U.N. warns of disaster in Afghanistan

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, FEB. 12. Officials at the world body have not yet responded to the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan that it will shut down the U.N. Office of Special Mission in that country by way of retaliation for the United States asking its representative in New York to close shop. Kabul's rationale has been that the Office of Special Mission is political and not humanitarian and, therefore, will be closed if the Taliban was not allowed to operate in New York.

The move of the Bush administration and the response from Kabul should be seen in the context of the U.N. Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, announcing last week that he planned to send the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Kenzo Oshima, to Afghanistan to assess the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation. Privately, there has been misgivings here on the U.S. decision to show the Taliban the door.

On Thursday, the State Department told Mr. Abdul Hakeem Mujahid to shut down the Taliban's New York operations as a part of the sanctions imposed on his country. At the same time, Washington also said Mr. Mujahid's visa status was being reviewed. The Taliban maintains that no formal letter from the Bush administration in this regard has been received.

According to reports reaching here, the Taliban has apparently told the U.N. that its office in Afghanistan is being closed and that the special envoy of the Secretary General will be denied a visa if its representative's visa in New York is reviewed.

The U.N. and its functional offices have been trying to mobilise international humanitarian assistance which has been less than forthcoming. Against a target of $ 230 millions, contributions have been in the neighbourhood of $ 14 millions. And U.N. officials have warned that a disaster would follow if the problem is not addressed immediately.

The world body faces a two-fold challenge - in Afghanistan itself with the internally displaced people and in camps in neighbouring Pakistan. Compounding the troubles for the U.N. is that Islamabad has apparently informed New York that it is not prepared to open a new refugee camp on the grounds that it cannot ``afford'' to add to the nearly two million Afghans already in the country. Pakistan has been urging the world body to set up more facilities inside Afghanistan to prevent people from fleeing the country.

If the Clinton administration made its determination well known on the subject of sanctions, there is little change in the attitude of the new Bush administration.

But in spite of the sanctions, officials in Washington are pointing out that the U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance with the U.S. Agency for International Development organising two more airlifts last week. The U.S. maintains that its sanctions against the Taliban are targeted at the fundamentalist regime and would not affect humanitarian assistance.

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Section  : International
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