Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev him, twenty minutes before the deposition of the coffin he was asked by the Kremlin custodian Semyon Shornikov to lower the coffin simultaneously with the chime of bells. The funeral was attended by 32 heads of state, 15 heads of government, 14 foreign ministers and four princes. Among the foreign dignitaries to attend the funeral were President and General Secretary Heng Samrin of Kampuchea, Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy of France, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, President Babrak Karmal of Afghanistan, President Fidel Castro of Cuba, Foreign Minister Huang Hua of China, Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, First
Babrak Karmal his former associates supported Dostum. Those who spoke with Karmal during this period noted his lack of interest in politics. In June 1992 it was reported that he had died in a plane crash along with Dostum, although these reports later proved to be false. In early December 1996, Karmal died in Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital from liver cancer. The date of his death was reported by some sources as 1 December and by others as 3 December. The Taliban summed up his rule as follows: [he] committed all kinds of crimes during his illegitimate rule ... God inflicted on