Statement from Christian Aid Official

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 11:15 AM
Subject: To punish innocent Afghans would be immoral

To punish innocent Afghans would be immoral /14.09.01

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.