Exodus: Afghan Diplomats Defect as Western Withdrawal Nears
By <
http://www.spiegel.de/extra/0,1518,632138,00.html> Hasnain Kazim
June 25, 2013 - 06:03 PM
The situation in Afghanistan is becoming so precarious that Afghan diplomats
no longer want to return to their homeland. Up to 100 foreign service
employees set for rotation back to Kabul from assignments abroad have now
defected.
A total of 105 Afghan diplomats were meant to report for duty at the Foreign
Ministry in Kabul on Saturday. They were being rotated out of their foreign
postings as scheduled, and it was time to return to headquarters. Yet just
five of them have resurfaced. The others have apparently remained in the
countries where they had been posted, among them several employees of the
Afghan Embassy in Berlin.
Sources at the Afghan Foreign Ministry have informed SPIEGEL ONLINE that
embassy staff members have said they would apply for asylum in their
respective host countries or at least apply for an extension of their
service until the presidential election in spring 2014. "They are hoping
that there is more clarity about the future of our country by that point,"
said an employee of the ministry. "I feel as though there has been an
exodus. No one wants to return to
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/afghanistan/> Afghanistan," said
the employee, who added that they couldn't be faulted for wanting to stay
away from
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/tensions-rise-between-kabul-and-b
erlin-ahead-of-withdrawal-a-899319.html> "the situation in the
country."According to recent surveys, most Afghans believe the country will
sink into chaos and violence and expect that civil war will break out once
Western forces withdraw at the end of 2014. For months,
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-talks-with-taliban-in-doha-mar
k-capitulation-in-afghanistan-a-907199.html> the Taliban and various other
ethnic groups have been arming themselves in preparation for a fight for
power in the country.
The Fiction of a Bright Future
Many Afghan diplomats are the sons and daughters of high-ranking politicians
who are also trying to go abroad as soon as possible and stay there until
the situation in Afghanistan becomes clearer.
International foundations and organizations that organize educational trips
and conferences for Afghans abroad have also become more cautious recently.
They know that more and more trip participants will disappear. It is said in
Kabul that several Afghan teachers never returned from a trip organized
recently by the German government. And a high-ranking official from the
Afghan Foreign Ministry called home during a trip to Canada to say that he
wouldn't be coming back.
"I can confirm this trend," says Tinko Weibezahl, the head of the Kabul
office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "In recent months some of our most
qualified contacts have left the country. The refugees are above all "the
highly educated, who were much more optimistic about the future a year ago,"
Weibezahl says. Government ministers, lawmakers and senior military
officials are also attempting to get their families out of the country.
The story of the hopeful future of an Afghanistan that stands on its own two
feet, that is safe and peaceful and democratically governed, "is just a
story that the West likes to tell us," says a senior official from the
presidential palace in Kabul. "This story has just one catch: Most Afghans
don't believe it."
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Received on Tue Jun 25 2013 - 18:02:11 EDT