The Taliban didn’t take the Afghan capital — they have been invited, says the person who issued the invitation.
In an Associated Press interview, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai supplied a number of the first insights into the key and sudden departure of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — and the way he got here to ask the Taliban into the town “to protect the population so that the country, the city doesn’t fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would probably loot the country, loot shops.”
When Ghani left, his safety officers additionally left. Defense minister Bismillah Khan even requested Karzai if he wished to depart Kabul when Karzai contacted him to know what remnants of the federal government nonetheless remained.
It turned on the market have been none. Not even the Kabul police chief had remained.
Karzai, who was the nation’s president for 13 years after the Taliban have been first ousted within the wake of the 9/11 assaults, refused to depart.
In a wide-ranging interview at his tree-lined compound within the centre of the town, the place he lives together with his spouse and younger kids, Karzai was adamant that Ghani’s flight scuttled a last-minute push by himself, the federal government’s chief negotiator Abdullah Abdullah and the Taliban management in Doha that will have seen the Taliban enter the capital as a part of a negotiated settlement.
The countdown to a potential deal started on Aug. 14, the day earlier than the Taliban got here to energy.
Karzai and Abdullah met Ghani, and so they agreed that they would depart for Doha the following day with a listing of 15 others to barter a power-sharing settlement.
The Taliban have been already on the outskirts of Kabul, however Karzai stated the management in Qatar promised that the rebel drive would stay exterior the town till the deal was struck.
Early on the morning of Aug. 15, Karzai stated, he waited to attract up the record. The capital was fidgety, on edge.
Rumors have been swirling a couple of Taliban takeover. When Karzai known as Doha, he was instructed the Taliban wouldn’t enter the town.
At midday, the Taliban known as to say that “the government should stay in its positions and should not move that they have no intention to (go) into the city,” Karzai stated.
“I and others spoke to various officials and assurances were given to us that, yes, that was the case, that the Americans and the government forces were holding firm to the places (and) that Kabul would not fall.”
By about 2:45 pm, it grew to become obvious that Ghani had fled the town. Karzai then dialed the protection minister, inside minister and looked for the Kabul police chief. Everyone was gone.
“There was no official present at all in the capital, no police chief, no corps commander, no other units. They had all left.”
Ghani’s personal safety unit’s deputy chief known as Karzai to return to the palace and take over the presidency.
He declined, saying legally he had no proper to the job. Instead, the previous president determined to make a public, televised message, together with his kids at his facet “so that the Afghan people know that we were all here.” Karzai was adamant that there would have been an settlement for a peaceable transition had Ghani remained in Kabul.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. That is what we were preparing for, what we were hoping (along) with the chairman of the peace council to go to Doha that evening, or the next morning, and to finalize the agreement,” he stated. “And I believe the Taliban leaders were also waiting for us in Doha for the same objective, for the same purpose.”
Today, Karzai meets recurrently with the Taliban management and says that the world should have interaction with them. Equally necessary, he stated, is for Afghans to return collectively.
“War has dominated Afghanistan for more than 40 years, and in the last 20 years “Afghans have suffered on all sides. The Afghan army has suffered, Afghan police have suffered, the Taliban soldiers have suffered” he stated.
“An end to that can only come when Afghans get together and find their own way out,” Karzai added.
The former president has a plan. In his talks with the Taliban, he’s advocating the momentary resurrection of the structure that ruled, when Afghanistan was a monarchy. The concept was additionally floated earlier, in the course of the Doha talks. At the identical time, a standard Loya Jirga — a grand council of all Afghans, together with ladies — can be convened. It would resolve the nation’s future, together with a consultant authorities, a structure, a nationwide flag.
There’s no indication the Taliban will settle for his components, although he says they haven’t rejected it in the course of the discussions.
A jirga is a centuries-old Afghan custom for decision-making and is especially well-liked amongst ethnic Pashtuns, which make up the spine of the Taliban.
Karzai stated, future Afghanistan has to have common schooling rights for girls and boys, and girls “must find their place in the Afghan polity, administration, economic activity, social activity, political activity and in all ways of life. That’s an issue on which there cannot be any compromise.”
But till that occurs, Karzai says, the world has to interact with the Taliban. The nation must function.
Government servants must be paid and well being care amenities have to perform.
“Right now, they need to cooperate with the government in any form they can,” stated Karzai. He additionally bemoaned the unchallenged and typically flawed worldwide perceptions of the Taliban.
He cited claims that ladies and ladies usually are not allowed exterior their houses or require a male companion. “That’s not true. There are girls on the streets — women by themselves.” The scenario on the bottom in Kabul bears this out.
When requested to explain the Taliban, Karzai stated: “I would describe them as Afghans, but Afghans who have gone through a very difficult period in their lives, as all other Afghans have done for the past 40 years.”
“We have been through an extremely difficult period of our history in which we, the Afghans, have made mistakes on all sides and the international community and those who interacted with us have made tremendous mistakes,” Karzai stated.
“It’s time for all of us to realize that, and to look back at the mistakes that we have all made and to make it better.”
