hankyoreh

Cho Ki-weon

By Cho Ki-weon, staff reporter

It was shocking to see crowds of Afghans rushing to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after the Taliban captured the city, the capital of Afghanistan, on Sunday. There were horrifying scenes of hundreds of desperate people sprinting onto the runway toward a single airplane, holding on to the staircase leading up to the airplane like a swarm of bees, climbing onto the fuselage of planes, and even clinging to their landing gear.

When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, they enforced Sharia law, banning women from walking through the streets alone, chopping off the hands of thieves, and stoning people to death as part of their politics of fear. Afghans seem extremely worried about the Taliban’s return after twenty years.

Developments in Afghanistan aren’t just something sad happening in another country, with no relation to South Korea. The South Korean military was heavily engaged in Afghanistan for quite a long time.

Korea sent several military units to Afghanistan after 2001, including the Haeseong Unit, for naval transport and support; the Dongui Unit, for medical support; the Dasan Unit, for construction and engineering support; and the Oshino Unit, for provincial reconstruction.

South Korea was one of more than ten countries that had troops stationed at the Bagram Air Base. One of its soldiers was killed when a terrorist detonated a bomb there in 2007.

Thus, South Korea was directly involved in the Afghanistan War and the reconstruction of the country for 14 years until the Oshino Unit was pulled out of the country in 2014.

The US war in Afghanistan, officially called Operation Enduring Freedom, began in October 2001 and lasted for 20 years. Now the US is evacuating interpreters and other Afghans who helped US forces during that war.

Under the Special Immigrant Visa program, the US plans to evacuate those who helped the US and their families, a group that includes more than 50,000 people, either to the US or to other countries.

The UK, the country that was most closely involved in the Afghanistan War other than the US, has also agreed to accept Afghan interpreters and others who worked for British troops stationed in the country, along with their families, for a total of 5,000 people.

The government of Poland also sent an airplane to Kabul to pick up Afghans who assisted Polish soldiers and diplomats.

If the Afghans who worked for or otherwise assisted the South Korean government seek to escape because of perceived danger, Korea certainly ought to help them, too.

Furthermore, Afghan refugees are expected to become a major issue that the international community will have to deal with.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), around 2.5 million Afghan refugees have already escaped into other countries. The UNHCR said that 550,000 Afghans have also been internally displaced after losing their homes as the civil war heated up this year.

The Taliban promised to respect women’s rights under Islamic law on Tuesday in its first official press conference since taking Kabul two days before. While that hints that the Taliban are different than they used to be, it remains to be seen whether the Taliban will fundamentally alter their politics of fear.

That could ultimately produce many more refugees, an issue that will probably require cooperation between Afghanistan’s neighbors and various other countries.

The UK has agreed to accept 20,000 Afghan refugees on a long-term basis in addition to accepting Afghans who assisted its military. The African country of Uganda will also be accepting 2,000 Afghan refugees at the US’ request, while Kosovo and Albania will be temporarily taking in some refugees, too.

Uzbekistan, one of Afghanistan’s neighbors, will reportedly let airports in the capital of Tashkent and in the Navoiy Region in the northwest be used to help transport refugees escaping from Afghanistan.

The least the South Korean government can do is take in or aid the evacuation of the Afghans who helped us. I hope it will also take more proactive humanitarian measures by embracing Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban’s politics of fear.

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