Subject: Alarm over aid drop in 'world's biggest minefield' Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- > 09 October 2001 22:04 GMT+1 > > Alarm over aid drop in 'world's biggest minefield' > > War on terrorism: Relief > > By Peter Popham in Islamabad > > 09 October 2001 > > The decision by the United States to drop 37,000 food packets > on Afghanistan is not just irrelevant but could be lethal, aid > workers are warning. > > The food aid is being dropped from two C-17 cargo planes flown > from Germany at high altitudes to avoid missiles. But > high-altitude food drops end up being scattered over wide areas > and often do not reach the people they are intended for. > > "Random food drops are the worst possible way of delivering > food aid," a spokesman for a big international charity active in > Afghanistan told The Independent, on condition of anonymity. > "They cause more problems than they solve. We only use > them as a last resort. > > "They create flows of people fleeing the fighting migrating to the > sites where the drops have been made. And most important, > they are happening in Afghanistan, which is the world's biggest > minefield." > > Hungry and desperate Afghans could get themselves blown up > attempting to retrieve dropped food packets. > > According to Omar, an organisation working to rid Afghanistan > of its 10 million landmines, there are still large areas of the > country seeded with unmapped mines, a legacy of a Soviet > policy of random mine drops in the 1980s. > > The aid spokesman said: "There are still 10 to 15 mine > incidents every day. The food packets were mainly dropped in > the central highlands and along the Pakistan border, both > areas with suspected mines. We have to ask if the Americans > are aware of the situation on the ground." > > Apart from the 37,000 small packets - a drop in the ocean of > Afghanistan's daily need - for the time being the hungry > millions of Afghanistan are on their own. Last week, the United > Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) announced with a > flourish that deliveries of wheat flour to Afghanistan, suspended > after President George Bush's threat to attack the country, had > been resumed. The aim was to truck hundreds of > consignments of flour into the country in a sort of Dunkirk-style > rescue operation so that 150,000 tons would be in warehouses > across the country ready for distribution to the starving once > winter had made roads impassable in the middle of November. > > But last night Khaled Mansour, a spokesman for the WFP, told > reporters in Islamabad: "The World Food Programme today > temporarily suspended food deliveries into Afghanistan. An aid > food truck convoy on the way to Kabul was recalled by the > local transporter company after they had reached Jalalabad," a > town a short distance from the Pakistan border. The WFP's > convoys are trucked in by commercial carriers. While 400 tons > have safely arrived in the "hunger belt", the hill country of > northern Afghanistan, the fate of a convoy carrying 425 tons to > Herat in the north-west is unknown. "They are due to arrive > there by the end of the week," Mr Mansoor said. "We hope > they arrive safely." > > The fog of war descended on Afghanistan in full strength > yesterday. Stephanie Bunker, the UN's chief spokesperson in > Afghanistan, said: "I have very little to say. There's been > almost no radio contact with any UN office in Afghanistan > since the attacks began. We don't know the status of the > refugee situation or of our programmes in the country." > > While all foreign aid workers were expelled by the Taliban soon > after President Bush declared war on terrorism, hundreds of > local staff are still at work in the country. The UN agencies > were unable to give any details to reporters concerning the > large numbers of people who were reported to be moving > towards border areas in the hope of fleeing the country. > > Ms Bunker said: "Some Kabul residents are still moving into > areas held by the Northern Alliance ... There are almost no > vehicles on the streets of Kabul. > > "The situation for IDPs [internally displaced people, in UN > jargon] has grown more acute. We emphasise the need to > secure control of the country so that aid deliveries can be > resumed as quickly as possible. People do not die of hunger > over night. They suffer slowly, often for many months, before a > final release in death. For some people, another day of delay > can mean another death." > > The UN expects that eight million people in Afghanistan will be > hungry and in need of food aid this winter, more than a third of > the population. > > Mr Mansoor said: "Although the WFP has 8,000 tons of food > inside Afghanistan, the needs are huge - more than three > times as many people need food as we have been able to > reach in the past month." Rumours of refugees gathering on > the Afghan side of the Pakistani border circulated yesterday, > including talk of one thousand at the Chaman border crossing > near Qetta in the south-west of Pakistan, but independent > verification was impossible. > > The United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) > is struggling to make new camps for the expected influx, which > has been predicted to reach 1.5 million, but tribal people in two > of the 32 planned camps forced teams attempting to prepare > the sites to turn back yesterday, protesting that the land was > their own. > > Yusuuf Hassan, a spokesman for the UNHCR, said: "We are > ready to provide shelter for 100,000 refugees and are preparing > for an initial influx of 300,000." But Pakistan's President, > General Pervez Musharraf, threw these plans into confusion > yesterday when he called for any new refugee camps to be > established not in Pakistan but over the border in Afghanistan. > Mr Hassan commented: "There are no plans to establish > camps on the Afghanistan side at present." > > Food package drops > > The US has dropped around 37,000 individually-wrapped food > packages into some of the most impoverished and remote > parts of Afghanistan. The areas included the central highlands, > where the Hazara ethnic group live in inaccessible valleys. > > The packages, which bear the words "Food gift from the people > of the United States of America", were dropped from two C-17 > cargo planes. Packed in crates designed to break open on > hitting the ground, each package has its own paper wing > attached to help it survive the high-altitude drop. > > Described as "humanitarian daily rations", each pack contains > 2,300 calories. Officials admit the drops are as important for > their psychological value as their nutritional effect, because the > packages often get into the wrong hands. > > Each package contains: > > * Beans and lentils in tomato sauce; > > * Peanut butter; > > * Strawberry jam; > > * Fruit bar; > > * Beans and tomato vinaigrette; > > * Biscuit, shortbread and fruit pastry; > > * Utensil package of salt, pepper, napkin and a match. > > Andrew Buncombe > > _______ _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
