Afghanistan debacle: Bundeswehr representative is "angry" - Seehofer defends procedure despite "downside"

The criticism of the German Afghanistan policy continues: A Bundeswehr representative is appalled - Horst Seehofer and Armin Laschet speak up.

• Angela Merkel's federal government is still heavily criticized for the failures in Afghanistan * - the Bundeswehr Association is making allegations.

• Interior Minister Horst Seehofer refers to "unbureaucratic" help in an emergency - but also to "downside".

• Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet * (CDU) also speaks out.

  He criticizes the USA and makes a demand to the Taliban.

Berlin / Kabul - Even one day after Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) government declaration, the criticism of Germany's Afghanistan policy continues - on the contrary: The chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, André Wüstner, was “angry” on Thursday and stopped Federal government made serious failures.

The Greens criticized the cabinet's possibly unrealistic evacuation hopes.

Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) defended the fact that local workers and those willing to evacuate are now flown out of Kabul without major tests - not without referring to a “downside” of the measure.

Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet * (CDU) also spoke up.

He warned that the events should "never repeat themselves".

Laschet also made a request to the radical Islamic Taliban.

In view of warnings of terrorist attacks and the withdrawal of US troops, the German armed forces only have a few hours left for their evacuation flights from Kabul.

The Bundeswehr helicopters relocated to the Afghan capital for rescue operations were flown back to Tashkent last night, as Inspector General Eberhard Zorn said in Berlin on Thursday.

Afghanistan: Bundeswehr Association boss raises allegations - armed forces have to "eliminate mistakes"

On Thursday, Wüstner criticized the Radioeins station, most of which made "dealing with the local staff angry and the federal government's lack of concept since the end of April".

The Greens expressed doubts about the plan to organize civil evacuation flights from Afghanistan * after the end of the military mission.

It was not surprising that the radical Islamic Taliban took advantage of the “power vacuum” in Afghanistan after the international troops had withdrawn in May, said the head of the Bundeswehr association.

"We were rather surprised: the surprise of politics." Many experts and the armed forces had "pointed out this situation in recent months and years".

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The chairman of the German Armed Forces Association, André Wüstner (archive picture).

© Metodi Popow / Imago

To the former local forces of the Bundeswehr *, Wüstner said: “For many days people have been calling us day and night, not only from Afghanistan, also Afghan people who have now been living in Germany for several years, who of course fear for their relatives, and in In a certain way you are helpless. ”He is certain“ that the Bundeswehr is trying everything to pick up these people and also the mistake that has been made, which can be made in this chaos, that one is trying to eradicate it “, Said Wüstner.

Afghanistan evacuations: Seehofer now refers to "emergency situation"

Seehofer defended the current procedure in Kabul on Thursday in a different way: In view of the current emergency situation, a security check of individuals could only take place in Germany. “And that also has the downside: then the people are there.” Even if the number of cases in the single-digit range has only been low so far, “they are there and we cannot deport them to Afghanistan now, so we can just monitor. ”Nevertheless, in an emergency, it is right to act unbureaucratically in order to get former local staff from German institutions and people with special protection needs out of the country.

These include, for example, Afghan women who have been particularly committed to human rights.

This does not contradict the general goal of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to control and limit migration to Germany.

Among other things, Seehofer was recently accused of having postponed an evacuation of the local staff in order to avoid a migration debate about the federal election campaign.

In any case, the Bundeswehr captain Marcus Grotian was horrified this week by the federal government's actions.

Seehofer on Afghanistan: "Anyone who wants an unbureaucratic solution takes a certain risk"

With regard to individual deported criminals who had managed to get to Germany via evacuation flights, Seehofer said that they had forged their documents. "If you want a non-bureaucratic solution, you also get a certain risk, but in an emergency we take the risk," he added. However, there have recently been reports of a local worker who was turned away at the airport with her family - apparently wrongly.

Seehofer assured that even after the end of the military evacuation, the federal government would endeavor to quickly take in former local staff and other particularly vulnerable people from Afghanistan.

"The most important thing is the talks with the Taliban so that people can fly out safely," said the CSU politician on Thursday after a meeting of the Bundestag interior committee in Berlin.

The Greens doubt this option.

Security politician Tobias Lindner pointed out two problems: "One is, there is no longer a civil airport in Kabul - it has been badly demolished," said Lindner on Inforadio.

"First of all, it would have to be a matter of rebuilding civilian flight operations."

Afghanistan: Laschet is deeply disappointed in Biden's USA - and makes demands on the Taliban

Laschet castigated the approaching end of the evacuation flights from Kabul as another "defeat of the West" against the militant Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan. The fact that the USA in particular, which once invented an airlift to Berlin for the Germans after the Second World War, would not be able to stay in Afghanistan longer than August 31, “is a bitter disappointment”. Even after August 31st, the goal must be to get people out of Afghanistan by civil aviation or by land.

For German foreign policy, this means: "Something like that must never happen again," said the CDU politician. He repeated a well-known demand: In future, a National Security Council in the Federal Chancellery will be necessary. The evacuation operation of the German armed forces is expected to end shortly due to the imminent withdrawal of the US armed forces from the airport and the growing terrorist threat.

Laschet said that women who are particularly threatened and easily identifiable, such as bloggers and human rights activists, must be helped first. "We expect the Taliban to grant the women safe conduct." But negotiations must also be carried out with the Taliban. There is no other alternative. There could be no cooperation with the Taliban if fundamental rights were not respected. (

AFP / dpa / fn

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