Afghan government under fire for altering image of president’s meeting with US official
KABUL: Images of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s Monday meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released by the Afghan government appear to have been digitally altered — a move that has drawn outraged responses.
Both the US Embassy in Kabul and the presidential palace released photographs of the meeting, which took place in a bunker at Bagram Airfield, America’s largest military base in Afghanistan — although some officials at the time stated that Tillerson and Ghani had met in Kabul.
It soon became clear that there were significant differences in the images released by the embassy and those released by the palace. For example, a digital clock and red fire alarm, clearly visible in an image released by the embassy, had been digitally erased from the palace’s image.
Dr. Zahir Ayoubi, deputy head of Afghanistan’s National Journalists Union, claimed the image had been manipulated so the palace could avoid the “embarrassment” of admitting Ghani and his delegation had traveled to Bagram to meet US officials.
As Karim Pakzad — a researcher specializing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran — pointed out in local daily Mandegar, the president’s meeting with a visiting official on a US military base contravened diplomatic norms.
“This is an affront to the Afghan nation,” Pakzad wrote. “This meeting means (Ghani) was summoned by Tillerson.”
Journalist Bilal Sarwary tweeted: “If Ghani & Abdullah were sovereign enough, they would have refused to have a bilateral meeting in a bunker. These leaders are embarrassing the Afghan nation.”
Presidential spokesperson Shah Hussain Murtazawi downplayed the significance of the meeting’s location, saying, “Our government places national interests above all, and for the sake of national interests discussions and consultations can be held in any corner of the country.”
His response failed to explain why the palace felt it necessary to doctor images of the meeting, however.
“Had they dealt with the issue in an honest manner, that would have been much better,” Ayoubi told Arab News. “This can have a negative impact. It raises questions about why government dignitaries are hiding the truth from people.”
The palace’s decision has backfired dramatically, with national attention now firmly focused on the falsification of the images and what that says about Ghani’s administration.
Afghan journalist and activist Zaki Daryabi took to Facebook to suggest the palace had committed an illegal act. “Counterfeiting of documents is a crime,” he wrote.
The furor will likely further dent Ghani’s already-damaged image. Many have contrasted Monday’s meeting with former President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to meet his then-US counterpart Barack Obama at Bagram in 2014.
Journalist Saleha Soadat said the fact that the meeting was held in Bagram demonstrated that America lacks trust in the Afghan government, and that it considers its own officials superior to Afghanistan’s.
And Sediqullah Tawhidi, a member of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, claimed, “The palace needs to explain why and how this has happened.”
Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, one of the leaders of the Afghan Millat party and former minister of finance, suggested the manipulation of the images reflected Ghani’s nature.