NP Afghanistan

[Doug Millison]

To punish innocent Afghans would be immoral 
Chris Buckley
Christian Aid Programme Officer for Afghanistan

I have just returned from Afghanistan, and cannot
avoid a growing
feeling of dread at what may be about to befall the
people I have left
there. The bellicose statements being issued by
America and her allies
about revenge and retaliation for Tuesday's horrific
terrorist attacks
against New York and Washington seem to be softening
up western
electorates for some kind of massive military action
against the Afghan
people. 

Because of these threats, aid organisations have been
forced to pull out
their foreign workers - fearing both 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 could be
infinitely more tragic and devastating than the worst
that a wounded
America may now throw at this long, long-suffering
country. 

For, although it has gone largely unreported,
Afghanistan is in the grip
of a three-year drought and on the verge of mass
starvation. According
to the UN-run World Food Programme, by the end of the
year 5.5 million
people will be entirely dependent on food aid to
survive the winter -
that's a quarter of the Afghan population. 

As Christian Aid's programme officer responsible for
Afghanistan, I have
been helping supply food and seeds to communities in
desperate need. In
a few weeks the winter snows will come, cutting off
the hundreds of
isolated villages whose only links to the outside
world are rutted dirt
tracks. Without seeds they will be unable to replant
for next year.
Without food aid now, thousands could be dead before
the spring. 

Already fears on the ground about this pending
catastrophe are filtering
through. Only yesterday (Thurs) I received this
message from one of the
local organisations funded by Christian Aid. 

'What will happen to the people if aid agencies remain
reluctant to
resume full operations? The consequences are quite
clear that people who
are already suffering would be the victims. And if any
military action
is taken, Afghan staff and civilians will be in real
danger. 

'Terrorism is the worst thing and it shows how blind
these people are as
human beings. But if the leaders do not have patience
and tolerance they
can only do further damage.' 

This, I think you must agree, is not a voice from a
country of dedicated
international terrorists or religious fanatics. But it
is a voice from
the real Afghanistan, unrecognisable from the
demonised image we are
being urged to accept. 

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. They will not have heard of the World Trade
Centre or the
Pentagon, and most will have no idea that a group of
zealots has
attacked these icons of western civilisation. There
isn't even a postal
service. 

Now, in these isolated villages, families are down to
their last few
weeks of food and already men women and children in
the bulging refugee
camps are dying of cholera and malnutrition. I have
spoken to orphans
with swollen bellies. I have spoken to men who have no
money to hire
trucks to escape the drought and make it to the camps.
I have spoken to
families who say they will wait in their villages for
death. 

And that was before the aid agencies were forced to
withdraw. Afghans
are not willing victims - they are hardy peoples, as
any Soviet general
will testify. For the past three years they have been
doing all they can
to survive - sharing food, borrowing money to buy
food, crossing the
borders with Pakistan and Iran to find illegal,
badly-paid work. Many
used to work on the opium farms as casual labourers. 

But all these sources of income have dried up.
Pakistan and Iran are
throwing thousands of Afghans out each month, the
Taliban have banned
opium production and there is no food or credit to be
had after three
years of drought. 

And as I write this, our worst fears have just been
realised. I have
just received the following message from a friend who
works for another
of our partner organisations in western Afghanistan.
He writes: 'I hope
you are fine. We have spoken to the World Food
Programme in Herat, and
asked them to release food so we can distribute it to
our beneficiaries
who are in severe need. But WFP has stopped their
activities right now.
Could you please see if it is possible to get the
release from WFP?' 

That is a real cry for help. Other friends there have
stressed the need
for the world to adopt a comprehensive approach to the
terrorist threat
- addressing the underlying causes of this terrifying
phenomenon rather
than just seeking to extract revenge. 

Let me be clear. The murder of thousands of innocent
Americans has
shocked and appalled us all. But any military action
which disrupts the
flow of aid to millions of equally innocent Afghans
would be equally
immoral. 

Christian Aid urges everyone involved to show
civilised restraint in
responding to an act of barbarism. Thousands of
innocent people have
died in the United States. We must now make sure that
even more innocent
lives are not lost. 

__________________________________________________
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