Winter of despair in Afghanistan

Tuesday 9th November, 2021

Afghanistan is experiencing a severe food shortage, and the situation is expected to take a turn for the worse during the current winter due to lack of funds for food purchases; the Biden administration has frozen the Afghan Central Bank assets in the US, we are told. Gwynne Dyer, in his column today, explains why the US has resorted to asset freezing at the expense of the poor Afghans.

There is no gainsaying that the Taliban should be made to respect democracy and human rights. But that must not be done at the expense of the ordinary Afghans, and the US and its allies responsible for creating worse monsters and propped up dictators who perpetrated savage crimes against civilians have no moral right to talk about democracy and human rights either in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

The US-led war in Iraq and subsequent sanctions left hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead besides countless others who perished. A UNICEF survey published in 2000 revealed that sanctions alone had caused the mortality rate of Iraqi children under the age of five to double. Iraq was not allowed to import even chlorine for water purification although waterborne diseases were killing thousands of its children.

The US cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the current mess in Afghanistan. It backed terror groups in that country to drive the Russians away, and later some of the US-backed terrorists banded together as the Taliban, who according to Washington harboured al Qaeda responsible for the 9/11 attacks. So, the creator is responsible for the creature’s actions.

The US has already turned several countries into hellholes on the pretext of democratising them, Libya being one of them. It must not make the situation in Afghanistan any more tragic. If what is being feared plays out in Afghanistan with corpses piling up, due to food shortages, etc., US President Joe Biden and his associates will also have blood on their hands. The Taliban will have enough food, and only the poor will starve.

Strangely, the UNHRC, which pounces on smaller nations, at the drop of a hat, and issues stinging statements condemning alleged human rights violations, has done precious little to help the Afghans who have been suffering due to the actions of both the Taliban and the US.

As for Afghanistan, the US and its allies are doing exactly the opposite of what they did in Sri Lanka, where they treated terrorists with kid gloves, and urged governments to send food and medicine to the LTTE-controlled areas, knowing that the Tigers got the lion’s share of supplies. One may recall that the US-led Co-Chairs of what was made out to be Sri Lanka’s peace process, even pressured the Kumaratunga government to share tsunami relief with the LTTE. The JVP pulled out of the then ruling coalition, threatening the latter’s survival in Parliament. Why can’t the US, and other western powers do likewise for the benefit of the Afghan civilians as well?

Ordinary Afghans deserve humanitarian assistance, and access to their country’s funds deposited in the US so that they will not starve, or be frozen, to death. The Taliban will stand to gain in case of the Afghan assets lying overseas being unfrozen, but that cannot be helped. The US, as a self-appointed crusade for human rights, should have bargained for the predicament of the Afghan civilians when it had peace talks with the Taliban prior to its withdrawal. Among those who are facing the prospect of starving to death are many Afghans who supported the US, risking their lives.

Meanwhile, the SAARC member states have also let down the people of Afghanistan crying out for help. They may not be having the wherewithal to help the hapless Afghans, but they can certainly raise their voice collectively and pressure the powerful members of the international community to help the starving Afghans.