I have been made a scapegoat, former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has said on the fall of Kabul, in a radio interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today, as he spoke publicly for the first time. In an interview with guest editor, UK’s former Chief of Defense Staff General Sir Nick Carter, Ghani admitted some of his mistakes.  

"My life work has been destroyed. My values had been trampled on. And I have been made a scapegoat," Ghani said, adding he was willing to take the blame for some things which led to the fall of Kabul - like trusting "in our international partnership", an implied euphemism for relying too much on the word of the United States. 

Talking about the day, 15 August, when he left Kabul, he said that he had "no inkling" it would be his last day in Afghanistan. It was only when his plane left Kabul that he realized he was leaving, Ghani made the surprising revelation in the interview.

"Two different factions of the Taliban were closing in from two different directions," Ghani said, with "the possibility of a massive conflict between them that would destroy the city of five million and bring havoc to the people was enormous."

He claimed he was waiting for a car to arrive to go to the Ministry of Defense but it never arrived. Thereafter, he instructed his officials to take him to Khost or Jalalabad, and it was then he was told that both cities had fallen. 

Surprisingly, Ghani’s account of the day isn’t accurate or he might have been fed wrong information by his officials. the eastern cities of Khost and Jalalabad—where CIA-trained KPK, a separate militia force, were fighting with the Taliban— fell to the Taliban on 16 August, a day after the fall of Kabul.  

A recent investigation by Reuters confirmed that the decision ( to leave the country) was made after it became clear that Afghan forces were melting away, and the chain of command broke down completely. "Some soldiers went rogue," former Afghan national security advisor Hamidullah Mohib said in a recent interview.

Even Ghani’s helicopter, stationed at Kabul airport, wasn't allowed to take off for the presidential palace by security forces.  

On the allegation that the former president took millions of dollars with them, he said, “I want to categorically state, I did not take any money out of the country.

"My style of life is known to everyone. What would I do with money?" he said, adding that he was ready to cooperate in any international investigation on this. 

The assumption that the patience of the international community would last long turned to be wrong, Ghani added. He, however blamed the Doha deal as the biggest reason for the fall of Kabul.

"Instead of a peace process, we got a withdrawal process," Ghani said. The way the deal was done, Ghani added, "erased us". In the end, it was "a violent coup, not a political agreement, or a political process where the people have been involved", he said. 

(SAM)