Afghan central bank rejects US order to seize its foreign reserves
Da Afghanistan Bank says US' blocking foreign exchange reserves, allocating them to 'irrelevant' purposes is injustice to Afghans
File photo
Afghanistan's central bank on Saturday rejected US President Joe Biden's executive order to seize half of $7 billion in assets held in US financial institutions, saying the money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not any government or group.
In a statement, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) stated that the decision to block their foreign exchange reserves and allocate them to “irrelevant” purposes is an injustice to the people of Afghanistan.
It will never accept the country’s reserves being paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and urged reversal of the decision and the release of all the reserves, it said.
Biden issued an executive order on Friday splitting Afghanistan's central bank's $7 billion in assets, allocating half for humanitarian relief to the poverty-stricken country ravaged by 42 years of war, while keeping the other half available for compensation to victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Al-Qaeda, which the US holds responsible for the attacks, had taken shelter in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, when the Taliban was in power. An interim Taliban administration returned to power last August.
According to the Afghan bank, it is responsible for preserving and managing the country's foreign reserves in line with international law. The foreign reserves are utilized to implement monetary policy, facilitate international trade, and stabilize the financial sector, it added.
"The real owners of these reserves are the people of Afghanistan. These reserves were not and are not the property of governments, parties, or groups and are never used as per their demand or decisions," it said.
It emphasized that the foreign reserves are managed in line with international practices, and the condition of these reserves is regularly and carefully monitored.
The statement noted that a certain portion of these reserves is invested in the US as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available for the bank to achieve its determined objectives.
Stealing Afghanistan's assets is a new low for Washington
Bradley Blankenship
Opinion 13-Feb-2022
People hold a banner reading ''Let us eat'' before marching on the street during a protest as the country struggles with a deep economic crisis, Kabul, December 21, 2021. /CFP
Editor's note: Bradley Blankenship is a Prague-based American journalist, political analyst and freelance reporter. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
U.S. President Joe Biden on February 11 signed an executive order that will split $7 billion in frozen U.S.-based assets from Afghanistan's central bank. Half of that money will be distributed to humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan, a country where millions are facing starvation because of economic hardship, and the other half will be granted to families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The Biden administration claims that this is a step in the direction of allowing these frozen funds to be used for the benefit of the Afghan people, while also keeping up the teetering act of not recognizing or legitimizing the Taliban government. At the same time, the funds for 9/11 victims will be made available for the ongoing litigation from victims.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Washington's top diplomat, tweeted about the executive order, "The United States stands with the people of Afghanistan."
What's already clear from this decision from Biden is that it is wildly unpopular and will hurt the White House's reputation at home and abroad.
For the 9/11 victims, many are critical of the steps being taken now because they believe the funds should be made available for more relatives. Of course, Afghans rightly feel their money has been stolen and, finally the rest of the world will surely lose trust in the U.S. over this situation.
To be sure, 9/11 victim relatives (and first responders) do have a point on this matter. Much as it does in every such instance, the U.S. socioeconomic system has failed to properly secure these people and provide compensation, social safety nets and other means to ensure they have a satisfactory life in the aftermath of those terrible attacks.
However, this does not entitle the White House to take money from Afghanistan to compensate for America's lack of adequate social safety nets. It is textbook theft. Already this executive order has spawned protests in Afghanistan (by the people the United States stands with, apparently) because of how brazen it is.
Former President George W. Bush launched the invasion of Afghanistan on the pretense that the United States wanted to seek justice against al-Qaeda, believed to be operating in Afghanistan with its leader Osama Bin Laden, for the 9/11 attacks. But this pretense does not necessarily match reality considering the fact that the country had no role in them. Osama Bin Laden was even found in Pakistan – not Afghanistan.
Firefighters make their way through the rubble after two airliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York bringing down the landmark buildings, September 11, 2001. /CFP
Most Americans may not even know the facts since they were swindled into believing the Bush administration's line as the war drums were beating. But context matters because this is an international issue and not a domestic political match, which is clearly how the White House is seeing it with such a petty appeal to American chauvinism on the level of Donald Trump.
As stated before, millions of Afghans are facing starvation right now because their country's economy is in shambles through no fault of their own. The United States has been meddling in Afghanistan for decades and even helped create the very organization, the Taliban, that now rules the country and they refuse to recognize as legitimate. Washington decimated the country, killed and displaced countless Afghans and morphed the local economy into being totally dependent on the invasion and occupation effort before abruptly leaving.
That is to say that the economic hardships faced by Afghanistan right now, the ones leading those millions of people to the brink of starvation, are America's fault. At the same time, the United States itself is more culpable for the 9/11 attacks than Afghanistan since it was retaliation against U.S. foreign policy that sparked the chain of events that led to the attacks in the first place.
To ameliorate both of these situations, one way or another linked to the United States, the Biden administration has decided to flagrantly violate international law by stealing assets from the Afghan people. Ironically, the Biden administration somehow perceives its actions as benevolent on this issue.
The reality could not be more different. This is such a thoroughly immoral and disgraceful situation that any person could see it for what it is, e.g., stealing from starving people. It shows the true depravity and inhumanity of the U.S. government, perhaps at an all-time low.
By News desk
-February 13, 2022
Pakistan has called for the complete unfreezing of Afghanistan’s assets after the Joe Biden-led administration in the United States decided to keep half of the $7 billion Afghan assets in the country.
Biden on Friday signed an executive order to deal with the threat of an economic collapse in Afghanistan, setting wheels in motion for a complex resolution of competing interests in the country’s assets.
