The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Local forces in Afghanistan - Hardly any cases of targeted persecution

2022-01-20T05:13:07.901Z


Local forces in Afghanistan - Hardly any cases of targeted persecution Created: 2022-01-20 05:52 Fighters from the militant Islamist Taliban's special forces arrive at Kabul airport. (Archive image) © Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP/dpa After NATO pulled out of Afghanistan, there was concern about what the Taliban would do to local forces. In the meantime, it has become clear that there is hardly any r


Local forces in Afghanistan - Hardly any cases of targeted persecution

Created: 2022-01-20 05:52

Fighters from the militant Islamist Taliban's special forces arrive at Kabul airport.

(Archive image) © Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP/dpa

After NATO pulled out of Afghanistan, there was concern about what the Taliban would do to local forces.

In the meantime, it has become clear that there is hardly any reliable evidence of systematic persecution.

Berlin - Half a year after the withdrawal of the German armed forces from Afghanistan, fears of a targeted persecution of the local employees have not yet been confirmed.

The Federal Development Ministry (BMZ) is "aware of a specific case in which a local employee of German development cooperation was detained for a week," said a spokesman for the ministry of the German Press Agency.

"Furthermore, the BMZ has no knowledge of its own that local German official development cooperation staff in Afghanistan have been threatened, abused or killed by the Taliban since August 2021."

The spokesman said that the BMZ was aware of individual reports from local staff about such incidents.

However, these could not be verified, also due to a lack of German presence on site.

"No verifiable information"

The Ministry of Defense said: "The Federal Ministry of Defense has no verifiable information about a general threat to former local Bundeswehr personnel since the Taliban took power, including a statement by the Taliban in this regard." or family members in Germany and aid organizations report attacks or threats by the Taliban against former local Bundeswehr personnel or their family members.

more on the subject

More asylum seekers than since 2017

Strack-Zimmermann: Consider heavier armament in Mali

Bundeswehr operation in the Middle East: where is Iraq headed?

The Bundeswehr withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of June 2021 after almost 20 years and took part in an evacuation mission for those in need of protection for eleven days in August after the Taliban triumphed.

By the turn of the year, well over 5,000 people had been admitted to Germany.

Most recently, more than 28,000 people were still waiting for the opportunity to leave the country.

There is ample evidence that there are serious human rights violations by the militant Islamist rulers.

“We stand up emphatically to the Taliban for respect for human rights and formulate concrete expectations of them.

We also specifically address human rights violations that we learn about from the Taliban,” the BMZ responded.

people plagued by famine

Another group appears to be in the sights of the new rulers: in December, Western states sharply criticized the kidnapping of former members of the Afghan security forces under the new rulers.

The reports from the country also say that there are numerous attacks in which Afghan soldiers or police officers have disappeared.

The people of Afghanistan are also plagued by severe famine.

While the federal government is trying to bring existing local staff and their families from the country to Germany, new employees are already being taken on in Afghanistan.

In order to "implement programs of general interest to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe" on behalf of the development ministry, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and non-governmental organizations "hired a limited number of new local staff in Afghanistan," said the spokesman.

And: “The BMZ discussed the issue of security for the local staff with the non-governmental organizations and the GIZ.

The BMZ currently has no information that would suggest that these local workers are at risk.” dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-20

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-12T18:35:53.163Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.