Forced to Flee (II)

Seeking Legitimation

The Bundeswehr must carry out foreign operations, for example in Mali, to eliminate the causes of why people flee, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen claimed early this week during her visit in Mali's capital Bamako. Military intervention would help "alleviate people having to flee violence and hopelessness."[1] She was in Mali to attend the Bundeswehr's being transferred the command of the so-called European Training Mission (EUTM Mali). With around 160 soldiers, the Bundeswehr makes up about one third of the contingent and will now be, for the first time, in charge of an EU military intervention on the African continent. By pretending to be in Mali merely to combat the causes for people fleeing, the defense minister is seeking to win sympathy for the Bundeswehr's interventions by using the current refugee crisis. However, the contrary is true: Germany's aggressive foreign policy is actively helping create the reasons for people to flee.

Geostrategic Objectives

Afghanistan is a typical example of how the aggressive foreign policies of western countries - including Germany's - have massively contributed to the flow of refugees. In the case of Afghanistan, the origin of this development dates back to the summer 1979 -preceding Soviet intervention. A few years ago, the US government's national security adviser, at the time, Zbigniew Brzezinski, publicly confirmed that on July 3, 1979, President Carter had already signed the first directive for secret aid to Afghanistan's insurgent Mujahidin.[2] The primary objective was to spur on the opponents of Kabul's pro-Soviet government. By supporting the Mujahidin, we "knowingly increased the probability" that the Soviet Union would intervene in favor of its Afghan ally. "We now have the opportunity of giving the USSR its Vietnam War," Brzezinski wrote Carter the day the Soviets officially crossed the border. Violent insurgencies had been instigated for ulterior geostrategic objectives. Everyone must have known that deliberate escalation of upheavals will drive people to flee.

Involvement in War

Besides instigating unrest in 1979, the USA, along with a select number of western allies, fuelled the Afghanistan war during the 1980s by paying the Mujahidin and their Arab supporters triple-digit millions annually. Arab militias in Afghanistan, at the time, had included Osama bin Laden and other jihadists. Al Qaeda is a spin-off from their networks and structures during the war in Afghanistan. The Federal Republic of Germany had also been involved in this systematic support for the Mujahidin's war. "GSG9 officers had trained jihadists near Peshawar," according to a reference work on the German BND intelligence service and its history. "Arab volunteers had also been given training and instructions in Chaman, Pakistan and even in Upper Bavaria." "A medical officer and a major of the Bundeswehr's Office of Intelligence traveled through Afghanistan supporting Mujahidin units," the book's authors wrote of Bonn's Afghan war involvement, during that period.[3] Since then, it has also been revealed that this involvement had included armed combat.[4] Whoever participates in war knows very well that every major armed conflict will create refugees.

Horrible Conditions

In the 1980s alone, more than six million Afghans fled their country, according to UNHCR estimates.[5] They were fleeing a war that had also been provoked and spurred on by the West, through its support of one of the warring parties. Moreover, Germany was involved. Western involvement in that war during the 1980s - provoking that wave of refugees - had been motivated by geostrategic interests and not by an alleged concern for the Afghan population. This was evident in the 1990s, when the West lost all interest in Afghanistan, as its former allies, the Mujahidin, continued to pursue their war in this politically, economically and socially devastated country. It speaks volumes about conditions left behind in that country - also thanks to western interference in the 1980s - when, in the 1990s, a significant segment of the population had welcomed the Taliban's successive rise to power, simply because, at least, they forced a modicum of stability on the country. In the 1990s, more than six million more Afghans fled the conditions the West helped create.[6]

Worse Than Ever

Afghanistan has never recuperated from the devastation that began in the 1980s. Reality has finally shattered the hardly credible illusion - nourished for purposes of PR by western public opinion makers - that the war in 2001, and the subsequent occupation, should and would improve conditions in Afghanistan. "The year Germany withdrew its troops, the actual number of Afghans who fled to Germany from that country is a horrifying indicator that terror and violence is worse than ever in that country," notes "Pro Asyl."[7] According to this refugee aid organization, 15,950 Afghans were applying for refugee status in Germany by the end of last year. 3,982 Afghan refugees have been refused asylum. The country, which had helped destroy their country, since the 1980s, has merely granted them the precarious status of a "tolerated" resident - to live in refugee hostels, without the right to work. Afghan refugees are still arriving in Germany, fleeing violence and destitution that makes their remaining in their country unbearable. Perhaps they could have been spared this fate, had western countries, Germany included, not risked ruining an entire country for geostrategic advantages.

For more on this theme: Forced to Flee (I).

[1] Von der Leyen: Ursachen von Flüchtlingskrisen bekämpfen. www.dtoday.de 28.07.2015.
[2] Brzezinski: "Oui, la CIA est entrée en Afghanistan avant les Russes...". Le Nouvel Observateur 15.01.1998.
[3] Peter F. Müller, Michael Mueller (mit Erich Schmidt-Eenboom): Gegen Freund und Feind. Der BND: Geheime Politik und schmutzige Geschäfte. Hamburg 2002.
[4] Unser Krieg. ZDF 08.10.2013. S. dazu Der Krieg kehrt heim (II).
[5], [6] Rüdiger Schöch: Afghan refugees in Pakistan during the 1980s: Cold War politics and registration practice. UNHCR, June 2008.
[7] Zahlen und Fakten 2014. www.proasyl.de.