Afghan Fund Untapped in Switzerland, Taliban Make No Demand

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Ahadi (file photo)

Akmal Dawi
VOA News
February 21, 2024

Sixteen months after its establishment, the U.S.-backed Fund for the Afghan People has yet to release any payments for its intended purposes, a board member reveals.

The fund, created using half of Afghanistan’s frozen assets in the United States, aims to help stabilize the Afghan economy without benefiting the de facto Taliban authorities.

Established in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the Switzerland-based fund holds $3.5 billion that formerly belonged to the Afghan Central Bank. It is authorized to support activities such as paying Afghanistan’s debts to international organizations, funding electricity imports and even printing currency.

“I’m surprised that they [the Taliban] have not asked for any payment so far,” Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, a co-chair of the fund’s board of trustees, told VOA.

Ahady emphasized his willingness to facilitate the funding of authorized activities.

Taliban officials declined to comment.

Despite the fund’s inaction, the Taliban recently announced payment of outstanding electricity bills using domestic funds.

Additionally, a European donor helped settle Afghanistan’s World Bank debt last year, unlocking new bank aid.

Last week, the World Bank announced it had approved a new approach to Afghanistan aimed at supporting income-generating activities. Under the new approach, work will be resumed on a $1.2 billion project that will bring clean energy from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is also in arrears to the Asian Development Bank, resulting in a hold on the ADB’s regular assistance programs since 2021.

Ahady said the fund would consider paying the ADB debt.

“But we are the last resort,” he added.

Saving the assets

Over $9 billion in Afghan assets remain frozen in the U.S., Europe and the United Arab Emirates, inaccessible to the Taliban.

In the U.S., $3.5 billion face claims from 9/11 victims’ families. It is unclear if that frozen portion generates interest like the funds in Switzerland.

The fund has already accrued more than $200 million in interest in less than two years, according to Ahady.

“Afghans see this as their national treasure,” said Masuda Sultan of Unfreeze Afghanistan, an organization advocating the release of the frozen assets. “Afghans believe the funds should not be used to pay for consumption of goods and services.”

Despite dire poverty in Afghanistan, the fund in Switzerland is not earmarked for immediate humanitarian needs — a deliberate choice, according to Ahady.

“Humanitarian needs are so huge at this juncture that [if used], this amount of money [the fund] will disappear quickly,” he said.

The United States and other donors have given billions in humanitarian assistance to Afghans over the past two years.

As the Taliban remain a pariah regime widely condemned for their repressive policies, the future of the frozen assets remains uncertain.

“The funds belong to Da Afghanistan Bank,” said Ahady, referring to the Afghan Central Bank, now governed by the Taliban.

The now $3.74 billion fund can only be released if the Afghan Central Bank demonstrably acts independently from the Taliban and complies with anti-terrorism safeguards.

Minister tasked with investigating potential SAS crimes in Afghanistan ‘unable’ to disprove cover-up

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The Independent (UK): A minister repeatedly raised concerns about potential war crimes committed by UK special forces in Afghanistan with senior figures within the Ministry of Defence – telling Ben Wallace “something stinks” – and was unable to disprove an alleged cover-up of killings when he investigated. Veterans minister Johnny Mercer was speaking to an inquiry into dozens of killings of Afghan civilians by the SAS between 2010 and 2013. He told the inquiry on Tuesday that he did not want to believe reports that the elite British soldiers had killed unarmed Afghans, but he was “unable” to find “something to disprove these allegations”. He said that when he investigated the matter with the senior figures within UK special forces (UKSF) they were “unable to answer basic questions” and he “did not believe them”. Click here to read more (external link).

Gender-Based Harassment and Gender Apartheid: The Taliban Will be Dragged to International Courts

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8am: In the latest development, the United Nations hosted a meeting of special representatives from countries, along with some prominent Afghan women and civil society figures. In this meeting, the Secretary-General of the United Nations sought to create international consensus and coherence among the global community in dealing with the Taliban. On the eve of this meeting, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has labeled the Taliban’s discriminatory behaviors, systematic violence, and systematic elimination of women as crimes against humanity. This entity has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to comprehensively investigate these Taliban crimes. Click here to read more (external link).

