The Afghan heist of the century by US
THE start of 21st century depicted the worsened picture of Afghanistan with floods of humanitarian, administrative, financial, political and social crises.
The incidents of August last year in Kabul accelerated the state of uncertainty and humanitarian crisis.
This is not the peak of worsening to Afghans; the White House has suddenly deviated from the Doha agreement and left the new regime in Kabul un-recognized.
Moreover, new administration of President Biden has engulfed the new regime in Kabul in harsh sanctions and even frozen its foreign assets.
Adding salt to the injury of suppressed Afghans, President Biden has recently issued an executive order which stated that the $7 billion foreign reserves of “Da Afghan Bank (DAB)” will be dissected.
An amount of US$ 3.5 billion will be paid to victims of 9/11 and the rest will be sent to Afghans for humanitarian assistance via UNO administered trusts.
These assets were considered as the last hope to stabilize the crippling economy of Afghanistan.
Unfortunately, the irrational decision by White House will further worsen the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, where 90% of the population is already living under the poverty line.
Considering the humanitarian crisis of Afghanistan, the UNICEF stated that, “due to malnutrition, 3.2 million Afghan children will suffer this winter and a million may die”.
Christopher Garnier, Project Coordinator of Doctors Without Border (MSF) in District Herat narrated, “After 40 years of war, malnutrition is a perennial problem in Afghanistan, exacerbated in recent years by severe droughts, and since the summer, when the Taliban swept back into power, long standing sanctions against the group have deprived the new state of huge sums”.
Apart from it, hundreds of Afghans are selling their kidneys to earn bread for their hungry kith and kin.
Moreover, David Millband, Executive Officer of the International Rescue Committee stated that, “the US and international sanctions have caused a catastrophic -of-choice imposed on the Afghan people”.
The American heist on Afghan assets is criticized by several humanitarian organizations and human right activists throughout the world.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wan Wenbin tweeted, “Without the consent of the Afghan people, the US wilfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own.
This is no different from the conduct of bandits.The latest example has once again laid bare that the rules-based order the US claims to champion is not the kind of rules and order to defend the weak and uphold justice, but to maintain its own hegemony.
As the culprit of Afghan crisis, the US should not exacerbate the suffering of Afghan people.
It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country”.
In this context, Biden’s decision is an attempt to further destabilize Afghanistan.Afghanis are the real victim of the US-led atrocities by occupying Afghanistan for the last 20 years.
This may be unjust and cruel act by the US and it is like to push Afghanistan to a state of civil war and horrific food and humanitarian crises.
It will further affect peace and stability of the world in general and the region in particular.The said foreign reserves are the legal assets of Afghan people not of the Taliban.
In this context, John Sifton, Asian Director at the US advocacy group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated, “It will sound generous to allocate $3.5 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, but it should be remembered that the entire $7 billion already legally belong to the Afghan people”.
He further added, “How a country’s sovereign wealth can be used to satisfy the debt of an entity that is not recognized by the sovereign government.
Even if the USA gave it to a humanitarian trust fund, current restrictions on Afghanistan’s banking sector make it virtually impossible to send or spend the money inside the country”.
In the light of above discussion, most of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the US as it is solely responsible for all the mess and crisis on Afghan soil.
Therefore, it is the high time to unleash the frozen assets of Afghanistan for the development of Afghans.
The humanitarian organizations of the world need to convince the US through the channels of UN human rights resolutions to ease economic restrictions on Afghanistan to support and stabilize the Afghan economy.
Moreover, if the US really wants to see a stable Afghanistan, then it must recognize the new regime in Kabul which in return will open opportunities of cooperation and prosperity for Afghanistan and will help stabilization of the region.
—The author is a Researcher at Balochistan Think-Tank Network (BTTN), BUITEMS, Quetta.
