"Time is Running Out..."

[Doug Millison]

Food Aid: "Time is Running Out..."

SARAH ZAIDI, szaidi at cesr.org, www.cesr.org
ROGER NORMAND, rnormand at cesr.org, www.cesr.org
Zaidi, who recently returned from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, is
research director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights. She said
today: "Time is running out for thousands of civilians facing starvation
due to violations of the right to food by all parties to the Afghanistan
conflict. The collapse of the Taliban was expected to ease the food crisis.
But instead, a deadly combination of lawlessness among Northern Alliance
factions and closed borders by neighboring states is continuing to block
life-saving aid from reaching millions of destitute civilians." Normand,
CESR's executive director, said today: "The United States has the means to
prevent the impending catastrophe but refuses to act forcefully on the
crisis. There is something wrong when our government can pressure
Afghanistan and its neighbors to permit the establishment of major new U.S.
military bases but not the free passage of humanitarian aid to save the
lives of starving civilians."


DEBORAH JAMES, deborah at globalexchange.org, www.peacewomen.org
MEDEA BENJAMIN, medea at globalexchange.org, www.globalexchange.org
A member of a Global Exchange women's delegation that has just returned
from Afghanistan, James said today: "As an American in Afghanistan, I was
wholly unprepared for the level of poverty and desperation I witnessed
among Afghan refugees.... Many Afghans urge the immediate deployment of UN
peacekeepers, but the U.S. government is still hindering such attempts.
Crucially, women must be incorporated into the new government." Benjamin,
founding director of Global Exchange, was on the same delegation with her
daughter Arlen. Benjamin said today: "The U.S. bombing campaign, while
helping to defeat the oppressive Taliban regime, has exacerbated the
humanitarian crisis in two ways. First, hundreds of thousands of people,
terrified by the bombs, have fled their villages and swelled the ranks of
the refugee population. Second ... after the bombing began, humanitarian
agencies pulled staff from the country and closed or severely curtailed
their operations."


For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167