'A Monster That Couldn't be Defeated': Ex-Afghanistan PM Ashraf Ghani on 'Fleeing With Millions' Rumour

A day after the Taliban announced an interim government comprising warlords and global terrorists, Ashraf Ghani, former President of Afghanistan, apologized for leaving Kabul abruptly and dismissed allegations on carrying millions of dollars of cash belonging to Afghan citizens as “categorically false”.In his first statement after he fled the country on August 15, Ghani, who faced flak for ‘abandoning’ the citizens of Afghanistan as the insurgents stormed violently through Afghan provinces leaving a trail of blood and destruction in their wake, said that fighting corruption was the central focus of his efforts as a president and that he had “inherited a monster that could not easily or quickly be defeated,” .

“Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life,” he said in a statement released in his Twitter account.

Soon after the then-President left the war-torn country as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, reports of him fleeing with bags stuffed with cash emerged.

“I must now address baseless allegations that as I left Kabul I took with me millions of dollars belonging to the Afghan people. These charges are completely and categorically false. Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president. I inherited a monster that could not easily or quickly be defeated,” he said in the statement.

Ghani also said that he welcomed an official audit or financial investigation under UN auspices or any other appropriate independent body to prove the veracity of his statements. “My close aides are ready to submit their finances to public audit, and I would encourage and urge other former senior officials and political figures to do the same,” he said.

The former president said that he left at the urging of the palace security who cautioned him of the horrific street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s, if he stayed on.

“Throughout my life, I have firmly believed that the formula of a democratic republic was the only way forward for a sovereign, peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan. Throughout my service to my country, the boundaries of my actions have always been defined and guided by the 2004 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” he said.

He ‘appreciated’ the people of Afghanistan and the soldiers for their sacrifice over the last forty years. “I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently. My commitment to the Afghan people has never wavered and will guide me for the rest of my life,” he said.

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