West's economic sanctions on Taliban won't reform outfit: Report

The economic sanctions approach that the West has adopted towards the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after its takeover of Kabul in August last year is neither helping the humanitarian situation in the country nor will reform the outfit in its outlook on society, a report has said.

The dilemma that faces the West when it comes to deciding whether or not to aid Afghanistan is that if 40 million Afghans are not to blame for what is happening, should they be allowed to suffer because others disapprove of leadership which those people have not explicitly chosen, the report in Europe Asia Foundation asks.

After the chaotic withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan, abandoning even thousands of their Afghan helpers and handing over huge caches of weapons to the Taliban, the attention of the west turned to the principal non-military means of excluding transgressors from mainstream global society, the financial system.

Prior to August, international aid accounted for three-quarters of Afghan government spending but this was halted overnight, causing a severe liquidity crisis, the report said.

The USD 1.8 billion for humanitarian aid pledged since August by the global community is simply not getting through efficiently, and more than half of all Afghans go hungry. The World Food Programme is struggling to find donors to fund its USD 4.4 billion plans.

Economic isolation has coincided with a severe drought. Hunger is likely to kill more Afghans in the years to come than died in 20 years of war, the report said citing International Rescue Committee (IRC).

A government that was seriously worried about its place in the international panoply of nations would be concerned about this situation, but there is little sign that the Taliban regime will bend to the whim of the global community, the report said citing the ban on girls' education over grade six under the regime, even after promises of last year by the outfit saying that girls' education would not be banned.

The report goes on to say that there is little evidence to show that the European Union's (EU) magnanimity or the US' pledge to unfreeze some assets (at some unspecified time) has helped buy any influence in Kabul, the report said.

We have learned too often that ignoring those whose missions are not compatible with democratic norms rarely encourages them to go away, the report adds.

Making sure that all regional partners are on board, with common goals, has not worked hitherto. Having Pakistan better deliver the values it espouses, such as gender equality, than it has previously is crucial to future success in Afghanistan, the report concluded.

( With inputs from ANI )

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