U.N. seeks urgent meet on Afghanistan

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, JAN. 13. In view of the rapidly worsening conditions on the ground in Afghanistan, the United Nations Coordinator for that country has requested an emergency meeting of the donors to respond to the need for food and non-food items, a spokesman for the Secretary-General said here today.

Mr. Eric de Mul, Coordinator for Afghanistan, is asking for $3.5 million for non-food items, $3.2 million in cash to complement food-for-work programmes and another $600,000 for seeds. It is believed that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating in view of the escalated fighting in the northern areas.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said that the number of Afghans arriving at a makeshift camp in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province has jumped from around 250 to 750 in the last three days and the fear is that many more are on their way along with those leaving their homes to escape the drought. In the estimate of the UNHCR, there are at least 60,000 new arrivals in Pakistan and another 40,000 may have entered the country unmonitored. The estimates since last summer are that nearly half a million people have left homes and are displaced in Afghanistan itself and there are at least another 100,000 internally displaced persons from 1999.

This rather dismal picture comes exactly a week before the U.N. sanctions against the Taliban take effect. The Clinton administration lobbied for additional sanctions saying the organisation cannot continue to flout the will of the international community and support terrorists. Earlier this week, Mr. Karl Inderfurth, the outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, said Afghanistan was a continuing tragedy and an agony for the people living there. Washington, it was pointed out, had made an effort for a settlement in 1998 but that did not get far. In pushing for sanctions against the Taliban, Washington hopes that Osama bin Laden will leave the country and be brought to justice.

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Section  : International
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