Former Afghan president Ghani defends refugee decision | Stories of Ashraf Ghani

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said he has nothing to do but abruptly leave Kabul as the Taliban shut down and reject the peace deal, and challenge the accounts of Afghan and US officials.

Ghani said in an interview with BBC on Thursday that a consultant had given him a few minutes to decide to leave Kabul. He also denied allegations that he left Afghanistan with millions of rupees stolen.

Suddenly and the secret of Ghani departure on August 15 they left the city without a trace as US and NATO troops were on the verge of extinction 20 years later.

“That morning, I did not know that by evening I would leave,” Ghani told BBC radio.

His comments contradicted other issues.

Former President Hamid Karzai told The Associated Press in an earlier interview this month that Ghani’s departure had jeopardized the chances of government negotiators, including him and peace activist Abdullah Abdullah, to reach an 11-hour agreement with of the Taliban, who volunteered. being outside the capital.

After summoning the then security minister, Bismillah Khan, the interior minister and police chief, and finding that they had all fled the capital, Karzai said he had called on the Taliban in Kabul “to protect the people from invading the country. shops ”.

But Ghani, in a radio interview with British Prime Minister Sir Nick Carter, a former security chief, said he had fled “to prevent the destruction of Kabul”, saying two rival Taliban factions were attacking the city and were ready to enter and pay for it. a bitter war for domination.

There was no evidence of Taliban involvement in the rival factions mentioned by Ghani.

Ghani’s escape means a systematic transfer of power is not possible, allowing Taliban to simply fill in the gaps. Many Afghans are now chanting Ghani, who is in the United Arab Emirates, simply for giving them to the Taliban.

The Taliban, who had been there days before pushing in Kabul swept away many parts of the country as Afghan government forces melted away or surrendered, quickly seizing the palace.

According to aid workers, who were not named because they wanted to speak privately and who were present at the time, the Taliban moved to protect their groups.

However, the occupation of the Taliban was met with widespread fear and the desire of many to flee the poorest of the poor even though billions of dollars were spent in the 20 years under US-sponsored governments.

In a BBC interview, Ghani denied allegations that he had left Afghanistan with stolen money.

Afghan Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko has been tasked with investigating the allegations.

Afghanistan’s successive governments, as well as foreign and local Afghan contractors, have been accused of corruption, and many of Sopko’s reports cover up serious wrongdoing.

Washington spends $ 146bn per rehab in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, al-Qaeda-affiliated with its leader, Osama bin Laden.

However, even before the group returned to August, poverty in Afghanistan was 54 percent.

Earlier this week, the Crime and Corruption Bureau of Investigation Report, a research institute with 150 journalists in more than 30 countries, named Ghani as one of the world’s most corrupt leaders.

Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko has been voted into office, with Ghani, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz one of the most outspoken.

After being told by his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib that his security forces could not protect him, Ghani said he decided to leave.

Mohib, who was “absolutely terrified”, gave him only two minutes to decide to leave, Ghani said, insisting he did not know where he would be taken even if he boarded a helicopter to prepare for takeoff.

Ghani did not address the immediate and immediate collapse of the Afghan army in the weeks leading up to the Taliban’s ouster, but criticized the United States’ agreement with the Taliban in 2020 over the fall of his government.

The treaty set out the requirements for the final withdrawal of the remaining US and NATO troops to end the longest war in the US. It also demanded the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which Ghani said strengthened the army.