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"The USA stole money from the Afghans": protest against the US plans in Kabul
Photo:
Hussein Malla/AP
US President Joe Biden's announcement that he would use billions of dollars in Afghan currency reserves to compensate victims of terrorism caused outrage in Afghanistan.
Former politicians, academics and representatives of the ruling militant Islamist Taliban expressed their displeasure on Saturday.
The White House announced on Friday that Afghanistan's currency reserves of around seven billion dollars (equivalent to 6.14 billion euros) frozen in the United States should be divided in half: a good 3.5 billion dollars would be with a view to lawsuits from withheld from relatives of victims of attacks such as September 11, 2001.
The rest should be made available for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
No payments to the Taliban
The amount intended for Afghanistan is in addition to the US emergency aid already underway, it said.
The support should not benefit the Taliban government in Kabul.
The senior Taliban spokesman Mohammed Naeem Wardak spoke on Twitter on Saturday of a "theft".
The greatest and most shameful defeat is "when a moral and a military defeat come together," he wrote.
Other voices from Afghanistan also accused US President Joe Biden via social media of misusing money that Afghans are entitled to.
"Your country has been destroyed," said Sandra Bodley, whose niece died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"As a 9/11 family member, I feel that all available funds should go to Afghanistan in aid."
Millions of people are at risk of starvation
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is catastrophic.
According to the UN, millions of people are at risk of starvation.
In view of the crisis, the UN Security Council decided in December to allow humanitarian aid for Afghanistan despite existing sanctions.
Chalid Pajenda, the former Afghan finance minister, warned on Twitter that should the foreign exchange reserves held in the US be spent, the Afghan currency would depreciate.
"This would be the biggest and most irreparable blow to the Afghan economy," he predicted.
Afghan political scientist Mohsin Amin tweeted that the plan basically means Afghans get their own money back in humanitarian aid while the economy stalls.
Nine billion dollars outside the country
The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August last year.
The United States and international organizations then turned off the money supply to the country.
According to US information, a total of around nine billion dollars in Afghan currency reserves were outside the country at the time
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around two billion dollars of which were distributed among other things in Europe, including Germany, and the United Arab Emirates.
The money also reflects two decades of financial support for Afghanistan by the United States and the international community, it said.
The White House said Friday, "Many US victims of terrorism, including family members of victims who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, have made claims against the Taliban and are pursuing Afghan central bank funds in federal courts."
Back in power after 20 years
Around 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the Word Trade Center in New York and the US Department of Defense near Washington.
The Taliban, who were ruling Afghanistan at the time, had given shelter to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the attacks.
That is why the USA invaded Afghanistan at the end of 2001 and drove the Taliban out of power.
The US military operation ended last summer after 20 years with the Taliban's humiliating return to power amid US troop withdrawals.
mbo/dpa
