WEST PROVIDES ‘ENDLESS MONEY’ FOR UKRAINE BUT NO AID TO AFGHANS, EU LAWMAKER SAYS

Sat 25 June 2022:

A member of the EU parliament criticized the West for providing Ukraine with significant financial help while failing to aid the war-torn Afghanistan.

Mick Wallace criticized the West for its unwavering support of Ukraine while turning a blind eye to Afghanistan’s urgent need for food help in his remarks during a European Parliament debate on Afghanistan on Friday.

Wallace, an independent Irish member, criticized the US and NATO for the several issues Afghanistan is currently experiencing and reminded the West of its two-decade occupation of the country.

“I do not want to be going back too many years, but the Taliban did come from the Mujahideen, who were put on their feet by the Americans and the Saudis. And then for the last 20 years, the Americans and NATO destroyed the place. They destroyed the human rights of the people that lived in Afghanistan for 20 years,” he said.

“The Americans spent 300 million a day destroying the place and now we are starving them. The World Food Program could only gather a third of the money that they need to feed the millions they are trying to feed. And neither the European Union nor the Americans are prepared to give them as much money as they want… We can find all the money on the planet to pour arms into Ukraine but we can’t feed the Afghans whose lives we destroyed for 20 years,” he added.

After the US-led troops left the nation in August of last year, the Taliban made a shocking resurgence, which exacerbated the dismal situation there.

AFGHANISTAN’S REMOTE AND POOR VILLAGES HARDEST HIT BY EARTHQUAKE

Afghanistan is currently dealing with a serious humanitarian catastrophe, some 10 months after the US-led international coalition made a hasty exit from the country and declared a freeze on its assets.

Children are the most severely impacted, say relief organizations and human rights watchdogs.

The country’s offshore assets total around $9 billion, including the $7 billion that is frozen in the US.

In February, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would seize the Afghan assets and move half of them to a fund purportedly designated for humanitarian aid for Afghanistan.

However, Biden acknowledged that not attempting to release the other half of the Afghan monies was due to legal disputes with some 9/11 relatives seeking claims against those assets.

The freeze has continued despite the near-collapse of Afghanistan’s economy, skyrocketing inflation, and millions of Afghans on the point of hunger.

The Taliban government has requested the release of the frozen assets numerous times, but Washington has consistently refused.

The UN has previously warned that without financial aid or humanitarian relief, Afghanistan will be on a “countdown to catastrophe”.

In a latest tragic incident in Afghanistan, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the Eastern part of the country early Wednesday in arid mountains dotted with small settlements near the border with Pakistan.

“People are digging grave after grave.”

An earthquake in Afghanistan killed at least 1,000 people and injured at least 1,500 others. Millions of people in Afghanistan already face hunger, poverty and limited access to medical care. pic.twitter.com/uRSzzogKK6

— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 25, 2022

The earthquake has reportedly killed over 1,000 people and injured 1,500, leaving more than 3,000 houses in ruins.

Poor communications and a lack of proper roads are hampering relief efforts in the country.

This is the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan sitting in the lap of the Hindukush Mountains since 2002 when a magnitude-6.1 earthquake killed around 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan.