Committee of Inquiry: Kabul evacuation: A touch of self-criticism from Merkel

With a touch of self-criticism, former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) looks back on the decisions surrounding the evacuation from Kabul during her interrogation as a witness in the Bundestag’s Afghanistan investigation committee. She emphasizes that everything went well in 2021 with the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr and the evacuation of Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan. Merkel says: “The schedule was adhered to. I was very relieved about that.”

Looking back, she believes that German participation in the military operation in Afghanistan was the right thing to do, she says. At that time there was a “reasonable hope” that no further terrorist attacks would be planned from Afghanistan afterwards.

Do not establish a new community in another state

With all other goals – from the rule of law to women’s rights – “we, the international community, must admit that we have failed,” she continues. She cites, among other things, a lack of cultural understanding among Western allies, nepotism and drug trafficking as the reasons for this failure. The country’s geopolitical situation and Pakistan’s influence were probably not fully assessed correctly. The fact that they had to leave Afghanistan to flee the Taliban was “a terrible failure”.

The lack of progress in Afghanistan also made them skeptical in 2011 about more involvement in Libya after the uprising against ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi. At the time, she thought they shouldn’t start “another construction site” there.

The trigger for the military intervention in Afghanistan were the attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001, to which the terrorist network Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

Merkel says she only became aware that it would in any case result in an evacuation from Kabul from August 13, 2021 – the last day of her summer vacation – when she was informed by telephone about the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban took complete control of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 with the conquest of Kabul – with virtually no resistance.

Merkel does not cite the fact that President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as an example. She compares Ghani with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who remained on site after the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022.

The Chancellor didn’t want any images like those in Saigon in 1975

At the time, Merkel personally told him that she didn’t want to see any pictures like those in Saigon, the last commander of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Ansgar Meyer, reported to the committee members during his interrogation. “And we managed to do that as far as the military part is concerned,” he adds.

A few weeks later he saw “Saigon” on television, he says, referring to the international evacuation operation in Kabul. “That hit me deeply.” The chaotic evacuation of US troops and their allies from the South Vietnamese capital Saigon in the spring of 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War.

When committee chairman Ralf Stegner (SPD) asked why she said that at the time, Merkel replied that she herself could not remember the statement. If the general said so, she didn’t want to deny it. She probably meant “that it should be a safe deduction”. Before questioning Merkel, the committee questioned her former head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU).

In 2020 and 2021, there were different opinions within the then black-red federal government as to the extent and how local employees of the Bundeswehr and German institutions should be accepted into Germany. One of those who put the brakes on was the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer (CSU).

Medals for a federal police officer and a diplomat?

Beyond the politically responsible people, from the perspective of the members of the committee, there are, in addition to the Bundeswehr soldiers involved in the evacuation, some people who acted decisively and courageously in the acute emergency situation in August 2021. In the opinion of the FDP chairwoman of the Afghanistan investigation committee, Ann-Veruschka Jurisch, a federal police officer, a diplomat and four other people should receive a Federal Order of Merit for this.

“Through their tireless commitment and persistence,” the then charge d’affaires of the German embassy, ​​Jan Hendrik van Thiel, and his security advisor from the Federal Police’s GSG-9 – a police officer with the working name “Fisch” – made the Bundeswehr’s landing possible says the MP on the sidelines of what is probably the committee’s last witness hearing.

The committee is tasked with investigating the circumstances of the hectic German evacuation from Kabul and the decision-making processes with a view to accepting Afghan local staff. It should point out possible wrong political decisions and make recommendations for the federal government’s actions in future crises and conflicts.

Helge Braun admits that it would probably have been better if people had prepared at the time for the scenario of a rapid takeover of power by the militant Islamist Taliban, which the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) considered unlikely. The Chancellery has technical supervision for the BND.

The Green politician Canan Bayram points out to Braun that this scenario, internally called “Emirate 2.0”, was already considered likely in a meeting of state secretaries in November 2020. When asked about it, Merkel said: “I was not aware of this scenario.”

In response to a question from FDP MP Peter Heidt as to whether she had ever made use of her policymaking authority with regard to Afghanistan, the former Chancellor replied: “Policymaking authority is not the order of the day or that’s all,” rather she has always tried to achieve unity in the cabinet .

In a letter to the Federal President, Jurisch suggests that, in addition to the police officer and the diplomat, two former employees of the German embassy in Kabul, a German civilian and a BND employee who was deployed in the Afghan capital at the time should be honored with the Federal Order of Merit. The reason given is that they all voluntarily decided to stay at Kabul Airport for over twelve days, despite the high risks involved, in order to prepare the evacuation operation together with the Bundeswehr and make it a success.

Federal police officers were critical of decisions made by the Foreign Office

The embassy’s former security advisor – the police officer “Fisch” – had said as a witness at an earlier meeting of the investigative committee that after his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan he had decided “that I will no longer work for the Foreign Office abroad.” Before the Taliban took power in Kabul, the diplomat Markus Potzel was intended to be the new German ambassador to Afghanistan. Potzel informed him in writing on Saturday, August 14th – one day before the hectic evacuation – that he was against moving the embassy staff to the airport, the federal police officer reported.