All that glitters is gold in Afghan palace

A vault beneath Afghanistan’s presidential palace containing gold reserves was opened for the first time in 14 years today to display to the nation that the reserves had not been stolen.

President Hamid Karzai, accompanied by the central bank governor, finance and justice ministers, showed one wooden box containing gold bullion to the media, before officials began a process of counting the entire contents of the vault.

Karzai said the vault in the Kabul palace had been publicly opened to “show the people of Afghanistan that the treasure exists.”

Central bank Governor Anwar ul-Haq Ahady said it was the first time the vault had been opened since 1989. Most of the gold was accumulated during the 40 year rule of King Mohammad Zahir Shah that ended in 1973.

“For the past years there has been civil war,” Ahady said. “The security situation did not warrant taking stock of the vault to see how much was there.”

It was not clear why Karzai’s government, in power since shortly after the Taliban fell in late 2001, chose not to open the vault until now.

Rumours had circulated that during the past decade of civil war, when control of the city changed hands several times, one of the armed factions had stolen the gold.

“Today at least we counted the major part of what’s inside and nothing was lacking,” Ahady said.

The former ruling Taliban regime, ousted in late 2001, had tried to open the vault but the officials responsible for the vault had deliberately broken the keys so nobody could enter, he said.

Six weeks ago, the vault was repaired so it could be opened, Ahady said.

A committee including the bank governor and the justice and finance ministers was charged with counting the bullion and coins – a process that is expected to take two or three sessions, he said.

Ahady declined to say how much gold was inside, but said the figure would be made public once the counting was complete.

He said that Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, also has gold reserves with the Federal Bank Reserve in New York. With the gold in Kabul, the total national gold reserves are worth about €320 .