Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: NY Transfer News Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 2:52 AM Subject: Afghanistan: Catastrophe in the Making Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO AFGHANISTAN: A CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING by Simon Wollers Havana, Sept 21 (NY Transfer)--Last night's "friend or foe" speech by US President George W Bush has been likened in the US media to Roosevelt's address to the nation after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The you-are-either-with-us-or-against-us language went down very well in his country and Bush is riding dangerously high on waves that could any day come crashing down upon the people of Afghanistan. Chris Buckley is a program officer for Christian Aid in Afghanistan. He has just left Kabul and reports that he is full of dread as to what may happen if the US war machine attempts retaliation there for the events of last week. Because of the current threat, says Buckley, aid organizations have been forced to pull out their foreign workers -- fearing either that they may be caught in the expected raids, or that they would be attacked as westerners after the NATO bombers have flown away. The effects of this withdrawal, he adds, could be infinitely more tragic and devastating than the worst that a wounded United States may now throw at this long-suffering country. There are four million Afghanis in refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran -- both of which have closed their borders fearful of a massive stream of more refugees. Nearly six million more -- representing a full quarter of the population -- risk starvation after the nation's harsh winter sets in come mid-October. The current fear has spread to such a degree that thousands have been fleeing toward the closed borders making their situation even more desperate because their government -- even if it chose to do so -- is unable to feed so many displaced people and there are no longer any international aid agencies available to do the job. So, just the threat of US retaliation has driven a huge number of people further toward the abyss. The major focus of the media frenzy on Afghanistan right now is the fear inspired by the brutal war with Russia and the religious fervor of the muhajedeen -- as well as the current Taliban regime, which does not win any prizes for humanitarian government. The nation is being demonized along with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, and soon the notion will be -- just as with Iraqis and Serbs -- that the only good Afghan is a dead one. Chris Buckley says the real Afghanistan is one where 85 per cent of the population are subsistence farmers. Most Afghans don't have newspapers, television sets or radios due to government edicts, and many will therefore not have heard of the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, let alone that a group of terrorists have attacked them. There isn't even a postal service. Many Afghans have the dreadful choice of waiting in their villages for death by starvation, as there will be no food distribution due to suspended service by even the World Food Program, or risking death by malnutrition and disease in the refugee camps along the borders. With these borders now closed, adds Buckley, there is no longer any income to be made working in Pakistan or Iran. With three years of drought and a US-sponsored ban on opium farming imposed by the Taliban, which Washington bankrolled without any consideration for the socio-economic consequences of an impoverished people, the future looks bleak indeed. So George W Bush held back and supposedly made what is being termed a "restrained" speech, but his thoughtless bellicose actions beforehand seem to have already doomed a huge number of Afghan civilians to death. Havana, Cuba November 21, 2001 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
