The planned evacuation of Afghans working for the Japanese Embassy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was thwarted by Thursday's suicide bombing near Kabul's airport, as they were unable to reach the airport to board a Self-Defense Force transport aircraft, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Japanese government has a transport plane on standby in neighboring Pakistan, but as the Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan nears, the evacuation of these Afghans is looking increasingly difficult.
On Thursday evening, several hundred people, mainly Afghans working for the embassy and their family members, gathered on a Kabul street to board a dozen buses prepared by the Japanese government. Just when they were about to leave for the airport, the terrorist attack occurred. It grew dark as the staff in charge checked what was going on, and the evacuation had to be canceled.
"I heard an explosion," said Hiromi Yasui, a 57-year-old Kyodo News staff member living in Kabul, speaking to The Yomiuri Shimbun on the phone. She was one of those waiting for the bus to depart.
"If there hadn't been an explosion, all of us could have made it to the airport," Yasui said.
About 300 other people, including Afghan JICA employees, were on their way to the airport aboard about 10 buses at the time. Just as some of them were talking about whether they could make it to the airport safely, they received news of the attack and had to turn back.
One of the passengers was a 40-year-old Afghan who has worked for JICA since 2008 and was involved in training teachers, among other projects. Earlier this year, the employee was threatened by the Islamist Taliban to quit JICA and join them. The employee was also followed by the Taliban, prompting them to email Tokyo's JICA headquarters to ask for rescue.
"The Japanese government failed to take me out in time." the employee said, speaking to The Yomiuri Shimbun on the phone. "I can't think of any other way to leave this country. I'm in danger."
Even if the buses had made it near the airport, they might have been stopped by Taliban checkpoints. Yet some within the government have said the evacuation could have succeeded if it had taken place a day earlier.
On the following day, Yasui reached the airport with a foreign journalist in a vehicle connected to Qatari government and was able to evacuate to Islamabad aboard an Air Self-Defense Force C-130 transport aircraft. Yasui has been receiving messages on her mobile phone from Afghan acquaintances, asking her how to get into the airport.
"It's so heartbreaking," she said.
-- ASDF evacuates14 Afghans
The Japanese government evacuated 14 Afghans on Thursday to Pakistan via an ASDF aircraft, it has been learned.
According to government sources, the decision to transport the unscheduled Afghans was made at the request of a foreign government, because the Japanese nationals and Afghan embassy staff scheduled to leave the country had not arrived at the airport.
There have been four cases in which SDF aircraft were used to transport Japanese nationals overseas in emergencies, but this is the first time that a foreign national was aboard an SDF plane.
The government had planned to use a transport plane to evacuate up to about 500 people, including a small number of Japanese nationals and Afghan embassy staff. However, Yasui of Kyodo News is so far believed to be the only person who has been successfully transported out of Afghanistan.
"It's difficult to continue the evacuation operation," said a senior Defense Ministry official.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
