Afghanistan’s former president on Sunday referred to as a White House order to unfreeze $3.5 billion in Afghan property held within the US for households of 9/11 victims an atrocity in opposition to the Afghan individuals.
Former President Hamid Karzai at a packed information convention sought the assistance of Americans, significantly the households of the hundreds killed within the 9/11 terrorist assaults, to press President Joe Biden to rescind final week’s order. He referred to as it “unjust and unfair,” saying Afghans have additionally been victims of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden was dropped at Afghanistan by Afghan warlords after being from Sudan in 1996. Those similar warlords would later ally with the US-led coalition to aust the Taliban in 2001. However, it was Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar who refused at hand over bin Laden to the US after the devastating 9/11 assaults that killed hundreds.
“The people of Afghanistan share the pain of the American people, share the pain of the families and loved ones of those who died, who lost their lives in the tragedy of September 11,” mentioned Karzai. “We commiserate with them (but) Afghan people are as much victims as those families who lost their lives. … Withholding money or seizing money from the people of Afghanistan in their name is unjust and unfair and an atrocity against Afghan people.”
Afghan protesters maintain placards and shout slogans in opposition to US throughout a protest condemning President Joe Biden’s order. (AP)
President Biden’s order signed final Friday freed $7 billion in Afghan property at present held within the United States, to be divided between 9/11 victims and humanitarian help to Afghans.
Sept. 11 victims and their households have authorized claims in opposition to the Taliban and the $7 billion within the US banking system. The $3.5 billion was put aside for a US court docket to determine whether or not it may be used to settle claims by households of 9/11 victims. US courts would additionally must log off earlier than the discharge of humanitarian help cash.
We “ask the US courts to do the opposite, to return the Afghan money back to the Afghan people,” mentioned Karzai. “This money does not belong to any government,,, this money belongs to the people of Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, Biden’s order requires the $3.5 billion allotted to humanitarian help to be put right into a belief and be used to help Afghans, bypassing their Taliban rulers.
But Karzai demanded all $7 billion be returned to Afghanistan’s central financial institution to additional its financial coverage. He argued in opposition to giving Afghan reserves to worldwide help organizations to supply humanitarian help.
“You give us our own money so that it can be spent for those foreigners who come here, to pay their salaries, to give it to (non-governmental organisations),” he mentioned.
Taliban fighters stand guards exterior a financial institution in Kabul. (AP)
Afghanistan’s economic system is teetering on the point of collapse after worldwide cash stopped coming into the nation with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban. Last month, the United Nations made a $5 billion attraction for Afghanistan. The UN warns that 1 million youngsters are at risk of ravenous and 90% of Afghans reside under the poverty degree of simply $1.90 a day.
Karzai was Afghanistan’s first democratically elected president after the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban in 2001. He served till 2014 earlier than Ashraf Ghani, who fled the nation on August 15, leaving the doorways open for the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Karzai was extremely thought to be embracing all of Afghanistan’s many ethnic teams however his administration, like subsequent Afghan administrations, was dogged by prices of widespread corruption.
Karzai spoke to a packed press convention inside his sprawling compound within the capital of Kabul. Dozens of Afghanistan’s Pashto- and Persian-language journalists jockeyed for house in a second-floor convention room with greater than a dozen tv cameras.
Karzai used the information convention to press the nation’s Taliban rulers and their opponents to discover a method to come collectively. He lobbied for the standard Afghan grand council, or loya jirga, as a way to seek out consensus and set up a extra consultant administration.
“We, as Afghans, and the current acting Islamic government must do our best to not give America or any other country any excuse to be against us,” he mentioned.
Anger has been rising in Afghanistan since Friday’s White House announcement. Demonstrators marched once more in Kabul on Sunday demanding the cash be returned to Afghanistan. However, the Taliban, who’ve additionally condemned Biden’s order, dispersed protesters as they tried to collect close to the town’s Eid Gah mosque.
Meanwhile the United Nations Assistance Mission in a tweet late Sunday mentioned 4 girls activists who disappeared greater than two weeks in the past have returned residence.
In late January Tamana Zaryabi Paryani, and her three sisters disappeared, allegedly seized by a gaggle of males after they participated in an illustration in opposition to the pressured carrying of the Islamic hijab.
The Taliban denied taking them.
“The UN welcomes the encouraging reports that the four ‘disappeared’ Afghan women activists, some missing for weeks, are being enabled to return home. Their well-being and safety is of paramount concern,” the UN company mentioned.
International media, nevertheless, has reported that a number of British nationals and an American are nonetheless being held by the Taliban, together with freelance cameraman Peter Jouvenal, a twin British and German citizen who has coated Afghanistan for greater than 40 years. He has been lacking since December and the Taliban haven’t responded to queries by the Associated Press.
His spouse, an Afghan, has issued a plea for his launch.
US nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan mentioned on Sunday CNN‘s `State of the Union,’ that an American was in Taliban custody together with “a number of UK nationals.” He gave no additional info, saying solely that Washington was “actively working to get his release.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
