armed forces
Afghanistan committee to investigate frantic evacuation
Why was the August evacuation from Afghanistan so rushed? Who misjudged the situation and why? A committee of inquiry was formed to examine these and other questions.
Committees of inquiry are a lot of work. That is why the Bundestag only sets them up when something has gone seriously wrong. The frantic evacuation from Kabul in the summer of 2021 is one such case.
After the first debate, the committee under the designated chairman Ralf Stegner (SPD) can start work on July 7th if everything goes according to plan.
It is intended to clarify what the federal government, the armed forces, the intelligence services and the federal police decided and did before, during and shortly after the last German soldiers and diplomats withdrew from Afghanistan – including who was responsible for individual decisions at the time. Not only the coalition factions – SPD, Greens and FDP – are behind the motion, which defines the tasks of the committee of inquiry. The Union is also on board.
Who made which decisions and when?
In concrete terms, the aim is to find out by examining documents and questioning witnesses who made which decisions and when, for example to clear the embassy or to protect local Bundeswehr employees. In order to depict as many perspectives as possible, it is also being considered to ask former Afghan employees of German institutions – so-called local staff – about their experiences.
The Committee is considering a period beginning on February 29, 2020. On this day, the US government – then still under President Donald Trump – signed the so-called Doha Agreement with the Taliban. In return for the withdrawal of US troops in the Qatari capital, Doha, the Islamists undertook, among other things, to hold peace talks with the Afghan government and participate in an inclusive government. As we now know, things turned out very differently later on.
The investigation is scheduled to end on September 30, 2021 – a month after the last US soldiers left Kabul Airport. Dramatic scenes played out there in the second half of August, when foreigners and Afghans tried to get a seat on a plane to leave the country because they feared a repeat of the Islamists’ rule that ended in 2001.
Taliban back in power
The Bundeswehr withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of June 2021 after almost 20 years. In August, after the triumph of the militant Islamist Taliban, she took part in an evacuation mission for those in need of protection, including some Afghans who had previously worked as local staff for German institutions in the country. The Taliban took power in the capital Kabul in mid-August without much resistance from the Afghan armed forces. The then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) as well as the then Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) and other members of the old black-red federal government have admitted misjudgments of the situation in the Central Asian crisis country.
According to government information, 4,587 people came to Germany via the Bundeswehr airlift, which also flew people out of other countries, including 3,849 Afghans and 403 German nationals.
Left criticizes dealing with local forces
The left has accused the old and new federal governments of not having done enough for local workers. Many of them are still waiting in Afghanistan for an opportunity to leave the country. Some former local staff went into hiding fearing revenge by the Taliban.
Robin Wagener, who is expected to be a member of the committee as Green Party leader, recalls the desperate Afghan parents who handed their children over the airport fence to get them to safety from the Taliban. He says: “It is obvious that the evacuation of nationals, local staff and other vulnerable people only began when it was already too late.” Ann-Veruschka Jurisch from the FDP sees a general problem here. She says: “Our early warning system is not good.” She hopes to learn lessons for the future from the Enlightenment, “because our strategic actions must be improved”.
The committee of inquiry does not concern itself with the question of whether the long-standing deployment of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and the German development projects there made sense and were at least partially successful. That will be the task of a commission of inquiry of the Bundestag, which will get support from scientists.