KABUL (Xinhua) – Hundreds of Afghans gathered in front of the former Afghanistan Human Rights Commission office in capital Kabul Saturday to protest against the recent U.S. announcement regarding transferring a part of Afghanistan’s national reserves to a trust in Switzerland, calling the full release of the assets.
Holding placards and banners, the protesters chanted anti-U.S. slogans, blaming the United States for the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan.
The protesters demanded the immediate, full release of Afghanistan’s central bank reserves.
“Today, we protest in front of the Human Rights Commission building. U.S. should immediately unfreeze Afghanistan’s money,” LaLa Agha, one of the organizers, told Xinhua.
Rafeuallah, another participant, who is a shopkeeper, said, “U.S. should immediately return our money.”
The protesters issued a declaration at the end of the demonstration, accusing the U.S.-led forces of war crimes and atrocious killing of innocent Afghan men, women and children. In the declaration, protesters also asked for the immediate and full unfreezing of the more than 9 billion U.S. dollars and trial of soldiers who have committed war crimes.
Following the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces from the Asian country, Afghanistan’s assets worth more than 9 billion U.S. dollars were frozen by the United States as part of its sanctions on the new rulers of the war-torn country.
The U.S. government announced Wednesday that the 3.5 billion USD of Afghan central bank reserves it had frozen will be transferred to a newly-established “Afghan Fund” in Switzerland.