Thursday, August 19, 2021
“Had to flee in slippers”
President Ghani does not want to remain in exile
Apparently, things had to happen quickly when Ashraf Ghani escaped from Afghanistan: he could neither take off his slippers nor take his belongings with him, the exiled president said in a video message. He also explains what his future should look like.
President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Afghanistan, says he does not want to remain in exile. He is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to prevent bloodshed and tragedy. But he is in talks to return to Afghanistan and continue his efforts for justice in the country, said Ghani in a video message published on Facebook.
In view of the rapid advance of the militant Islamist Taliban, Ghani had fled Afghanistan without explanation on Sunday morning. After that, the Taliban entered the capital of Kabul, which has an estimated 5.4 million inhabitants, in the evening. Ghani denied allegations that he took funds with him. The Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan, for example, had accused Ghani of stealing $ 169 million in government funds. The allegations are completely unfounded and far from the truth.
Ghani also stated that he had to leave the country so quickly that he could not take off his slippers and put on his boots. He was not able to take any of his most valuable possessions with him, neither his books nor a personal laptop “on which everything was”. Ghani is considered to be a frequent reader. His library in the presidential palace is said to contain around 6,000 books. The UAE Foreign Ministry confirmed that the country had taken him and his family in on humanitarian grounds. There had previously been reports that Ghani was said to have been sighted in the capital, Abu Dhabi.
In the recent past, the United Arab Emirates had granted protection several times to high foreign state representatives with problems in their home country. Last year, the former King Juan Carlos of Spain, who was suspected of corruption, went into exile in the Emirates. Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced to five years in absentia, found refuge in Dubai in 2017.
.