Images on social media depict him at a health conference in the Netherlands, a few days prior to his appearance in Germany. If he entered the Netherlands with a visa, he could have traveled to Germany without any scrutiny, thanks to the Schengen Agreement.
The Foreign Office (AA) strongly condemned Abdul Bari Omar’s appearance on Friday. The trip was not announced to the AA, and the man was not granted a visa to enter Germany. The North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Ministry stated on Saturday that the man was the head of the food and drug authorities in Afghanistan.
Letter to Ministries Puts Baerbock and Faeser Under Pressure
At the same time, it has now emerged that Afghan activists warned the Foreign and Interior Ministries in October about the entry of Taliban representatives into Germany. In the letter, which several journalists published on Twitter, it stated: “We have learned that in October, several members of the De Facto Taliban regime planned a visit to Germany to attend several meetings.”
The activists in the letter clearly advocate for preventing the entry. Although there is no information about Taliban visits in October, it has now manifested just a few weeks later. There has been no response from the Foreign or Interior Ministry to the letter.
Omar appeared on Thursday in a mosque in Cologne-Chorweiler, which belongs to the umbrella organization Ditib. The Islamic association distanced itself from the appearance, and the “Afghan Cultural Association Cologne Meschenich” organized the event announced as religious. The association has been banned from the premises. However, the cultural association emphasized that it was neither involved in renting the event space nor were its members present. It has filed a complaint, among other things, for defamation.
An Incredulous Incident
The North Rhine-Westphalia State Chancellery also condemned the appearance of the Taliban official. “Members of a radical organization like the Taliban disseminating their ideologies unfiltered on German soil is an incredulous incident,” a spokesperson told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.”
However, the Dusseldorf Interior Ministry referred on Saturday to an assessment by the federal public prosecutor: According to this, the Taliban, with their assumption of power in Afghanistan and the formation of a government in September 2021, “from this point onwards” are no longer considered a criminal or terrorist organization.
Regarding details of the entry from Afghanistan, the spokesperson for the NRW Ministry referred to the federal authorities. The AA made it clear that the German government does not recognize the Taliban. “As long as the Taliban in Afghanistan flagrantly violate human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, there will be no normalization with the Taliban regime.”