The United States is seeking to free up half of the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on US soil to help the Afghan people while holding the rest to possibly satisfy terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban, the White House said.
In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said Pakistan had seen the US decision to release $3.5 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and $3.5 billion for compensation to families of 9/11 victims.
“Over the past several months, Pakistan has been consistently emphasising the need for international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked,” the spokesperson said.
Iftikhar added that finding ways to unfreeze the Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people.
He said Islamabad’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released. “The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan,” he said.
The spokesperson highlighted that the Afghan people are facing grave economic and
humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings.
“Time is of the essence.” Meanwhile, demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday condemned US President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the US for families of America’s 9/11 victims, saying the money belongs to Afghans.
Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
AP adds: Afghanistan’s central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank or DAB, also opposed the move, calling it “an injustice to the people of Afghanistan” and demanding that the decision be withdrawn.
“DAB considers the latest decision of [the] USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes [an] injustice to the people of Afghanistan and will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan [are] paid [in] the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan,” it said in a press release.
The bank said the “real owners” of the said assets were the people of Afghanistan. “These reserves were not and [are] not the property of governments, parties and groups and [are] never used as per their demand and decisions,” it added.
With regards to the management of the assets, the bank highlighted: “Considering the specified objectives, the FX reserves of Afghanistan is managed based on the international practices.
Francis Boyle: Allocating Afghanistan freeze’s funds for humanitarian aid is a deception of public opinion
Kabul (BNA) Francis Anthony Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, says President Biden’s decision on the Central Bank of Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves means launching an economic war and keeping the people hungry.
According to BNA, France Boyle told, Russia’s Sputnik news agency, deducting freezing part of Afghanistan’s money for public aid is a deception of public opinion, not to address the plight of Afghanistan’s needy. According to him, this action of the US President will make the people of Afghanistan starve to death. According to this international law professor, the US President’s decision to allocate part of the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan to the families of the victims of 9/11, based on the 1948 Convention on the Prohibition of Illegal Genocide and the creation of a massacre of Afghans, is due to hunger.
He argues that no state has the legal right to seize Afghanistan’s people monetary.
It is worth mentioning, that after the fall of the previous government and regain of power by the Islamic Emirate, nearly ten billion dollars of foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan were frozen in foreign banks, including seven billion dollars held in US banks. US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order for the foundation to sign $3.7 billion in central bank money.
The US President’s decision has met with positive reactions. Human Rights Watch has said it must seize the assets of the Afghan people. The Central Bank of Afghanistan has also issued a statement calling Joe Biden’s decision regarding the country’s foreign exchange reserve “injustices”.
Bakhtar News Agency
The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan last August created a financial dilemma for nations holding the country’s foreign cash reserves.
The deposed Afghan government had $7bn in the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
The Taliban laid claim to the cash, but Washington does not recognise the group as the legitimate leaders of Afghanistan.
US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to split that money and keep it out of the Taliban’s hands.
Half will go to a trust fund for Afghan humanitarian aid, and the rest to compensating families of the 9/11 attacks.
Is this plan fair to the Afghan people?
Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom
Guests:
David Sedney – Senior associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Pauline Ballaman – Afghanistan country director, Norwegian Refugee Council.
Haroun Rahimi – Assistant professor of law, American University of Afghanistan.
KABUL (Pajhwok): Residents of capital Kabul staged a protest rally on Sunday, saying the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with the Afghan people and their money should not be given as compensation to victims of the attacks and they would not remain silent if the decision was not reconsidered.
US President Joe Biden has moved to freeze about $7bn in assets held in US financial institutions by the Afghan central bank in the wake of the Taliban takeover, as he vowed to direct $3.5bn to humanitarian aid and preserve the rest for families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks.
In an executive order signed on Friday, Biden directed “all property and interests in property” of the Afghan central bank in the US to be blocked and transferred to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, effectively cutting off the Taliban’s access to the US financial system.
The US decision on Afghanistan capital sparked widespread protests by Afghan citizens.
A number of Kabul citizens criticized the US president’s statement at a gathering in Kabul on Sunday organized by a group of “Afghan Shia scholars”.
The participants said the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with the Afghan people and that the Afghans had no any role in the incident. The US president should not use the money of the Afghan people for compensating the victims of the attack, they said.
AttaullahSadiq, head of the National Consensus of Freedom and Independence, said at the meeting that the 9/11 attacks were irrelevant to the Afghan people as they were neither planned nor carried out by Afghans.
“The United States considers itself a superpower in the world, but now it wants to use the money of the Afghan people for its own expenses,” he said, calling the US president’s order as cruel.
“The occupation is over; now is the era of independence; the people of Afghanistan are no longer oppressed; there will be no more proxy wars in Afghanistan, and all people are now united,” he said.
The people of Afghanistan will not give their rights to anyone and the world is responsible to give the Afghans’ money and compensate them, he said.
“We tell the US president that the people of Afghanistan want friendship and mutual respect,” Sadiq said.
Assal Ahmad Shakiri, deputy head of the council, said, “Joe Biden has seized nearly $10 billion in money from the Afghan people and is determined to compensate the victims of 9/11 attacks, but the reality is that the attack was planned by the US itself.”
He criticized silence of Islamic countries on Afghanistan, and said, “The US has lost to Afghans, now it wants to take economic revenge on the people of Afghanistan.”
He asked for reconsideration of the US decision and said that Afghans would not remain silent until the decision was reversed.
A day earlier, Afghan Steelworks Union, in a protest meeting, criticized the decision of US president and called for the move to be reconsidered.
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