Peter De Roover on the Belgian evacuation from Afghanistan: “Where the Netherlands was deaf, Belgium simply turned out to be blind”

In the Netherlands, the admission that the government was deaf to the cries for help from its own embassy embarrassed two ministers enough to offer their resignations. No publicity was given to similar outpourings by Minister Wilmès in the House. However, according to N-VA group chairman Peter De Roover, they are no less controversial, in fact: “Where the Netherlands was deaf, Belgium simply turned out to be blind. Neither our embassy, nor the minister, nor the government had any idea of the situation on the ground until the phone started ringing on Sunday.”

What did Minister Wilmès know?

In the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Minister Wilmès answered a series of questions about the Belgian evacuation operation Operation Red Kite and the government’s view of future relations with the Taliban. In addition to numerous figures on evacuees and those left behind and the promise of openness towards cooperation without recognition, the minister gave few particularly stirring details. Until, that is, Peter De Roover asked about what exactly the minister knew and when the government actually took action, following the example of the Netherlands.

Disconcerting answer from the minister to Peter De Roover’s question

The answer that followed was disconcerting, Peter De Roover says. “The minister’s response revealed that from July onwards, the embassy in charge in Islamabad started calling people they knew, suggesting they leave the country. On 14 August, the day before Kabul fell, the embassy only knew of 34 people at most who were registered with them, and 15 people who had reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they were travelling to Afghanistan. They had called those people again; three answered, but only one asked for help.”

Plan collapses like a house of cards

Apparently, that was the end of the matter, Peter De Roover notes. “Only the next day, when Kabul is falling, does the ambassador sound the alarm to Brussels that the figure is higher than expected and will probably rise. The plan that the small number of Belgians in Afghanistan could make use of our partners’ planes collapses like a house of cards. The Wilmès cabinet hurriedly contacts the Ministry of Defence informally, after which our army puts together an airlift plan in a few hours.”

The government proved unable to make a correct assessment

MP Peter De Roover draws the only possible conclusion: “Despite the departure of the Americans that had been announced for months, despite two decades of our military presence in the country, the government was unable to make an estimate that even came close to the actual number of ‘Belgians’ who were in the country and had to be evacuated: a figure that exploded from ten or so to possibly close to two thousand who rightfully needed to be rescued.”

Downright embarrassment for the Vivaldi government

“Whereas our neighbours to the north knew but did not act in time, our minister casually admitted today that we were utterly ignorant until the images reached us. The lack of response to this indicates that many apparently find that acceptable. We certainly do not. This is an outright embarrassment to the government, Foreign Affairs and our intelligence services. This country and its government had lost all touch with reality in the Afghanistan issue and the extension of the travel behaviour of its refugees and citizens with dual nationality. The Vivaldi government should not be allowed to simply sweep this under the carpet. Lessons must be learned from it,” Peter De Roover concludes.