wfn.org | Famine, threat of war force Afghans from their homes

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6857 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

21-September-2001
01339

Famine, threat of war force Afghans from their homes

3.5 million face immanent starvation

by Cedric Pulford
Ecumenical News International

LONDON - The development agency Christian Aid has warned that at least 3.5
million people face starvation in Afghanistan, with only two weeks of food
relief left in the country.

	Estimates are being revised daily as thousands of refugees rush to the
borders amid fears of bombing raids by the United States and allies
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

	Chris Buckley, Christian Aid's program officer for Afghanistan, told ENI
that the famine had originated in a three-year drought in the north and west
of the country. The United Nations had estimated, before the present
political crisis, that 5.5 million people - about a quarter of the Afghan
population - would be dependent on food aid by December.

	Buckley said that with Afghanistan's borders now closed, no food was coming
into the country.

	Much of the imported wheat had come from the United States, he added.

	Christian Aid, which is supported by all of Britain's mainstream churches,
also expressed its concern by joining 13 other U.K.-based aid and
development charities in what the organizers described as an "unprecedented
joint call for restraint" by the United States and allies.

	Hundreds of Islamic clerics today urged Osama Bin Laden to leave
Afghanistan in a bid to preempt an attack on the country by the U.S. and
allies. But it was uncertain whether Bin Laden, alleged to be the mastermind
of last week's terrorist strikes against the U.S., would comply.

	In a statement issued on Sept. 19, the U.K.-based charities expressed their
horror at the terrorist attacks in the U.S., but warned against a "descent
into a spiral of violence" if military retaliation caused the deaths of many
more innocent people. Signatories to the statement include Amnesty
International UK, CAFOD (a Roman Catholic development agency), Oxfam GB,
Save the Children UK and Tearfund.

	A similar statement - signed by 1,000 U.S. religious leaders of various
faiths - posted on the website of the National Council of Churches in the
U.S. warned against indiscriminately retaliating in ways that bring on even
more loss of innocent life."

	Along with the United Nations and other international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), Christian Aid has withdrawn its expatriate staff from
Afghanistan because of the prospect of military action against the country.

	Although Christian Aid still had local staff in place, the crisis meant
that they could not operate, Buckley explained.

	"There have been reports from some NGOs of harassment [by the ruling
Taliban and its supporters] of local staff because they are perceived as
being on the Western side."

	Such incidents look set to get worse if the United States and allies mount
attacks in the country.

	Christian Aid's activities in Afghanistan have included supporting health
and farming projects as well as food relief. All are now under threat, and
Buckley does not see the expatriates returning before December even if the
political crisis is resolved.

	By that time winter will have added yet more to the numbers of those who
cannot feed themselves.

	Buckley stressed that the Afghan people wanted to be able to feed
themselves. He had visited a camp near Herat with 200,000 people and spoken
with a group of farmers. "There were 10 in a family occupying a tent two
meters by two meters. They said, 'We would rather go back to our land and
die there.'"

	Buckley added that food supplies were also in jeopardy in the parts of
Afghanistan held by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, although the danger
had more to do with fighting than drought. These areas represented about 10
per cent of the country.

	Meanwhile, a British cabinet minister, Clare Short, called for
"proportionate" and "informed" military action in response to the terrorist
attacks on the U.S.

	Short, the international development secretary in the government led by
Tony Blair - who has promised to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the
United States - said: "All serious people do not want a lot of innocent
people to be bombed and lose their lives. Everyone who's got any influence
ought to use it to try to achieve that outcome."

	Christian Aid is one of three member organizations of Action by Churches
Together - an ecumenical emergency aid network supported by the World
Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation - working in
Afghanistan. The others are Norwegian Church Aid and Church World Service of
the National Council of Churches in the U.S.

	Action by Churches Together and Church World Service are both supported by
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

For help managing your Ecunet membership, write to mailrequests@ecunet.org,
with HELP in the subject line.
------------------------------------------
Send your response to this article to pcusa.news@pcusa.org

------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send an 'unsubscribe' request to

pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org