U.N. chief seeks more Afghan refugee aid

The risk of disease increases with poor sanitation and warm weather to come

SHAMSHATOO, Pakistan -- United Nations chief Kofi Annan has called for more aid for Afghan refugees despite the destruction of non-Islamic religious icons.

"The world has to realize that ordinary Afghans "didn't do anything to destroy the Buddhas," Annan said.

The Taleban has intensified Afghanistan's isolation at a time when its humanitarian crisis is worsening.

RESOURCES UNESCO - Thumbnails Of Threatened Afghan Greco-Buddhist Art     MESSAGE BOARD Afghan statues    GALLERY Afghanistan's Buddhist heritage Afghanistan under the Taleban

Annan visited refugee camps in Shamshatoo on Monday, to where some 70,000 Afghan refugees have fled from 21 years of civil war and two years of drought.

Citing security concerns, Pakistan authorities did not allow Annan into the infamous Jalozai camp where tens of thousands of Afghan refugees have sought shelter since January.

U.N. officials also expressed concern that mobs of desperate refugees could get out of control during such a visit.

Crammed in makeshift quarters amid winter, more than a million refugees at the borders with Pakistan endure the increasing risk of disease due to poor sanitation and the prospect of warmer weather.

Children and elderly people die everyday at Jalozai, known to be the worst of the camps in northwest Pakistan.

An estimated 80,000 people are packed into a dust-choked patch of land with open sewers, no water, and with plastic bags as their only shelter from the harsh winter weather.

A million could be starving

In Afghanistan, the World Food Program warns that as many as one million people could face starvation.

An estimated 80,000 people are living in U.N.-supported camps in Afghanistan's western Herat and another 10,000 people are stranded on the northern border with Tajikistan.

In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, another 150,000 more Afghans are living in makeshift shelters in search of food and water.

"We are trying to convey the message that things are getting worse, that it is not the same as last year," said Erick de Mul, the U.N coordinator for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. As civil war has shattered Afghanistan's economy, a devastating drought that threatens to worsen this year has broken the backs of farmers, destroyed entire herds, and wiped out crops, he said.

For about 200,000 Afghanis who have fled into neighboring Pakistan, prospects are no better in the U.N.-run camps near the border.

Conditions are worsening each day, said Yusuf Hassan, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman in Pakistan.

"I shudder to think what it will be like" in the next months, when summer temperatures begin their climb to 100 degrees, he said.

Driven by war and drought, the refugees began entering Pakistan in September, eluding Islamabad's efforts to close the border via small mountain trails.

Seven million have fled

Pakistan still hosts 1.2 million Afghans in camps built after the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union.

Idolatrous image to the Taleban, a cultural treasure to many nations

At the peak of the war, five million Afghans fled to Pakistan and two million to Iran.

"Pakistan has had a very generous asylum policy," said Hassan.

But now Pakistan has stopped welcoming refugees, as the country tries to revive its own economy.

Pakistan no longer gets any U.N. assistance for the long-term refugees.

Authorities in Islamabad fear that a fresh influx will become a further burden when emergency U.N. assistance runs out.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.N. chief tries to save statues
March 10, 2001
Pakistan, Japan step into Buddha row
March 9, 2001
Analysis: Buddhas' fate signifies Taleban divisions
March 2, 2001

Society for the Preservation of Aghanistan's Cultural Heritage
United Nations
Taleban

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