Media employees sin by shaving beards and taking photos: Taliban Officials

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Khaama: The head of the Public Invitation and Guidance Department of the de facto administration stated that many media employees still commit a major sin by shaving their beards. Mohammad Hashem Shahid Wror, the head of the Public Invitation and Guidance Department of the Taliban, said on Tuesday, February 20th in a meeting, that growing a beard is obligatory and should not be trimmed. He said, “Media employees should also keep their beards and refrain from shaving.” Earlier, the governor of the Taliban in Kandahar recently issued a written directive to all institutions and authorities of the Taliban in this province, prohibiting any photography of formal and informal meetings and ceremonies. Click here to read more (external link).

The Taliban Want a Piece of Pakistan

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FP: Afghanistan’s government doesn’t recognize a 130-year-old border—and its local affiliates are causing havoc in the Pakistani borderlands… Dawar said the turning of the Taliban tables on Pakistan “was predictable.” The Taliban “are now a threat to Central Asia. They are now a threat to Iran, to Pakistan, and to even China. All of them thought we will control the Taliban after the takeover. The problem is it didn’t happen,” he said. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban’s Boycott Of Key UN Meeting A Blow To Hopes Of Increased Engagement

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Abubakar Siddique
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi

February 20, 2024

The Taliban boycotted a United Nations-sponsored conference on Afghanistan, the first time the extremist group was invited to participate in a major international event since it seized power in 2021.

The group’s refusal to attend the February 18-19 conference in Qatar is seen as a blow to the hopes of the international community to improve dialogue with the Taliban government, which remains unrecognized and is under sanctions.

The two-day event brought together representatives of member states, special envoys to Afghanistan, and Afghan civil society members, including women.

The conference came amid a standoff between the Taliban and the international community. Since regaining power, the hard-line Islamists have monopolized power, committed gross human rights abuses, and severely curtailed the freedoms of Afghan women.

The international community has called on the Taliban to reverse its repressive policies and create an inclusive government, which the extremist group has refused.

“One of our main objectives is to overcome this deadlock,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on February 19, adding that “the concerns of the international community” and “the concerns of the de facto authorities of Afghanistan” both need to be taken into account.

While the world body has left the door open for the Taliban to participate in future UN-sponsored meetings, observers said it is unclear if the Taliban and the international community can increase engagement and bridge their differences.

‘Unacceptable’

The Taliban set conditions for its participation in the Doha conference, including that it be the sole representative of Afghanistan at the meeting. The UN chief said the group’s demands were “unacceptable” and amounted to recognizing the Taliban as the country’s legitimate government.

The Taliban has also opposed the appointment of a UN special envoy to Afghanistan, one of the key issues discussed at the Doha meeting. One of the envoy’s main tasks would be to promote intra-Afghan dialogue.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued ahead of the meeting, accused the international community of “unilateral impositions, accusations, and pressurization.”

Javid Ahmad, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, said the group wants to engage with the international community on “Taliban-owned terms without having to entertain negotiations that could challenge their grip on power.”

Ahmad said the Taliban was keen to avoid being “pigeonholed by the engagement community into unwanted conference outcomes without prior discussions, which would undermine their authority as rulers.”

That, experts said, would explain the Taliban’s opposition to the appointment of a UN special envoy for Afghanistan, an international interlocutor who would be tasked with promoting dialogue between the extremist group and exiled opposition political figures.

Since seizing power, the Taliban has sidelined many ethnic and political groups as well as women. The Taliban’s theocratic government appears to have little support among Afghans.

“Problems will persist as long as these issues are not addressed,” Ali Ahmed Jalali, a distinguished professor at the National Defense University in Washington, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “The appointment of the UN special envoy will mean that the Taliban government is downgraded from a government to a group.”

‘Categorical Answer’

Most of the international community’s dialogue with the Taliban has been through its ministers in Kabul and its diplomats in Qatar, where the group maintains a political office.

But experts said the Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and his key confidants, all of whom are senior clerics, have the real decision-making authority in the group.

The reclusive Akhundzada, a hard-line cleric who rarely leaves the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, has the ultimate say on all important matters under the Taliban’s clerical system.

