The real intentions of terrorism were shown as recent terrorist operation targeted Emirati diplomats in Afghanistan. Five Emirati martyrs were assassinated by an evil gangster during the performance of one of the noblest humanitarian tasks, as part of a humanitarian mission for helping the Afghan people, especially the poor and the needy. There is no longer any doubt that terrorism is not aimed at building countries or a defending the Islamic religion or other fabrications, lies and illusions. The real goal is to attack human values through killing the good will of countries that are only seeking to help, or through carrying attacks in countries whose people suffer while the world is preoccupied with conflicts and crises in various regions.
It is interesting that the UAE is one of the few countries that still remember the Afghan people, and commit itself to humanitarian duties for them, despite the hardships and the risk faced by Emirati citizens working in the dangerous Afghan areas. the hand of cowardly evil does not care about the noble message carried by our diplomats in Afghanistan, that is why they targeted their lives, only doing so to prevent them from helping the poor and the sick and needy children of this people, who have done nothing to deserve being targets to a group of terrorists from their own.
The cowardly terrorist murdered five noble UAE citizens who went willingly to perform a humanitarian mission for the sake of God. They understood the amount of suffering and illness suffered by the people of Afghanistan, but the terrorists do not comprehend the meaning of humanitarianism, so they are fighting everyone working in the humanitarian field. They believe that offering help to the Afghan people works against their interests. They only want more poverty, misery and disease, so that they can control people and use them for terrorist ends.
For nearly 15 years, the UAE adopted a huge humanitarian program for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. When terror stroke, the UAE delegation was on a visit to the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, as part of the program to lay the foundation stone for the establishment of Dar Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Kandahar province, and signed an agreement for UAE-funded scholarships. The UAE and the Afghan people have strong relations for decades ago. There are thousands of Afghans engaged in the development process of the UAE. The Emirates vowed to help the people while global interest declined in recent years. Poverty, disease, ignorance and misery worsened due to the long wars and conflicts, as well as natural disasters that worsened the situation of the people over the past years.
The UAE’s interest in supporting the Afghan people is clear in terms of humanitarian aid provided since the seventies of the last century. Two and a half billion dirhams were provided to help the reconstruction and construction of schools, hospitals and houses, as well as vital facilities and infrastructure. A large part of the UAE’s aid was intended for the widows and families of the martyrs of the successive wars that spanned for nearly four decades, leaving huge numbers of widows, orphans, and disabled people.
According to official statistics, the humanitarian aid provided by the United Arab Emirates to Afghanistan during the period from 2009 to 2012 amounts to about 982 million dirhams. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces launched an initiative worth 440 million dirhams to support the international effort to eradicate polio by 2018 with a special focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2011, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a strategic partnership to provide a total amount of 367.3 million dirhams, divided equally between the two parties, for the purchase and delivery of vital vaccines for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Emirates charity and humanity projects in Afghanistan aim at constructing roads and utilities, universities, schools and mosques. In March 2008, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan University of Khost was established, 200 km from the capital Kabul, at a cost of about five million dollars. It includes colleges of medicine, engineering, agriculture, technology, Sharia, law and letters.
UAE humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan have nothing to do with what is going on politically and militarily in this country. The Abu Dhabi Development Fund, in Afghanistan since 1977, contributed to the establishment of numerous factories and projects, which means that the UAE does not have a hidden agenda for these projects. As Afghanistan knew several governments, groups, organizations and developments, the Emirates was focused only in helping the poor of the country, but terrorism knows no such principles. Terrorists are not aware of the humanitarian value, because they enjoy millions of funding they receive from the parties to the conflict as well as from trading drugs, money laundering, weaponry and other sources. Terror has become like a virus threatening the security and stability in our world, and deserves more attention and international cooperation not only to eradicate terror groups but also for tracking sympathizers and suppliers everywhere.
God bless our martyrs in Afghanistan, and perhaps everyone now realizes that the Emirates is faithful to the principles of humanitarianism the UAE stands for whether in Yemen or Afghanistan or other countries.
