It's Our Moral Obligation To Help Them

Seven years ago I landed at Kabul International Airport. Today, this airport is being used to evacuate the international community including thousands of Australians

In August 2014 my love of political science was in demand. With my friends Josh Wilson and Luke Gosling I was in Afghanistan as an International Observer of the Presidential Election recount.

This was one of many steps in Afghanistan’s return to peace, return to democracy. It was exciting to be doing our part.

We stayed at a secure compound posing as a hotel. Our days started with the sound of prayers blasted through the city on loudspeakers. Security briefings followed and then into heavily armoured SUVs. Locals advised we sit on our flak jackets as a little extra protection in case we drove over an IED.

Speeding along dirt roads with instructions not to stop for anyone or anything until we arrived at heavily armed security checkpoints with thorough pat downs. Our destination was a US Air Force base which housed millions of ballot papers from across the country.

Inside each massive aircraft hangar stood towers of ballot boxes. We would watch slow counts of 300 votes at a time. Every ballot was inspected, counted, verified and inevitably argued over – the arguments between the candidates’ representatives sometimes boiling over into physical conflict.

The interpreters that helped us had previously worked with the United States. They had received death threats and were scared for their lives and keen to emigrate to a safe country. Seven years on their situation and that of millions of Afghans is worse than ever.

And the President who was elected at that election, Ashraf Ghani, still serves as President today. When elected there was hope the former lead anthropologist for the World Bank could bring his country a prosperous future.

Afghanistan has mineral deposits that rival Australia’s. Gold, lithium, iron ore, rare earths and more. Conservatively valued at more than $1 trillion dollars.

Instead of economic development we are seeing a country near collapse. The Taliban have taken over a number of regional capitals. Now they are moving towards Kabul.

The United States are evacuating their embassy staff. Reports that staff who remain are shredding and burning documents, phones, hard drives and more.

Australia has already closed our embassy and handed the keys back for our ambassador’s residence in Kabul.  Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in May the closure was temporary but acknowledged the “increasingly uncertain security environment”.

Less than three months later we have reports that the Taliban control the majority of the country and are just 12 kilometres from taking the capital.

This is a global tragedy. Following the tragic events of September 11, the international community spent 20 years in the fragile work of security and democracy building.

Where we are on the eve of the 20th anniversary of September 11 is heartbreaking. I only spent four weeks there. The heartbreak of the 26,000 Australian troops and thousands of diplomats must be a thousand times over.

This is a humanitarian crisis. Australia has a moral obligation to do everything we can to prevent complete collapse.

On the ground across Afghanistan, girls will grow up without finishing school. The Taliban will again close independent media and publishers. Thousands of lives will be lost.

It is part of a worrying trend that under the cover of COVID we are seeing a disintegration of democracy. The US Capitol riots to illegally overturn a democratic election. The military seized control of Myanmar.

The world is distracted and groups like the Taliban know it. Democracy is one of the most fundamental Australian values. More fragile democracies in our region risk similar fate if we don’t maintain our diplomatic and defence engagement.

Australia needs to show in international forums that even as we have a health crisis at home, we remain in the business of building a fair, democratic and secure world.