In Afghanistan, the world sees a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding.

Millions of people are starving, children are dying.

The ruling Taliban are asking for international help, but are barely responding to calls for fundamental rights to be respected.

What should the international community do?

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

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DAVID MILIBAND: The answer is actually quite simple: We are not facing a political problem in Afghanistan, but an economic one, which is the result of misguided politics.

It is not the Taliban who need our support, but the Afghan people who are desperately asking for help.

Why can't we differentiate between differences with the Taliban and our relationship with the Afghan people?

The sanctions and the freeze on foreign assets punish the Afghan people for our differences with the Taliban.

In doing so, the Americans have also broken their promise that the military withdrawal from Afghanistan should not mean an economic withdrawal.

You ask why 22 million people depend on the World Food Program and nine million people suffer from hunger?

This is easy to explain: it is because the public sector has stopped paying salaries and the banking sector has stopped working, which is why the private sector cannot work.

As a result, the entire economy is frozen.

The UN says 97 percent of Afghans will live in poverty this year.

More help is not the answer, only systematic help in a functioning economy.

So you would have no problem dealing with the Taliban, who trample human rights and include wanted terrorists?

MILIBAND: That's another question.

My point is that when Germany or the United States pays a teacher, they get involved with the teacher and not with the Taliban.

The fact that the Afghan economy was frozen does not primarily affect the Taliban, but the people of Afghanistan.

I would even be in favor of directly supporting the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank with experts, because the Taliban lack technical skills here, which makes the crisis worse.

This is a very different issue from recognizing the Taliban.

All countries are reluctant to recognize it, even China.

But my argument relates to the relationship of the international community, including the World Bank, with the Afghan people.

We are playing a risky game if we punish the Afghan people because we don't like their government.

Mr. Heusgen, until the summer you were one of the highest-ranking German diplomats.

Do you understand the problems that the federal government has in finding a level with the Taliban?

HEUSGEN: Absolutely.

But I also totally agree with the phrase that we must not punish people for their bad government.

Most of the people who suffer in Afghanistan cannot do anything about the mistakes that were made by the old governments.

So we must provide relief to the humanitarian crisis.

The next question then is: are we going beyond that?

Are we starting to invest in infrastructure as well?

You need reliable partners for that.

And if you don't have these partners, you should be cautious.

In Afghanistan we have to look at the mistakes that the international community has made in the past: We did not tie our very extensive support to the old Afghan government to specific conditions, to the implementation of "good governance".

In doing so, we have allowed corruption and mismanagement on a large scale.

But when it comes to basic humanitarian aid, there is no hesitation.

Does that apply without restrictions?