For days the Taliban management advised us there have been no celebrations being deliberate for 15 August, the day their fighters rolled into the capital.
“That’s for you and the West,” a senior determine advised us. “Our celebration is for 31 August, the day we kicked the foreign forces out.”
Organised or not, the Taliban have been out on the streets from the early morning.
From the rooftop the place I first glimpsed their arrival precisely a yr in the past, I may see their white and black flags connected to vans, automobiles, and bikes, careering alongside the highway, honking their horns.
This was to be a day of celebration by the Taliban, however I did not see enormous crowds on the streets clapping their 12-month-old success.
Just convoys of their loyal supporters and plenty and plenty of closely armed fighters.
A yr in the past, the Taliban could not imagine they took Kabul so simply. They celebrated then and are celebrating now. The day was declared a brand new public vacation, Independence Day, as they put it, and so they took to the streets of their well-known pick-up vans and captured armoured automobiles left behind by the United States and its NATO allies.
To this conquering military NATO’s biggest failure was by no means doubtful. We met a gaggle of males who had travelled to the capital from Helmand Province, they advised us they at all times knew at the present time would come.
“Yes, we were 100% sure this would happen, that we would take Kabul and Afghanistan,” they advised me once I requested them what the anniversary meant to them.
“The foreign army was fighting us, but we always knew that one day we would conquer again and celebrate.”
Exactly a yr on the Taliban continued a brand new custom of a televised media occasion.
It was open to the worldwide media, however overwhelmingly attended by senior figures and loyalists.
Special forces troopers, who have been manning the doorways and doing safety checks, struggled to carry again folks desirous to get contained in the packed auditorium that’s subsequent door to the United States embassy, within the coronary heart of the Green Zone, constructed by the overseas forces over 20 years.
This overwhelmingly male gathering was gatecrashed by a handful of predominantly overseas feminine reporters, producers, and photographers.
At first my producer Dominique Van Heerden was advised ladies needed to go upstairs and watch from a balcony, inside minutes we realised that was nonsense and she or he got here down and joined a small group of girls in the principle corridor.
The Taliban guards appeared considerably at a loss as to what to do with them, particularly as they cannot really contact them and throw them out – in order that they merely refused to depart and the Taliban gave up.
In the viewers a number of the large names of the motion, they’re mainly Taliban royalty, together with Anas Haqqani, a strong 28-year-old chief, and a negotiator with the United States in Doha.
His arrival sparked a flurry of exercise by the press corps looking forward to footage of him. By pure probability he sat proper behind me.
Flunkies beseeched him to go to the entrance of the gathering, to the VIP seats that had been reserved for folks similar to him.
My Afghan producer advised me he mentioned he needed to remain the place he was as a result of he wasn’t going to remain for the entire occasion.
At that time I prompt to my producer that we ask him for an interview. He swallowed laborious and mentioned “Stuart, it’s better if you ask him and I’ll translate”.
The Haqqani household are very highly effective, and to all Afghans, very scary. So I rotated in my seat, launched myself, and requested if we may have an interview. He seemed intently at me and requested, “what about?”.
I mentioned the importance of the day perhaps, and the financial and human rights issues that his authorities is going through within the eyes of the West.
He mentioned: “You’ve got two questions, and then I leave.”
After about 45 minutes he tapped me on the shoulder and indicated I used to be to go outdoors.
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The Sky News crew moved en masse out of the auditorium.
In his interview with Sky News he hinted at compromise on the problem of women’ training, however defined that they want time.
“There are no politics involved with this, and with the passage of time this issue will be solved,” he advised me.
“We want the international community and other institutions to not use it negatively, or use it against us, and it should not be a condition for aid.”
This is nuanced stuff however for a Haqqani member of the family – an ultra-conservative group – this an enormous deal.
Read extra:
‘Don’t use restrictions on women’ training towards us’, says senior Taliban chief
Evacuation of Kabul occurred with ‘tragic but avoidable outcomes’, damning report claims
Former head of British Army Lord Dannatt requires assist to be despatched to Afghanistan regardless of human rights abuses
For Western governments to associate with this could be an enormous leap of religion. But there’s a rising consensus amongst some governments, and NGO’s, that doing nothing and letting 1000’s of individuals die from hunger, lack of medical amenities, and the freezing chilly of winter right here, could be unacceptable.
Back on the streets although, to the foot troopers celebrating outdoors the now mothballed US embassy, a logo of the failed marketing campaign to vary Afghanistan, none of those difficult points actually matter.
In reality, many of those Taliban have been infants when the struggle began.
A trillion {dollars} and 21 years later… they’re in whole management.
Source: information.sky.com”