Statement by Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva at the International Donor Conference for Afghanistan
Excellencies,
Colleagues,
At the outset, we want to thank the organizers of today’s event on mobilization of financial resources aiming at assisting the population of Afghanistan. We see this initiative of the UN Secretary-General, Qatar, the United Kingdom and Germany as one very ripened, if not delayed. Let me remind that the call for convening such a conference was announced at the 3rd meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on 20 October, 2021.
The situation in Afghanistan is very dynamic. We are particularly concerned by humanitarian and socio-economic problems of the country. Afghanistan’s population is facing one of the fastest developing humanitarian crises in the world. People face hunger, poverty and unemployment. Prognoses that we hear from the UN are not promising. More than half of the Afghan population (24,4 mln people) will acutely need aid this year. Every second child below 5 years old will suffer malnutrition.
In the conditions of total blockade of banking systems and acute unemployment the population of the country remains on the brink of survival. Afghan people have to continue to sell their children and body organs to feed their families.
In this situation we commend the work of UN humanitarian agencies who stayed on the ground all these years and moths. We also commend steps undertaken by international structures and financial institutions, namely also World Bank, which has taken a decision to unfreeze assets of Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund to ease the humanitarian situation in the country. Unfortunately, these steps are not enough for sustainable improvement of lives of Afghan civilian population. International humanitarian aid hardly allows decreasing the social distress.
The destruction of Afghan economy seriously exacerbates already dire humanitarian situation. Against the backdrop of the overall tragedy of the current situation we continue to see the attempts of a number of states under any pretext to torpedo the revival of the work of Afghanistan financial operators with international banking system and postpone steps to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets.
The February decision of President J.Biden to block the accounts of Afghanistan Central Bank and to reserve a part of frozen assets to pay compensations to relatives of the victims of 9/11 attacks is cynical and immoral. Let me remind you that so far, we have not seen a single proof of affiliation of ordinary Afghan citizens to those attacks, or their organization. Meanwhile, such executive order closes any opportunities for the new authorities to normalize the economic activities in Afghanistan.
We call on the US and other Western donors to stop speculating on the Afghan issue, unfreeze assets, bring money back to the country, and begin to provide comprehensive assistance to normalizing socio-economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan without any conditions and caveats. After all, it is the US and their allies who bear primary responsibility for the 20 years of their presence in this country.
Russia continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. Afghanistan is traditionally in the focus of the Russian humanitarian assistance, including within the UN. In the end of the 2021 and beginning of this year we provided Afghanistan with the humanitarian cargo, including foodstuffs, winter clothes and medications. We deeply regret that illegal sanctions, imposed by the Western countries, also negatively affect our cooperation with UN humanitarian organizations. They destroy logistical and financial chains.
But be assured that we continue to provide assistance to the peaceful settlement and national reconciliation through our bilateral contacts with the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan and cooperation within the extended “Troika”, Moscow format, as well as other regional fora.
We plan further to assist the people and de-facto authorities of Afghanistan to overcome the socio-economic crisis and mitigate its consequences.
Thank you.
