BILD reporter Paul Runzheimer in Afghanistan!
“It was hard to get in. We were on the road for about 30 hours,” he explained to BILD Live, BILD TV announcer.
Paul Runzheimer and photographer Giorgos Motavis managed to cross the border into Afghanistan near Tarmez by road from Uzbekistan. There he crossed the “Friendship Bridge” to Heratan – the only passage along the 135-kilometer border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
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BILD Vice President and Photographer Giorgos Motavis is probably the only German reporters in the crisis zone willing to report for BILD LIVE from Afghanistan after the Taliban finally took power.
BILD Vice President Paul Ronzheimer and photographer Giorgos Motavis are in Afghanistan, behind them the white flag of the Taliban Emirate flutters.Pictured: Paul Runzheimer
His first impression: “The Taliban I met smile a lot. At each checkpoint, someone says hello in a friendly manner: “You seem to have an interest in showing foreign journalists what is currently going on in the country, he writes in BILD LIVE.
Afghanistan is now entirely in the hands of the Taliban alone: The United States flew the last of its soldiers out of Afghanistan on Tuesday night. The US Embassy also suspended its operations.
background: BILD wanted to report from the Taliban inferno in Kabul last week – but the US military did not let Paul Runsheimer out of the airport area in Kabul and fly him to Doha (UAE). But he did not give up: from there his epic began through Moscow and Tashkent until he was able to enter Afghanistan. According to rumors, the border with Uzbekistan was also narrow – at least this was reported by the Russian news agency TASS. The refugees leaving Afghanistan cannot be seen there.
There in Afghanistan the white flag of the new Taliban emirate is flying. Ronzheimer Masar-i-Scharif is now approaching, as the Bundeswehr base was located until a few months ago. But he wants to reach the capital, Kabul, this evening.
Runzheimer: “But one must not forget: many people live here in fear.” But: “My job, the job of reporters reporting from crisis areas, is to be there when something like this happens. Ultimately, that also means being a protective shield. Because as long as we as journalists report on what’s happening there, people will be a little safer.”