Afghan Interpreters Pullout : A Saigon Airlift in Making? – I
By
Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
Time…03.45 a.m. 30 April 1975, Place…DAO (Defense attaché office) compound, Saigon… South Vietnam. Graham Martin the US ambassador in South Vietnam is hastily bundled in a waiting USAF hepter with direct orders from US President Gerald Ford to the hepter pilot Gerry Berry to fly out him immediately to the safety of international waters or land. The above extra ordinary order passed by the US President to the hepter pilot was as a result of the North Vietnamese armies about to gate crash into the outskirts of capital city of south Vietnam ending a saga of the bloodiest blood bath which was raging on since 1955.
Never ever in the US history had passed such a moment when a direct command was given by the US president to one of the helicopter pilots of USAF for its strict compliance and in such dire circumstances. Graham Martin the US ambassador was so dedicated to his Vietnamese counterparts in Saigon that he initially refused to be flown out from Saigon and leave his post of responsibility without getting these Vietnamese support staff who had congregated into the DAO compound premises too out of the cauldron. Finally one of the biggest helicopter rescue mission was launched in the recent history to evacuate almost 7000 Vietnamese families, men, women and children all packed like sardines to international waters . But times have changed.
With the final casting of die by US President Joe Biden regarding pull out of ISAF/International security assistance force led by the US army and its allies from the ever strife torn Afghanistan by September this year after almost two decades of internecine conflict a similar situation bordering on “do or die” as witnessed in the famous Saigon airlift is feared for the various Afghan support staff to include the omnipresent Afghan interpreters and assorted lot. The defence department and the state department of US administration are the proverbial “sine qua non” in this entire convoluted imbroglio which is turning shades of various colours as new and new imponderables are added to the already ticking time bomb of human tragedy.
With US& British army’s ( International security assistance force/ISAF) imminent pullout to begin within next 2 and half months, the clock has started ticking for both the US Government and the local Afghan support staff to do a quick rethink of their plans for safety under constant duress from the dreaded Taliban. With chairman joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley stepping in as a sound box for the US Army and saying that it was a ‘Clear and present danger” for the significant number of Afghans to be in the harm’s way who were functioning as the support staff for the US Army in Afghanistan, the remarks have an ominous ring about it. Saying that the US will remain ever faithful to these Afghan support staff in their hour of distress, plans are now afoot in a feverish manner and gaining momentum for fructification of Afghan support staff extradition alongside or even before the US pull out begins.US officials have publically acknowledged the danger many former interpreters face, but they have indicated that the administration wants to avoid triggering a panic reaction or sending a signal that Washington has lost faith in the Afghan government’s ability to survive. At the core of this whole imbroglio is the SIV’s or the “special immigration visas”for which there has been a sudden spurt with about 17 to 18 thousand Afghans having applied for the same under a programme for former employees of US military or the US embassy in Kabul.
Well as per latest information available, the grant of SIVs has got bogged down in the interminable delays due to red tape in the system as also the chronic shortage of staffing with applicants waiting for years on end. In fact the growing number of assassinations of Afghan interpreters associated with either the US or the western nations has prompted the law makers to organize an immediate evacuation of these interpreters to a neutral nation or territory or US Military base outside Afghanistan where the visas can be vetted and reviewed. In fact the readers of this article may well remember that way back in 1996/97 the US military had evacuated about 6,600 Iraqi Kurds to the US territory of Guam after Saddam Hussein’s regime launched attacks into Iraq’s Kurdish region. The Kurds were housed at the Anderson air force base for about 3 to 4 months and eventually resettled in the US. The above logjam affecting the lives of these Afghan interpreters has been experienced with the US army with British army account much worse.
In fact some 1010 Afghan interpreters were dismissed by the British army between 2001 and 2014 for disciplinary reasons without the right to even appeal. Be that as it may, the main hurdles facing the majority of these interpreters are that these young men enrolled themselves in the prime of their youth some even as young as 17 years with no other job options explored by them in the later part of their working lives. Now in the middle ages of their lifetime these interpreters are saddled with the ominous task of supporting their families with a horde of children to look after. There have been cases where these Afghan interpreters accompanying the British royal marines and the parachute regiment personnel for regular attacks/operations have been uncovered for their identity by the Taliban who have now started gunning them and their families with dire consequences.
(To be continued…)
(The writer can be approached on his email id…..slalotra4729@gmail.com)
