Fears for Afghan aid effort

23 Nov, 2001 07:22 AM3 mins to read

GENEVA - The international effort to get humanitarian help to millions of needy Afghans is threatened by the lack of security in areas seized by anti-Taleban forces, says a top United Nations aid official.

The rapid retreat of the Taleban, which has left 80 per cent of the country in the hands of their opponents, had initially raised hopes that supplies of food, medicines and shelter material could flow unimpeded.

But aid supplies dwindled virtually to nothing in much of Afghanistan in the week after the capital, Kabul, fell on November 13, said UN assistant emergency relief coordinator Ross Mountain.

"There are major security problems," he said at UN European headquarters in Geneva.

Relief agencies had enough supplies in surrounding countries - Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran - to meet the immediate needs of the up to 7.5 million people feared dependent on some form of international assistance.

Most of the needy are in areas controlled by forces opposed to the Taleban, whose protection of Osama bin Laden, the man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, led to the United States launching withering air strikes against the former rulers.

"If we are able to resume our work, I think that we can keep disaster at bay," Mountain said. "But if not, then we will be facing serious problems."

Insecurity came not just from pockets of pro-Taleban fighters left behind in areas controlled by their Northern Alliance opponents, he said.

In the strategic northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif, whose fall on November 9 triggered the sweeping Northern Alliance advance, looting of UN agency offices had become even more extensive after the flight of the Taleban.

"The anti-Taleban movement is not unified, to say the least, which has made it extremely difficult to enter places which we had hoped would be much readily available," he said.

Up to now, much of the aid had been brought in from Pakistan by truck, but the drivers were mainly Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taleban, and they had been nervous about entering Alliance-dominated areas.

Two drivers were still missing after being kidnapped in Mazar-i-Sharif this month, Mountain said.

International staffers with foreign aid groups were told by the Taleban to leave Afghanistan on September 14, three days after the attacks on the United States.

Mountain said local aid agency staff had done a "fantastic job" but the return of international personnel in sufficient numbers was crucial to assure effective coordination.

Some international personnel had been able to return to Kabul following its capture. But so far nobody had returned to the western city of Herat, which fell to Alliance forces nearly 10 days ago, or to Mazar-i-Sharif, Mountain said.

"Herat appeared initially to be calm but now it is facing the same factional disputes as Mazar, so we have to go gingerly."

Mountain said the UN was reviewing an earlier $US630 million ($1534 million) international appeal for help for Afghanistan to see its people through the winter period from October to March.

The amounts would not change but there would be some juggling of priorities as the once feared outpouring of refugees into surrounding countries had not materialised.

- REUTERS

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