The Foreign Ministry blacked out the embarrassing emails when Kabul fell to the Taliban

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, Sweden was the worst prepared of all.

But exactly how bad the situation was was obscured by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

All warnings that Sweden was lagging behind in planning were carefully deleted from the ambassador’s reports before they were released, a new book shows.

Two employees had received letters with death threats stuck under the doors of their homes.

Two others had already resigned and left the country.

Despite that, during the summer of 2021, Sweden had no plans to evacuate the locally employed Afghans at the embassy in Kabul if the Taliban took over – exactly what then happened on August 15 of the same year.

The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Finland had already started planning evacuations, Sweden’s ambassador Torkel Stiernlöf wrote in a report home at the beginning of the summer:

“Overall, we find that Sweden risks being perceived as less loyal to its local staff than our like-minded people.”

Was hidden under black tiles

However, this was carefully hidden from the public in Sweden.

All of the above was hidden under black plates when journalists, including from Aftonbladet, requested the documents.

The ambassador’s assessment of the damage to Sweden’s reputation was also shrouded in secrecy:

“… it is somewhat embarrassing that from the Swedish side we seem to be at the back here.”

That quote is also the title of journalist Thord Eriksson’s new book, which will be published in the next few days, in which the blackout is mapped.

Eriksson has seen the unmasked letters from Stiernlöf to the Foreign Ministry and has therefore been able to compare them with the classified sentences that were never released.

Behind the black plates, it is clear how late Sweden was:

“The fact that the largest embassies (US, UK) have, or are in the process of evacuating literally thousands of Afghan employees and their families increases the concern exponentially. […] I am unfortunately forced to state that Sweden forms the tail in the circle of like-minded people,” wrote Torkel Stiernlöf.

“Remarkable”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified the secrecy by saying “it can be assumed that it disrupts Sweden’s relations between peoples or otherwise damages the country if certain information is revealed” and that the documents contain information “relating to a foreigner”.

Thord Eriksson doesn’t think those were the real reasons.

It was rather about protecting civil servants and politicians from embarrassment and troublesome issues, he believes.

– Considering how high this was on the news agenda at the time, it is really striking and remarkable, he says.

His appeals against the secrecy orders have been rejected by the government. The decisions were signed by then Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde (S) and then Minister of Foreign Trade Anna Hallberg (S).

Aftonbladet has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ann Linde for comments.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked to return. Ann Linde declines an interview citing that she does not comment on confidentiality matters.

FACTS So the Ministry of Foreign Affairs blacked out

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