Peace process failed, so I had to flee: Afghan prez
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani posted a video on his Facebook page late Wednesday saying he was in the United Arab Emirates, thanking Afghan security forces — and taking at swipe at the “failure of the peace process” that led to his ouster and the Taliban snatching power.
In the video, he also claimed he was “forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing,” pushing back at the charge by Afghanistan’s ambassador to Tajikistan that he had swiped $169 million from state funds.
“Accusations were charged in these days that money was transferred, these accusations are fully baseless.” Ghani said.
The 72-year-old Ghani, in power since 2014, quietly left Afghanistan Sunday while his government quickly collapsed at the hands of the Taliban.
The militants met little resistance as they stormed into Kabul and took control of the presidential palace following the capture of numerous cities in just a matter of days.
After fleeing, Ghani had said in a Facebook post he’d left the capital to avoid bloodshed.
The hasty escape ruined any chances of a smooth transition of power to the Taliban and turned the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan into a chaotic operation.
Ghani’s decision also angered many Afghans, some of whom called him a “coward” for refusing to fight.
Even the Afghan Embassy in India weighed in, writing in a now-deleted tweet that the president was a “traitor” who had “fled with his crooks.”
Ghani previously served as Afghanistan’s finance minister and as chancellor of Kabul University.
The Taliban, meanwhile, continued their stunning takeover of the war-torn country Wednesday. The group, whose leaders have promised peace and vowed to form an inclusive government, cracked down on protesters who had replaced a Taliban flag in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The crackdown quickly turned violent, with at least three people reportedly killed and many others wounded.
More chaotic scenes continued to unfold outside the Kabul airport, where the Taliban struggled to contain massive crowds of people trying to get out of the country.