WASHINGTON LETTER
Poor flag: who will mend it? It floats in the courtyard of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, but cannot hide its tears. Since the Taliban took control of the country in mid-August, the entire building has turned into something of a ship lost on the high seas, sailing on sight.
It is located in an affluent district of the American capital, with impeccable bourgeois facades. No one suspects, from the outside, the strange fate of its occupants, who have no contact with Kabul and its new masters, and are careful not to establish any.
“We no longer represent any government, said Jawad Raha. We are all alone and we represent the Afghan people, and their desire for a life of dignity. ” Courteous and affable, the 34-year-old First Secretary of the Embassy himself opens the front door to the visitor. Local staff, who handled reception and housekeeping, were almost entirely fired for lack of money. There remain fifteen diplomats, a driver and a cleaning lady, whose salaries are ensured thanks to consular fees.
The consulate, which occupied premises rented in another district, in Georgetown, was repatriated to the embassy. For economy. No more means of obtaining blank passports to satisfy the demands of the diaspora. From now on, we are content to extend the validity period of documents. Likewise, the questions of power of attorney for real estate transactions in Afghanistan are no longer resolved, due to a lack of valid interlocutors in the local administrations.
“Deep despair”
Prior to August, Jawad Raha’s job mainly consisted of ensuring contacts with NGOs and think tanks, which abound in Washington. In July, the young man was visiting Kabul, noting people’s concern over the planned American withdrawal. “But the prevailing feeling was that the Taliban could not take power, that the conflict would continue for years. “
It was also in July that the new ambassador, Adela Raz, arrived from New York, where she served as Afghanistan’s special representative to the United Nations (UN). Former advisor to President Hamid Karzai, she has not really had time to acclimatize. The American military withdrawal and the flight of President Ashraf Ghani have seized the staff of the embassy with fear.
“At the beginning, we felt a deep despair at the idea of losing in two weeks what we had built in twenty years, says Jawad Raha. If the only measure of American investment is time and money, I understand that we can speak of a waste. But not if we have lived up close the changes that Afghanistan has undergone, the improvement in education, health, freedom of the press, the new place for human rights… ”
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