Barefoot, without millions of dollars in his luggage as he was accused, and hidden, that’s how he escaped from Kabul by helicopter the former president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani on August 15 last year, when the capital fell to the taliban.
The latest report of the Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (SIGAR) of the United States collects around thirty testimonies from the days and hours that preceded the fall of Kabulin an attempt to trace millions of dollars in cash stashed in the presidential palace.
That day, Ghani agreed to leave the country only when the adviser to National securityHamdullah Mohib, and the head of the Presidential Protection Service (PPS), Qaher Kochai, pressured him convinced that they were going to kill him, the document says.
“The departure was so sudden that the president was barefoot, forcing Kochai looking for the president’s shoes,” an Afghan official told SIGAR.
BEFORE THE FALL
Las US troops began the final phase of the withdrawal of Afghanistan in early May 2021, a chaotic exit following more than 20 years of war, which left Afghan forces without critical support. From then on, province following province began to fall to the Taliban at a speed never experienced in the two decades of conflict.
August 13 Ghani chaired a meeting in his office with Vice President Amrullah Salehthe ministers of the Interior, Defense, and high-level personnel to discuss the fall of the city of Herat, which had become the eleventh provincial capital taken by the insurgents a day earlier.
At the meeting they were too concerned to understand why the afghan forces abandoned their posts, “until then, no one had taken the defense of Kabulaccording to a former government official present at the meeting.
On Saturday, a day before the fall of Kabul, Logar surrendered and Nangarhar was already under threat, “basically, we were witnessing the disintegration of the ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces),” said another official, who following receiving all reports knew “that collapse was imminent”.
THE FALL
Reports claimed that on the morning of Sunday, August 15, the Taliban had begun to enter Kabuland hundreds of government and palace workers they began to fleeonly a dozen of them remained, including the security team from Ghani.
Those who remained attempted to contact the security agencies responsible for Kabul. But “we mightn’t find the Minister of Defense nor to the Chief of the General Staff. In the Ministry of Defense they said that there was no one left in the building,” another official told SIGAR.
the same Ghani he spoke with the Minister of the Interior and the head of National Security, “he told them to send people to the city to maintain order. But they had no one. That day the policemen had come to work in their civilian clothes under their uniforms” , he remembered.
THE ESCAPE
Around midday, Ghani agreed to evacuate first lady Rula Ghani, and according to another official, the president was refusing to leave the country, while unsuccessfully trying to meet with the defense minister to ensure Kabul.
With the first lady and closest aides aboard four helicopters ready to take off, Kochai and Mohib decided to return to convince the president, certain that if he stayed “he would be assassinated.”
After being secretly evacuated, Ghani He was taken to the helicopter. Before taking off, a presidential guard approached one of the helicopters, pointed his rifle and shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) before being accosted by other PPS guards as the helicopters took off, another official said, who believed that that would be the end of all.
The four aircraft loaded with Ghani and fifty of his collaborators, unable to reach the airport to board a plane that would take them to the United Arab Emirates, then undertook a long helicopter flight to Uzbekistan.
THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
SIGAR tried to follow the trail of millions of dollars in cash that were allegedly in the presidential palaceas well as tens of millions of other funds in the hands of officials who abandoned Kabul last year.
The Russian embassy in Kabul told the press that there was $169 million on board the helicopters, an assertion that Ghani and his allies have denied, and that according to SIGAR it might be closer to $500,000.
According to all the witnesses interviewed by SIGAR, the luggage on board was minimal, with some containing personal belongings and others containing cash. The first ladywho had had time to pack, had two suitcases, mostly clothes, and regarding $800.
According to SIGAR estimates, given the route the helicopters took, the necessary fuel reserves, and the excess passengers, it is unlikely that the money would travel with them given the volume that would be involved.
According to data from the American Numismatic Association used by SIGAR, 169 million hundred-dollar bills, stacked end to end, would form a block 2.2 meters long, one meter wide and one meter high.
“This block would have weighed 1,688 kilos, or almost 2 tons,” he estimated.
In response to a questionnaire sent by SIGAR to Ghanihis lawyer explained that the former president had assets accumulated during a fruitful professional career in EU before he became president, and this translated into regarding 5 million dollars, declared by Ghani before assuming the presidency.
This money was taken by the first lady and the president Ghani to the palace when they settled there following their first victory in 2014, he said in a letter.
“Unfortunately, the vast majority of his personal belongings, including his cash assets, computers and documents, were left behind when he left Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 and were ultimately stolen,” he explained.
EFE
