (MLM) Movement (in Afghanistan) he took the responsibility of serving as secretary of the Committee of European Supporters of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan and he remained at this position until the end.


We are determined to turn the sorrow and sadness due to the loss of this veteran and experienced comrade Yousef Momand into a struggling force and to keep alive his memory as a revolutionary Maoist who remained committed to the revolution and the line of the Party until the last moments of his life