By Ai Min

瑷敏

The US president Joe Biden recently signed an executive order planning to spend half of the USD senven billion frozen assets in the US that belonged to the Central Bank of Afghanistan on compensating the victims of the 9/11 attacks and transfer the other half to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for creating a trust fund that will be distributed by what the US called humanitarian organizations to nominally provide aid for Afghanistan. The US made it clear that it will not return the assets to the Taliban.

日前，美国总统拜登签署行政令，计划将所冻结的阿富汗中央银行在美资产70亿美元的一半，用于赔偿“9•11”恐怖袭击事件受害者，另一半则转移至纽约联邦储备银行，用以成立信托基金，通过所谓的人道主义组织进行分配，名义上向阿富汗提供援助。同时，美方明确表示这些资产不会交还给塔利班。

Analysts pointed out that the dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan was entirely the making of the US, and now the superpower is blatantly taking away its“life-saving money”. That will not only pour fuel on the flame of misery that the Afghans are afflicted with, but will exert far-reaching negative impacts on the international community.

分析人士指出，阿富汗深陷人道主义危机完全是由美国一手造成，如今美国还要明目张胆地抢走他们的“救命钱”，这不但会加剧阿富汗人民的苦难，还将对国际社会产生持续深远的负面影响。

Statistics show that before the Taliban came to power, the Central Bank of Afghanistan controlled about $9 billion foreign exchange reserves, of which about $7 billion was deposited at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York in a mixture of gold, cash, US Treasury bonds and other paper money. Not having a well-developed financial reserve system of its own, the Central Bank of Afghanistan also deposited a total of about $2 billion assets in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, UAE and other countries.

据统计，塔利班上台前，阿富汗中央银行控制约90亿美元的外汇储备，其中约70亿美元以黄金、现金、美国国债券和其他纸币的混合形式，存放在位于纽约的美国联邦储备银行。由于缺乏完善的金融储备系统，除将国家资产存放在美国外，阿富汗中央银行还在英国、德国、瑞士、阿联酋等国存放共计约20亿美元资产。

Following Taliban’s control of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, the international community cut off all the aid to the country, and the Biden administration took the chance to freeze the $7 billion forex reserves in New York, which, it is learned, consisted of both international aids and the savings of ordinary Afghan people.

2021年8月15日，塔利班控制阿富汗首都喀布尔。国际社会随即中断对阿富汗的诸多援助举措，拜登政府则趁机冻结阿富汗中央银行在美约70亿美元外汇储备。据悉，阿富汗中央银行被冻结的外汇储备中，除国际社会的援助资金外，还有相当一部分是阿富汗普通民众的存款。

After the executive order was signed by Biden, Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman of the Taliban political office, criticized the decision as stealing the properties of the Afghan people. The office protested that there were no Afghans among the people executing the 9/11 attacks, nor was the attacking plane from Afghanistan, then why on earth should the US use Afghan people’s money to compensate for 9/11 victims? On the contrary, it is the US that has waged a war in Afghanistan and thrown its people into the abyss of suffering. Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai commented days ago that the US government’s detention of forex reserves of the Afghan Central Bank is equivalent to slaughtering of the Afghan people.

拜登签署上述行政令后，阿富汗临时政府发言人穆罕默德•纳伊姆称，美国此举是在窃取阿富汗人民的财产。阿富汗临时政府明确表示，“9•11”事件中，袭击实施者中没有阿富汗人，用于袭击的飞机也不是阿富汗的飞机，怎么能用阿富汗人民的财产去赔偿“9•11”事件受害者？反倒是美国发动战争，令阿富汗生灵涂炭。阿富汗前总统卡尔扎伊也于日前明确表示，美国政府扣留阿富汗中央银行外汇储备，无异于是对阿富汗人民的“屠杀”。

In fact, such an arrangement for the frozen Afghan assets reflects the Biden administration’s selfish calculations. On the one hand, it can use the money to buy support among the voters; on the other hand, it will control how the so-called trust fund for Afghan people’s “relief” will be used and at what pace, which is a new way for it to interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.

事实上，拜登政府如此支配这批资金，更多是在打自己的“小算盘”：一方面，可以争取选民支持，收买人心；另一方面，用于“救济阿富汗人民”的所谓信托基金如何使用、进度快慢都由美国说了算，这恰恰成为美国干预阿富汗内政的一种新手段。

Such a selfish move doubtlessly lends one more blow to the teetering Afghan economy. The country is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis with its economic recession, ongoing drought, protracted conflict, and spreading pandemic posing the most severe challenge to its people. According to statistics, about 23 million people in Afghanistan don’t have enough to eat now, 3.2 million children under five suffer from malnutrition, and about 3.5 million are made homeless.

美国的“小算盘”，无疑令本就在经济上岌岌可危的阿富汗雪上加霜。如今，阿富汗正面临严重的人道主义危机。经济的严重衰退、接连不断的干旱、旷日持久的冲突和新冠肺炎疫情的蔓延成为阿富汗人民目前面临的最严峻挑战。据统计，阿富汗目前有约2300万人面临严重粮食安全问题，320万5岁以下的儿童严重营养不良，约350万人流离失所。

Biden’s decision met vehement objection from the international community as well. Foreign ministries of countries such as Russia, Iran and Pakistan said the Afghan people have the right to use their assets deposited around the world as needed, and the frozen Afghan assets in the US should be returned to them. Taliban said earlier on that it would reconsider its US policy if Washington doesn’t revoke its unjust decision to peculate the Afghan assets. In the meantime, economic plummeting is accompanied by soaring terrorism in Afghanistan, which will not only threaten the security of the country itself but also undermine the anti-terror efforts in countries worldwide.

拜登此举也遭到国际社会的强烈反对。俄罗斯、伊朗、巴基斯坦等国外交部明确表示，根据自己的需要使用在世界各国存放的阿富汗资金是阿富汗人民自己的权利，被美国冻结的阿富汗人民资产理应归还阿富汗人民。塔利班此前已明确表示，如果美国政府不撤销侵吞阿富汗中央银行在美资产的不公正决定，塔利班将重新考虑对美政策。与此同时，伴随着阿富汗经济的螺旋式下降，恐怖主义在阿富汗愈演愈烈。这不仅会危及阿富汗自身安全，也将对世界各国反恐态势形成巨大威胁。