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LONDON (AP) – The British Foreign Ministry abandoned many of the country’s allies in Afghanistan and handed them over to the Taliban during the fall of the capital Kabul.
In devastating evidence before a parliamentary committee, Raphael Marshall said thousands of emails for help were received unread between August 21 and 25. At one point he was the only person watching the inbox.
“Typically there were over 5,000 unread emails in the inbox at any given time, including many unread emails from early August,” he wrote to the Special Committee on Foreign Affairs. “These emails were desperate and urgent. I noticed a lot of titles, “including phrases like ‘Please save my children’.”
Former Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, who was transferred from the Foreign Office to Minister of Justice after overcoming the crisis, defended his approach.
“Some of the criticism seems pretty detached from the facts on the ground, the operational pressures that came with the unexpected takeover of the Taliban around the world …” he told the BBC. “I think that not enough recognition was found” how hard it was. “
The Taliban stormed Afghanistan in late summer, conquering all major cities in a matter of days as the Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the US and its allies melted away. The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15th.
Many who had worked for Western powers or the government feared that the country might sink into chaos or that the Taliban might take revenge on them.
Many also feared that the Taliban would reinstate the strict interpretation of Islamic law on which they relied on their government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Back then, women had to wear the all-encompassing burqa and be accompanied by a male relative when they went outside. The Taliban banned music and chopped off the hands of thieves and stoned adulterers.
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