Afghanistan: Former president Ashraf Ghani describes fleeing the Taliban’s victory march in Kabul.
London:
Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani on Thursday described fleeing the Taliban’s victory march in Kabul, saying the decision had been made in “minutes” and that he did not know he would leave the country until when taking off.
Ghani told the BBC’s Radio 4 “Today” program that on the morning of August 15, 2021, the day the Islamists took control of the capital and his own government fell apart, he “didn’t spare a word” that this was will be his last day in Afghanistan. .
But by that afternoon, security at the presidential palace had “collapsed”, he said.
“If I stand my ground, they’ll all be killed, and they won’t be able to protect me,” Ghani said in an interview conducted by former UK Defense Chief of Staff General Nick Carter.
His national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, was “really terrified,” Ghani said. “He didn’t give me more than two minutes.”
He said his initial instructions were to fly by helicopter to the southeastern city of Khost.
But Khost failed in a flash offensive by Islamist forces that toppled provincial capitals across the country in the days leading up to the international force’s withdrawal, which took place at the end of August.
The eastern city of Jalalabad, on the border with Pakistan, has also fallen, he said.
“I don’t know where we’re going,” Ghani said.
“It was only when we took off that it became clear that we were leaving.”
Ghani has been in the United Arab Emirates since then.
He has been heavily criticized in Afghanistan for leaving, with Afghans now trapped under harsh Taliban rule accusing him of deserting them – and taking millions of dollars in cash, a statement said. father, which he “unequivocally” denied again on Thursday.
The former World Bank official has made several statements before about his departure, admitting that he owes the people of Afghanistan an explanation. Thursday was his first interview.
He said his first concern was stopping brutal street fighting in the capital, where tens of thousands of refugees have fled violence elsewhere in the country.
And he said his decision to leave was “the hardest”.
“I had to sacrifice myself to save Kabul and expose what it was: a violent coup, not a political settlement.”
But even if he stayed, he said, he could not change the outcome, which has seen the Taliban establish their new regime as the country faces one of a number of crises. The worst humanitarian in history.
“Unfortunately, I was painted all black,” he said. “It has become an American problem. Not an Afghanistan problem.”
“My life’s work was destroyed, my values were trampled on, and I was made a scapegoat,” he said.
The Afghans were blaming him “rightly”, he said. “I totally understand that anger, because I share that anger.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from the syndication feed.)
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