Ashraf Ghani: How Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani went from president to villain in hiding

If anybody was speculated to know repair Afghanistan, it was Ashraf Ghani.

Earlier than turning into president in 2014, Ghani spent a lot of his life learning increase development in poor nations. A Fulbright Scholar with a doctorate from Columbia College, he taught at a few of America’s elite tutorial establishments earlier than stints on the World Financial institution and United Nations. Later he co-wrote “Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World.”

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, and his whereabouts had been a thriller earlier than the United Arab Emirates introduced three days later he and his household had been within the Persian Gulf state “on humanitarian grounds.” The Russians claimed he left Afghanistan with 4 automobiles and a helicopter full of money, one thing Ghani denied in a video message launched Wednesday. Within the nation he’s change into a villain: his central financial institution chief and key members of his administration have denounced him publicly. Efforts to achieve him or his shut aides had been unsuccessful.

“I needed to transfer out of Afghanistan to forestall Kabul from bloodshed and destruction,” Ghani mentioned within the video, including that he had no intention to depart however safety officers warned him of a “large conspiracy” to take his life. “I used to be moved out of Afghanistan in such a manner that I didn’t even have the prospect to take off my sandals and put on my sneakers as a substitute.”

In some ways, Ghani’s swift downfall displays the broader failures of the U.S. to impose a authorities on Afghanistan that had buy-in from a spread of competing energy brokers with an extended historical past of combating on the battlefield somewhat than on the poll field. Though he was a Pashtun, the nation’s dominant ethnic group, Ghani was seen as an outsider who lacked the political contact to unite disparate factions, and he grew to become extra remoted over time.

“Ghani was not accommodating of the realities of how Afghanistan works,” mentioned Kabir Taneja, writer of “The ISIS Peril: The World’s Most Feared Terror Group and its Shadow on South Asia” and a fellow at Observer Analysis Basis in New Delhi. “He both didn’t perceive or couldn’t perceive the warlords, who’re basically folks representing ethnic fault traces.”

After the U.S. invasion in 2001, Ghani returned to Afghanistan for the primary time in additional than a quarter-century, and served for 2 years as finance minister in an administration led by Hamid Karzai. Afterward Ghani grew to become a darling of the worldwide assist world, giving Ted Talks, penning op-eds in main newspapers and talking at conferences. At one level he was thought-about a candidate for UN secretary-general.

Following a failed bid for the presidency in 2009, Ghani linked up with a number of outstanding Afghan politicians — together with influential warlord-turned-vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum — to win the highest job 5 years later. However his victory was undermined from the beginning: John Kerry, then America’s high diplomat, flew to Kabul to dealer a unity authorities that gave his essential rival the place of “chief govt” — a title that seems nowhere in Afghanistan’s U.S.-modeled structure.

In 2017, Ghani mentioned he had “the worst job on earth” in an interview with the BBC. Nonetheless, he claimed that Afghan safety forces had turned a nook towards the Taliban and coalition forces would be capable to depart by 2021.

That turned out to be correct, simply not in the best way he predicted. President Donald Trump’s administration began direct talks with the Taliban in a bid to finish America’s longest warfare, and shut Ghani out of the method. Then this yr, after President Joe Biden set a withdrawal deadline for Aug. 31, Ghani resisted calls to step apart and permit a transitional authorities to take energy because the Taliban made navy advances.

“Ghani pretended to be for peace, however in actuality he was in favor of warfare with a purpose to stay in energy even when it value lives and pushed the Taliban to revert again to a navy possibility,” mentioned Omar Samad, former Afghan ambassador to Europe and fellow at Atlantic Council. “The delay ways ruined the probabilities for a deal that may have eliminated him from workplace however would have paved the best way for a broad-based transition.”

Because the Taliban descended on Kabul over the weekend, Ghani advised the folks that he would keep away from the destiny of former king Amanullah Khan, who abdicated and fled to British India in 1929.

“I can’t flee!” Ghani mentioned at an occasion in Kabul on Aug. 4, elevating his voice loudly. “I gained’t search protected haven and I shall be on the service of individuals.”

But because the Taliban blitzed throughout the nation and marched to Kabul, Ghani appeared more and more remoted. In a video launched hours earlier than he fled, Ghani referred to as for the Protection Ministry to arrange phone helplines for residents to name.

After Ghani fled, even his cupboard members had been livid.

“They tied our fingers behind our backs and offered off the nation,” Bismillah Mohammadi, Afghanistan’s appearing protection minister, mentioned on Twitter after Ghani fled. “Rattling to Ghani and his workforce.”

Within the video message on Wednesday, Ghani mentioned he had been planning to barter with the Taliban to have a peaceable switch of energy. He referred to as for an inclusive authorities and mentioned he was in talks to return to Afghanistan.

With Ghani in a foreign country, former president Karzai and different Afghan politicians at the moment are main discussions with the Taliban on establishing a brand new authorities. One factor they’ll simply agree on: Disdain for Ghani.

“Ashraf Ghani has betrayed his personal motherland, workforce and tribe,” Abdul Haq Hamad, a member of Taliban’s media workforce, advised Afghanistan’s Tolo Information. “Such treason will at all times be remembered.”