Pay the Taliban reparations! Left-wing Stop the War group - once backed by Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott - wants UK to pay cash to new Afghan rulers to 'advance rights of its people'
An anti-war campaign group has urged the British government to pay reparations to the Taliban in order to 'advance the rights of the Afghan people'.
Stop the War Coalition, which was chaired for more than a decade by the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, called for the UK to 'take the lead in offering a refuge programme and reparations' following the Taliban's seizure of Afghanistan.
The organisation also said the disaster now unfolding in Afghanistan was the responsibility of the US, British and other NATO governments who 'plunged into a war that was always doomed to fail'.
In a statement the group wrote: 'The disaster now unfolding in Afghanistan is the consequence of a twenty-year long failed military intervention.
Stop the War Coalition, who previously protested against Donald Trump's air strikes against the Syrian regime, urged the British government to pay reparations to the Taliban. Pictured: The group during a rally outside Downing Street
The anti-war campaign group called for the UK to 'take the lead in offering a refuge programme and reparations' and said it would 'advance the rights of the Afghan people'
'The responsibility rests with the US, British and other NATO governments which plunged into a war that was always doomed to fail. The starting of the conflict, not the manner of the ending of it, was the problem.
'Twenty years ago, at the moment of its foundation, the Stop the War Coalition, representing a broad range of political and social movements and organisations, warned against the rush to war and urged other ways of responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
'In particular, we argued that military occupation of Afghanistan could not lead to stable governance, and would be rejected as a foreign imposition by many Afghans.
'We asserted then and believe now that democracy and human rights can rarely be imposed externally, and must be the product of the efforts of the peoples themselves if it is to prove durable.
'The defeat of the US and British militaries in Afghanistan means that this intervention joins those in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen as a calamity that has cost tens of thousands of lives and vast resources to no purpose.
'It is time that the ''war on terror'', the pretext for these interventions, is declared over.
'The British government should take a lead in offering a refugee programme and reparations to rebuild Afghanistan, an act which would go a great deal further in advancing the rights of the Afghan people, women in particular, than continued military or economic intervention in the fate of the Afghanistan.
'We urge politicians of all parties to learn the lessons of the failed wars of intervention and turn to international cooperation as the means of resolving disputes and tackling problems of poverty and underdevelopment.'
The organisation also called on supporters to join them in a protest in Parliament Square this week to demand that politicians recognise that the war in Afghanistan was a 'catastrophe'.
In 2017, Stop the War Coalition took to the streets of Westminster to protest against former US President Donald Trump's air strikes against the Syrian regime.
The group said the 'responsibility rests with the US, British and other NATO governments which plunged into a war that was always doomed to fail'
Thousands of people from Afghanistan rush to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in an attempt to flee the country
A family in Kabul rush to the airport following the Taliban's seizure of Afghanistan
In a message posted to the group's Facebook page, the organisation said: 'No to Trump's attacks on Syria! No to British support!
'The Stop the War Coalition condemns Donald Trump's decision to launch attacks against Syrian targets.
'This action will only increase the level of killing in Syria, and inflame the terrible war that has already caused untold misery for the people of the country.
'This is the worst possible way to respond to the indefensible attack at Khan Sheikhun.
'As well as deepening the tragedy of the Syrian people, this utterly irresponsible act threatens to widen the war and lead the West into military confrontation with Russia.
'It is shameful that Theresa May has rushed to support this act by the most xenophobic and reactionary US president in history.
'Stop the War calls for protests today against this or any further attacks and against British support or participation.'
It came after the United States launched 59 Tomahawk missiles at Assad's al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs in response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack where around 80 people died.
Earlier today, three stowaways fell hundreds of feet to their deaths from a military jet and at least five others were killed at Kabul airport as thousands of desperate Afghans tried to flee the Taliban by clambering on to rescue flights.
Thousands of terrified people descended on Hamad Karzai airport as the UK, US and other western countries flew out their citizens and diplomats on military aircraft following the victory of the Taliban over the Afghan government.
All commercial flights have been suspended, leading to the desperate civilians climbing on to the fuselage of departing military planes and then trying to stowaway through the wheel housings.
US military forces brought in Apache helicopters to fly low over the tarmac and clear throngs of Afghans off the runway to allow planes to take off. Earlier US troops had fired into the air to try and move the crowds back.
However hundreds of people were still able to run alongside a US C-17 with many clambering on to the front and rear wheels, while others climbed airbridges hoping to force their way on to planes waiting at the departure gates.