“The Taliban diplomats will keep the door open,” said Anders Fange, a Swedish aid worker who worked for the UN in Afghanistan. “But the people down in Kandahar will give you a more categorical answer.”

Fange said international pressure on the Taliban is unlikely to work given the fundamentalist views of its leadership.

“The Taliban sees itself as only answerable to Allah and not the people of Afghanistan and even less to the international community,” he added.

International Divisions

One of the key aims of the Doha conference was to reach a consensus among member states on how to deal with the Taliban. But that has been complicated by Afghanistan’s neighbors, as well as Russia and China, who have forged ties with the Taliban.

At the Taliban’s request, the Russian delegation that participated in the Doha meeting refused to meet the Afghan civil society representatives.

China’s special envoy to Afghanistan, who was in Doha, meanwhile called on Washington to unfreeze some $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held in the United States, a move that Beijing has said will allow the Taliban to address the devastating humanitarian and economic crises in Afghanistan.

If the West does not engage with the Taliban, it risks “being entirely without influence” in Afghanistan, said Fange.

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Related

Taliban Allow Female Enrollment in State-Run Medical Institutes, Official Media Says

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
February 20, 2024

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have reportedly allowed female high school graduates in Afghanistan to enroll in state-run medical institutes for the new academic year that begins in March.

The enrollment process has begun in more than a dozen Afghan provinces, following a directive from the Ministry of Public Health in Kabul, the Taliban-run official Bakhtar news agency said Tuesday. It provided no further information.

There was no immediate comment from de facto Afghan authorities on the ministry’s reported directive.

The Taliban have banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and barred women from working in public and private sectors since reclaiming power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

The reported health ministry directive could be a sign of relief for girls who graduated before the Taliban takeover to resume their education and pursue employment in the health sector, one of the few areas where women are still permitted to work.

Aid groups say the restrictions on women’s education and work have hurt an already fragile Afghan health sector as the country has not produced a single doctor for over a year.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Afghanistan faces a shortage of qualified health workers in general and women in particular.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated Tuesday that the Taliban must reverse “the outrageous ban on girls’ access to education and the ban on women’s employment.

“Women & girls must be able to fully & meaningfully participate in all aspects of Afghan life – from seats in classrooms to the tables where decisions are made,” Guterres wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He made the statement a day after hosting an international conference in Qatar, where envoys from 25 countries, as well as the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, discussed engagement with Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban authorities.

Guterres stressed the need for girls’ education while briefing reporters on the conference’s outcomes in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state. He said it would be “inconceivable” for him if his three granddaughters could not attend secondary school and could not go on to university.

“I would like all the granddaughters and daughters in Afghanistan to enjoy exactly the same rights that my granddaughters will hopefully enjoy in my country,” said the secretary general.

In a report this month, Human Rights Watch warned that a sharp reduction in foreign financial and technical development has severely harmed the Afghan healthcare system.

The U.S.-based watchdog said the Taliban’s sweeping restrictions on women’s employment have fueled the crisis.

“Women have been banned from most civil service jobs, from employment with nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations except for specific positions in health care and education, and from some private sector jobs,” the report said.

It noted that the curbs on women and girls have “gravely impeded” their access to health services and have blocked almost all training of future female healthcare workers in Afghanistan.

Pakistan Firmly Asserts Durand Line Sovereignty in Face of Taliban’s Stark Rejection

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Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai

Khaama: In a vivid manifestation of escalating tensions, Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special envoy to Afghanistan, has emphatically dismissed the Taliban’s contentious stance on the Durand Line, underscoring Islamabad’s rigid position on the historic border dispute. This sharp exchange marks a significant heightening in the long-standing discord over the demarcation that has been a point of contention between Afghanistan and Pakistan for decades. Durrani articulated his staunch rebuttal in response to the inflammatory assertions made by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban, who categorically stated Afghanistan’s refusal to recognize the Durand Line as the official boundary. Speaking to Afghanistan International in Doha, Durrani declared, “For Pakistan, the matter of the Durand Line is conclusively settled,” unequivocally affirming the line as the official and internationally recognized border separating the two nations. Click here to read more (external link).