Can US deny Afghans their nation's assets?

The United States' decision to punish the Taliban by freezing $7 billion of the Afghan central bank's assets after they assumed power following the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government shocked people both at home and abroad, especially because the political upheaval in Afghanistan has led to mass starvation and unemployment.

In the wake of growing pressure to review his decision, US President Joe Biden later announced that the US would split Afghanistan's assets between the families of the victims of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and make efforts (which he didn't specify)"for the benefit of the Afghan people".

After the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan's banking system collapsed and currency crashed, and the already struggling economy slumped, leading to mass unemployment and refugee exodus. People in the country cannot withdraw money from their accounts, government employees have not received salaries, businesses have no access to capital, and inflation has shot through the roof.

Owing to the cash shortage, banks have restricted the weekly withdrawal to $200.People line up in front of banks much before they open, in order to ensure they can withdraw some money before the tellers run out of cash. All this makes it very difficult for people to run their businesses properly or attend office regularly and on time.

As for bakeries, they are surrounded by large numbers of beggars and cart-pullers waiting for someone to buy them a piece of bread and save them from starvation. And hundreds of thousands of people who previously worked in government departments are now unemployed and have no source of income.

Indeed, this is a humanitarian crisis. And what has been Biden's response to the crisis?

To apparently alleviate the economic crisis in Afghanistan, the Biden administration signed an executive order last month freeing up $3.5 billion of the central bank's frozen assets. The other half will remain in the US subject to ongoing litigation targeting the Taliban.

Afghanistan's central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank, has responded by saying the assets belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban.

Experts have warned that the US' decision will cripple Afghanistan's central bank, making it extremely difficult for it to resume efforts to stabilize the Afghan currency, and will thus deepen the humanitarian crisis.

Yet even if the central bank regains access to its assets in the US and brings them back to Afghanistan, it would not be able to defuse the highly complicated economic crisis.

First, the Biden administration does not recognize the Taliban regime as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, and claims the central bank's funds are really the Taliban's and therefore they can be used to pay off the "Taliban's debts"－that is, compensate the victims of the Taliban's atrocities and terrorist attacks.

Second, if the Taliban are to be punished for being allegedly involved in the 9/11 attacks－the US holds al-Qaida led by Osama bin Laden responsible for them－Washington has to allow the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes in Afghanistan and bring all the US soldiers involved in the killings of civilians to justice, and pay compensation to the families of the war victims.

Third, millions of Afghan people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid and Biden's move will lead to horrible consequences by denying them that lifesaving aid. Keeping this in mind, some relatives of the 9/11 victims disagree with Biden's decision. Barry Amundson, the brother of a 9/11 victim, has been cited as saying: "I can't think of a worse betrayal of the people of Afghanistan than to freeze their assets and give it to 9/11 families… While 9/11 families are seeking justice for their loss through these suits, I fear that the end result of seizing this money will be to cause further harm to innocent Afghans who have already suffered greatly."

Criticizing Biden's decision to split the central bank's assets, one of the many social media users in Afghanistan using the issue to target the US uploaded a satirical post: "A poor country such as Afghanistan has contributed $3.5 billion aid to the world's first economy like the United States!"

Since ordinary Afghans will be the direct victims of the US sanction, Biden's decision is unscrupulous, to say the least. The US president should review his decision and save the Afghan people from starvation and more suffering. As Afghanistan is in a state of emergency with no country recognizing the Taliban government, the entire world, including the US, should send humanitarian aid to the country in order to end the people's suffering.

Moreover, if a crime has been committed by one person or a small group of persons, the entire population of a country cannot be punished for that. Hence, if any members of the Taliban were behind the 9/11 attacks, they should be identified and brought to justice, instead of punishing all the Afghan people for a crime they have not committed.

The author is a political analyst and senior writer with Daily Outlook Afghanistan. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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