Vatican City (CNS) – The Italian priest in charge of the small Catholic community in Afghanistan said the biggest danger that Afghanistan could face with the withdrawal of US forces could be a civil war.
“Will the Afghan government be able to guarantee security?” Father Barnaby asked Giovanni Scales, head of the Afghan mission “sui iuris” in Kabul, in a note to Fides News of the Peoples Mission Complex, on April 16th.
He said that the talks that should have taken place between the government and the Taliban so far “have not started in a serious way, or at least have not led to any results.”
He said that the goal, according to the Doha agreement between the United States and the Taliban in 2020, is to form a transitional government of national unity and then hold free elections to determine the leadership of the new government.
But if the different parties did not speak up, how could they form a government together? It is much easier to let the weapons speak, he said, which is why “the biggest risk that could arise from the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan is that the country could collapse into civil war again.”
The pastor, a resident of Our Lady of Providence Church at the Italian Embassy in Kabul, made the comments after US President Joe Biden announced the complete withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan by 9/11 – the twentieth anniversary of the attacks. On American soil, under the coordination of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who received protection from the Taliban.
The United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 in an effort to dismantle Al Qaeda and remove the Taliban from power. According to the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, more than 2,300 American soldiers have been killed in the 20-year-old conflict, the longest war in US history, and thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed and displaced each year as a result of the conflict. .
Father Skills said that even if the Taliban, the best-organized and best-funded movement in the country, regained control, it was unlikely that they would be able to regain the same totalitarian Islamic emirate that was established in 1996.
Although the current constitution supports Afghanistan as an Islamic republic, the Taliban “can impose a new constitution. However, they can never anticipate their ability to nullify freedom or ignore rights that Afghans have used all these years.
She also said that women constitute a very large and active segment of the population, and “it is not unreasonable to expect them to be locked up at home or under the burqa.”
Not only is there doubts that the Afghan government is able to maintain peace and security, but it is also questionable whether it can keep the country functioning without significant financial help from Western countries, he said.
He said, “It is true that everyone swears that they will not give up on Afghanistan and will continue to support it.”
“It doesn’t seem to me that much has been done in recent years to revive the Afghan economy,” Father Skills said, and no country can advance without a functioning economy.
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