Nov. 5 — Afghanistan’s Taliban regime called on the United Nations Monday to help Afghans inside the country fleeing U.S. air strikes, but a U.N. representative said harassment of its staff and a lack of security were hampering its efforts. Meanwhile, an official with the World Food Program warned that imminent snowfall will make food delivery a “daunting challenge.”
THE TALIBAN’s ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, dismissed U.N. complaints about security inside Afghanistan and said the United Nations was in collusion with Washington.
“The only security problems that it may have to face are the bombing of the U.S. and coalition forces,” Zaeef said at a news conference in Islamabad, referring to the attacks aimed at flushing out alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his followers sheltered by the Taliban.
The envoy accused the United Nations of not understanding the problems Afghans face with the onset of winter.
“On the one hand, Pakistan is not allowing them [fleeing Afghans] to enter its territory and on the other hand, the U.N. which has all the capabilities with it, is still not willing to assist in this matter,” he said.
U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker insisted that security concerns were sincere. “We’re not playing politics,” she said. Bunker said there were several obstacles to the delivery of aid inside Afghanistan, “not least of which are lack of law and order and harassment of staff,” she said. U.N. agencies evacuated their international staff from Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, leaving Afghan staff to carry out the humanitarian work. But they have reported Taliban attacks on their premises and seizure of their stocks, equipment and vehicles.
Bunker said the United Nations would not send international staff back until security conditions had improved.
WFP WORRY
Meanwhile, Lindsey Davis of the World Food Program warned that the worsening weather conditions are likely to prove a further impediment to the work of the humanitarian agencies.
“Snowfall is imminent,” he said. “Getting food in when you’re trying to get trucks through those mountain passes is certainly a daunting challenge.”
With no sign of a pause in U.S. bombing of Taliban positions across Afghanistan, the United Nations estimates 5.3 million Afghans are in need of immediate humanitarian aid ahead of the harsh winter.
Davis said 55 U.N. trucks carrying 550 tons of food were on their way to northeast Afghanistan, including the Panjshir Valley, which is just north of the front line contested by Taliban and opposition forces. “The fear is that with the worsening conditions, the window of time for (the trucks) to continue to operate is closing, slowly but surely,” she said.
U.N. officials said they would use bulldozers to keep roads open for a few more weeks if possible and would resort to air drops of snow-proof bags of food as backup.
The bags are black so they can be easily spotted in the snow.
U.S. military aircraft have been dropping food packets in Afghanistan, prompting complaints from humanitarian groups who say Afghan children might mistake unexploded cluster bomblets for food packets.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled the fighting and crossed into Pakistan, which has since closed its border despite protests from international aid organizations. Pakistan is already home to more than 2 million Afghan refugees, and says it does not have the resources to take in more. UZBEK FRONT
Another front in the supply system will be opened shortly in Uzbekistan, the Central Asian nation to the north of Afghanistan.
Afghans heading home from Iran
“In a week, or maybe 10 days’ time, we hope to make the first delivery by barge to Afghanistan. We are working toward that at the moment,” a UNICEF official based in the Uzbek capital Tashkent told Reuters.
Last month, the Uzbek government said it would allow the United Nations to use the southern Termez river port to move aid to Afghanistan for the first time since 1998.
Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said last week that humanitarian aid arriving in Termez would be duly shipped to Afghanistan by barge, but that a number of “technical questions” were being discussed with the United Nations.
The Uzbek government has also agreed to open Termez airport to aid agencies to allow them to stockpile humanitarian cargoes. Advertisement
UNICEF has already moved three humanitarian shipments destined for Afghanistan to warehouses in Termez. Two arrived by road after being flown into Tashkent and the third was flown directly to Termez from Copenhagen last week.
The UNICEF official said a fourth aid flight to Termez was due on Thursday, adding that last week’s delivery was the first international flight to land in the airport for four years.
She said the aid included high-protein biscuits, water containers, boots, jackets and blankets.
-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001