The lengths that government bureaucracies all across Europe are going to to deny fleeing Afghans (including interpreters and other local staff) refuge in the continent is completely disgusting. An absolute stain on the moral leadership of Europe and inexcusable.
Stories of interpreters and local embassy staff being denied protection for arbitrary bureaucratic reasons with no bearing on reality is a civilisational blight, and disgusting disregard for human life. It is chilling to think how many lives these purposeful denials will cost.
Foreign Ministries across Europe are being deliberately myopic and obstructionist in preventing the protection of people. Interpreters are told to provide documents that have already been burnt to save their lives. These are not legitimate hurdles, theyre deliberate barriers.
abc.es/espana/abci-di…
The Spanish government has abandoned nearly 50 families of interpreters, putting them against unreasonable barriers, while the Taliban is going door-to-door searching for them. Many other countries are doing the same thing.
Not only are these actions a betrayal of human values, of human decsency and of lives, but also a direct betrayal of European armed forces personnel who feel disgusted by their governments' inaction to save the people who saved their lives over the 20 year invasion.
In the Netherlands, the @DutchMFA has told local staff that while they did work for Dutch soldiers, they didn't work 'long enough' or in a high enough position to be worth saving. Can you think of anything more openly inhumane than that statement?
@DutchMFA The ADF did nothing while Kabul was being overrun. Even now there's no schedule to rescue anyone, just 'when the situation allows'. abc.net.au/news/2021-08-1…
Our former ADF chief: "For all of those people who helped us — God help them. God help them."
We're clearly not.
@DutchMFA Spare a moment to think about the troops deployed, who are being required to enforce such inhumane policies. I can't imagine the mental turmoil from sitting at an airport, telling thousands of people fleeing for their lives that countries have decided their lives not worth it.
"The Taliban are going to cut the throats of all of us who have worked with the Spanish army"
A Spanish interpreter in Herat, where they have been stranded. In June they asked Spain "to rescue us and not leave us here alone"
Now it's over two months later elindependiente.com/internacional/…
Merkel stands up and talks about evacuating 10,000+
And the Luftwaffe flight leaves with 7 people.
Incalculable cruelty being brought by people who claim to defend human rights but clearly don't value brown lives.
This German NGO shares that one man and his family who had made it to the airport were denied any evacuation by Germany because they weren't employees of the German MoD, just contractors working for. instagram.com/p/CSo72cwsDa8/…
Try explaining that to the Taliban.
The outright contempt that these government's seem to have for Afghans is legitimately chilling.
Fewer than ten people evacuated by Germany because the rest "weren't on the list". My guess would be there were denied because they couldn't secure a covid test before, but that's not confirmed.
Either way, it's depraved.
"There is no longer any way for the German government to save you. Leave the safehouse immediately!"
The heartbreaking and likely deadly message sent to Afghan interpreters for the German armed forces. About 400 are stranded and abandoned. amp.zdf.de/nachrichten/po…
Its hard to overstate not only how detrimental this policy of inhumanity is to Europe's moral 'leadership' but also their military ability. If I was in a country where European militaries were active (the Sahel perhaps) and I saw this. There is ZERO chance I would help them.
Local staff working for Australians are saying they regret it after being abandoned and left for the Taliban to find on their house-to-house searches.
Australia finally managed to get its evacuation flight out.
We took 26 people. Only one in five seats would have been full. This is a complete and horrid abdication of our responsibility to those who helps us and may now pay with their lives.
A video from 1 hour ago showing Kabul's Camp Gibson under the control out the Taliban.
Caption says 'The largest military base in Kabul is under the control of the Taliban'.
Outside there are two burnt-out Technicals, presumably belonging to Afghan forces.
Full videos in reply.
This is the video drive-by of the base's entrance.
Police in Bangkok firing 40mm 'Barricade Buster' rubber munitions directly at the press tonight in Bangkok. These less-lethal munitions have been used copiously this week against protesters in Bangkok.
See reply for close up pictures of the munition.
These photos, from Friday by @PravitR show the style and look of 'brarricade buster' rounds.
They are designed to be fired at barricades not directly at people, and can cause serious pain/injury.
Disturbing to see them fired directly at the media, seemingly at around head-height.
Note. The munitions used may not be precisely the same model as that procurement screenshot above. A large number of companies produce similar products, unclear which exact model is used by Thai police.
Unfortunately, theres a few gaps in coverage - namely in Karen state (needs improvement), there is a week in early May with incomplete coverage. Explosions since May have become too numerous to record them all, only ones causing injury or hitting strategic targets are listed now.
On the map, the size of the dots show the approximate number of reported fatalities (note this data is extremely incomplete as most incidents don't include casualty information) and coloured by the non-state actor involved.
This is a good thread to read that contextualises some of the UN population data projections. I'll try to elaborate more tomorrow, but in the meantime certainly read this.
I'll add that this was mostly included to contextualise the data and at no point is a one to one comparison accurate given the variety of statistics measures and methods to get there. We specifically tried to look at a source for Cambodia that was more detailed...
...and in my opinion likely overstates the genocide's effect on the birth-rate (it only looks at the birth-rate among women of peak childbirth age so any variation will be overstated), and still demonstrates that Xinjiang's decline far surpasses it.
The Turkish representative to the UN came in with an unsually strong statement at the High-Level UN meeting on Xinjiang. Welcome to see, hoping they back it up and end the process of ratification of an extradition treaty with China. Rough notes from their statement below ⬇⬇
The protection of fundemental rights for Uyghurs is a special interest for Turkey
We want to see them live in peace and prosperity as equal citizens, with their full rights and freedoms protected by law....
Their freedoms must be respected and guaranteed
they should be allowed to preserve their cultures and identity for generations to come.
The ongoing practices of extreme human rights violations are extremely worrying....