Kabul Purple Cross aiding victims of battle is decided to stay open: ‘Please don’t forget Afghanistan’

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As hundreds of individuals risked their lives trying to flee Afghanistan in the course of the withdrawal of U.S. forces final month, Italian physiotherapist Alberto Cairo, working on the clinic he has led in Kabul for greater than three a long time, felt horror.

“What you can see across the airport was so surprising,” he advised Fox Information. “I by no means anticipated something like this.”

Cairo got here to Kabul in 1990, dispatched by the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross to look after victims of battle, typically supplying prosthetic limbs for amputees injured by land mines. He by no means left and determined in opposition to taking an evacuation flight because the Taliban returned to energy.

“The ICRC is meant to work in locations at battle,” he stated. “If humanitarian organizations don’t remain, who ought to keep?”

After 31 years in Afghanistan as part of a Red Cross mission, Italian physiotherapist Alberto Cairo has opted to remain out of fear for his female colleagues. 

After 31 years in Afghanistan as a part of a Purple Cross mission, Italian physiotherapist Alberto Cairo has opted to stay out of concern for his feminine colleagues. 
(Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross)

Cairo says a lot of Kabul is quiet, as residents anticipate readability on what life can be like beneath the Taliban.

“Often, there are all the time kids enjoying all over the place,” he stated. “There are such a lot of kids in Afghanistan, enjoying — now, only a few of them. It is just like the individuals of Kabul are ready for one thing.”

It stays unclear whether or not the Taliban will reinstate the form of harsh, basic guidelines it imposed the final time it was in energy, earlier than the 2001 U.S. invasion, or whether or not, because the Islamist group has hinted, it has softened its stance on human rights, together with the rights of ladies and ladies.

“For some time, I had the sensation that individuals couldn’t imagine that the Taliban have been again,” Cairo stated. “Now, they know completely that they’re right here… however they’re ready for laws.”

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In his 31 years in Afghanistan, Cairo’s community of orthopedic facilities has expanded, and now cares for hundreds of sufferers with a bunch of circumstances, together with polio, spinal accidents, and cerebral palsy.

His Purple Cross mandate — to take care of individuals no matter their background or affiliations — can carry enemies face-to-face. He recalled one current line-up of sufferers at a rehabilitation heart with “two or three” Taliban members “sitting near a mujahideen.”

“On the identical bench was sitting additionally an previous communist, [and] a few troopers — troopers that till a number of months in the past have been combating the Taliban. All of them disabled, all of them sitting collectively, speaking to one another and evaluating, evaluating their disabilities.”

“One of many Taliban proposed to make a selfie,” he stated. “That was very humorous, and that is what occurs daily. Incapacity flattens every little thing.”

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Cairo stated he had been assured by the Taliban that his heart can proceed working: “They know that we’re impartial, neutral, that anyone can come. So we really feel fairly protected.”

Whereas ladies have been largely confined to the house in the course of the Taliban’s final rule, feminine well being professionals have been allowed to work.

“Firstly, perhaps they have been slightly hesitant,” Cairo stated. “[But] nothing has modified in comparison with the way in which they have been working three weeks in the past. So that they really feel fairly okay.”

“To this point we wouldn’t have any downside,” Cairo stated. “We hope that it will keep like this.”

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He does, although, concern a looming financial disaster. Afghanistan’s chilly winter months are coming, and billions of {dollars} in Afghan belongings have been frozen abroad because the Taliban’s takeover.

“My message could be very clear,” Cairo stated. “Please don’t forget Afghanistan. I am scared it will be forgotten once more. After which we — I imply, I put myself along with the Afghans — we can be left to deal with a horrible financial state of affairs.”

He urged overseas governments to press the Taliban on rights.

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“The worldwide group needs to be current,” he stated, “to have a dialogue with the Taliban and to maintain the door of negotiations open, to ensure that all these form of issues are assured.

“However that may occur provided that Afghanistan isn’t forgotten.”

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