POLITICS: U.N. Paints Gloomy Picture of Afghanistan War Threat

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 18 2001 (IPS) - The United Nations says the humanitarian situation is dire in Afghanistan, already war-ravaged and facing possible military attacks by the United States.

Fred Eckhard, chief spokesperson, says one million internally displaced Afghan people already are in a desperate situation and face deteriorating conditions as international aid staff are evacuated from the country.

In addition, he says, there are an estimated six million “vulnerable people” – about 25 percent of the total population of 24 million – who are in need of food and emergency relief supplies.

A further 3.6 million Afghani refugees are encamped outside the country: two million in Pakistan and 1.6 million in Iran.

Stephanie Bunker, spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. Coordinator for Afghanistan, says that millions more – too poor or unable to move – are severely affected in their villages.

“If, as seems likely, the situation continues to deteriorate in the coming year, Afghanistan is set to become the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Bunker warns.

The United Nations has designated Afghanistan as one of 49 “least developed countries” – the poorest of the world’s poor – because of its per capita income of less than 300 dollars per year and an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of about 1.6 billion dollars. U.N. officials say the economy relies almost entirely on the illegal drug trade.

According to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, Afghanistan spends an average of about 200 million dollars on defence per year.

Washington, has singled out Afghanistan-based Osama bin Laden as the mastermind of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon and has asked the Taliban regime in Kabul to surrender the Saudi dissident or face military consequences.

The Taliban regime had flatly refused to surrender bin Laden and denied his involvement in the attacks but on Tuesday reportedly was assembling a council of clerics to discuss the possibility of some kind of handover. Meanwhile, it has begun to gear itself to counter possible U.S. attacks. Bin Laden continues to deny any role in the terror attacks.

Bunker says that due to the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the United Nations plans to continue to provide “as much life-saving assistance to the civilian population as possible.”

Following fears of U.S. military attack, the United Nations last week pulled out all its 80 international staff from six locations in the country: Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar, Herat, and Faizabad.

But the United Nations continues to maintain hundreds of local staff, Afghan nationals who provide essential humanitarian assistance to the people.

Despite the overwhelming need for help, key programmes will not be able to continue if volatility inside the country increases.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said last week that it is currently feeding some three million people in Afghanistan’s rural areas alone. In the past, it has had the highest profile among U.N. agencies in the country but it now is silent on the likely impact of retaliatory strikes or all-out war on the local population, and on its own plans to cope with the aftermath.

Tamim Ansary, an Afghani columnist for a San Francisco newspaper, says any bombing would only kill poor, hapless Afghanis.

“I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity. I agree that something must be done about those monsters,” Ansary says in a written commentary circulating widely.

The Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan, she argues. “They’re not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997.”

The Afghans cannot rise up and overthrow the Taliban, she says because “they’re starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated and suffering.” More than 500,000 of them are disabled orphans, she adds, citing U.N. figures.

As for the prospect of large-scale bombing, she says “the trouble is, that’s already been done. The Soviets took care of it already.” The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan ended in 1989.

Since November 1998, Afghanistan also has been under rigid economic and military sanctions imposed as punishment for habouring bin Laden.

Three countries – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

POLITICS: U.N. Paints Gloomy Picture of Afghanistan War Threat

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 18 2001 (IPS) - The United Nations says the humanitarian situation is dire in Afghanistan, already war-ravaged and facing possible military attacks by the United States.
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