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Strongly Protested, Biden Disburses Rp50.2 Trillion of Afghan Assets for Families of 9/11 Victims. PHOTO/Reuters
Protesters who gathered outside the grand Eid Gah mosque in Kabul claimed the money belonged to the Afghan people. They also asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans who died during the last 20 years of the war in Afghanistan.
Read: UN: Taliban Kill 100 Former Afghan Government Officials and Others
The September 11 victims and their families have legal claims against the Taliban and $7 billion in the US banking system. Courts must sign off before disbursing humanitarian aid money and decide whether to use frozen funds to pay the claim.
Overall, Afghanistan has about $9 billion in assets overseas, including $7 billion in the US. The rest are mostly in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
“What about our Afghan people who have given so many sacrifices and thousands of lives?” asked the organizer of the demonstration, Abdul Rahman, a civil society activist.
Read: US asked to relax sanctions to allow money to flow to Afghanistan
Rahman said he planned to organize more demonstrations across the capital to protest Biden’s orders. “This money belongs to the Afghan people, not the United States. This is the right of the Afghan people,” he said.
Meanwhile Biden’s order, signed on Friday, allocates another $3.5 billion of Afghan assets for humanitarian aid to a trust fund to be managed by the United Nations to provide assistance to Afghans.
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