WHILE the West decides whether to go to war with the Taliban the food crisis
in Afghanistan is deepening鈥攎illions will starve this winter, aid workers
are warning.
World opinion seems to be in favour of the US and its allies holding their
fire until they have formulated a measured response that will avoid civilian
casualties. Doves in the US military are also unwilling to strike without being
sure of their targets. But perversely the effect could be to ensure that a
country already starving after three years of drought gets little or no food aid
this month鈥攖he last chance before November snows make further distribution
impossible.
鈥淧eople here are saying whatever happens about the war, let it happen
quickly,鈥� says an Afghan working for Oxfam, speaking anonymously from within the
Taliban-controlled central highlands. 鈥淲e all know we don鈥檛 have enough food for
winter. For the people, the fear is about food, not about bombs.鈥�
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Alex Renton, an Oxfam worker in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, agrees.
鈥淓very day of the phoney war is a day lost,鈥� he says. 鈥淔our million Afghans
depend on food aid. The vital need to reach them by November cannot be
overstated. The window between war and winter is closing.鈥�
Within weeks, heavy snows will fall across the mountains of Afghanistan,
leaving most of the 20 million people in remote rural areas cut off from the
outside world in temperatures as low as 鈭�25掳C. 鈥淥nce the snows start, even
airdrops won鈥檛 get food to starving people鈥攖he population is just too
dispersed,鈥� says Renton. In the next six months, famine is set to spread over
swathes of the country as large numbers of people become trapped by the conflict
and winter.
After a three-week halt, UN food aid is reaching the country this week. 鈥淏ut
it鈥檚 token鈥攊t鈥檚 minimal,鈥� Renton says. 鈥淲e should be bringing in 1.6
million tonnes in October for the winter. But in the past three weeks, just 2400
tonnes have got in. That will feed those dependent on aid for three days.鈥�
Aid workers in the region are desperate. UN and charity
workers have fled. The Taliban have seized food stocks and
made it a capital offence to use satellite phones, the only effective means of
contacting indigenous aid staff still in the country. 鈥淢illions of children will
not make it through the winter without humanitarian relief,鈥� says David Bull,
UNICEF鈥檚 British director.
But this is not a disaster caused by impending war. Afghanistan has suffered
a three-year drought that has been largely ignored by the Western media. Many
thousands died of hunger in the mountains last winter, despite a UN programme of
food aid. This year鈥檚 harvest was again half that of a normal year, and much
less in areas such as Badakhshan in the rebel-held north-east. The UN warned of
an impending 鈥渇amine without precedent鈥� just a week before the events of 11
September.
There are reports of people subsisting on locusts, animal feed and grass. The
hungriest areas include Badakhshan, where thousands died in an earthquake in
1998; Hazarajat in the central highlands, which will be cut off from November to
April; and Herat in the north-west.
Relief agencies have been forced to abandon their usual famine strategy of
keeping people on their land ready to plant crops when the crisis passes. Now
they are demanding that Pakistan and Iran open their borders to allow refugees
to cross, knowing that this will cause a mass exodus. The UN estimates that 1.5
million people are already on the move within Afghanistan.
But jittery neighbours are worried by more than economic and political
instability. They fear a mass migration will reintroduce diseases to their
countries. Polio is the most common cause of disability in Afghan children, and
recent outbreaks in Albania, Greece, former Yugoslavia and Russia have all been
traced back to Afghanistan. Most Afghans are not immunised鈥攖he Taliban
refuses to allow women access to vaccination centres, and a planned ceasefire
between warring factions to allow vaccination programmes failed early this
year.
Pakistan had hoped to declare itself a polio-free country soon. Athar Dil,
head of Pakistan鈥檚 National Institute of Health, said last week that he is
concerned Afghan refugees will reinfect his country. He also fears an outbreak
of viral haemorrhagic fever among locals as refugees arrive with cattle infested
with ticks, which harbour the disease. The lethal fever broke out among Afghans
in the west of the country last summer. There have also been cholera
epidemics.
Even those refugees who reach the hastily constructed border camps will
struggle to survive. Aid workers are desperately trying to supply safe drinking
water. One project involves rehabilitating ancient water-gathering tunnels, many
dating back to Alexander the Great, around the Pakistani town of Quetta in
near-desert just across the border from the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
For a nation already wracked by war, surviving the latest crisis will be just
the first step on the long road to stability. Life expectancy is just 44 years,
and a quarter of children die before they are five.
