Misery Hangs Over Afghanistan

September 24, 2001

REFUGEES

Misery Hangs Over Afghanistan After Years of War and Drought

By BARRY BEARAK
Lynsey Addario/SABA, for The New York Times

ESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept. 23 < Before it became notorious as a sanctuary for
terrorism, Afghanistan was already home to what may be the world's biggest
humanitarian crisis.

Four years of ruthless drought had forced nearly a million people to abandon
their homes in search of food, while countless others have stayed behind to
live off unsavory meals of animal fodder and boiled grass.

One night last winter, a hasty settlement of tents was hit by a freak storm
of heavy snows and sub-zero cold. In the morning, more than 150 people <
mostly children < were found dead of exposure, leaving many to wonder what
worse horrors could befall the Afghan people.

Now, it seems, they will find out.

With an American attack expected, hundreds of thousands of Afghans are
suddenly on the move, heading for the presumed safety of ancestral villages
or crossing the border into Pakistan and Iran. Their flight follows the
prudent departure of virtually all foreign relief workers, the linchpins of
a charitable distribution system that was expected to be feeding 5.5 million
Afghans by mid-fall, about a quarter of the population.

The delivery of foodstuffs within Afghanistan is now nearly at a halt.
Making matters worse, the Taliban have issued a new decree threatening death
to any relief worker caught using a satellite telephone, an essential means
of communication.

"A major crisis had already existed, and now there's a potential crisis even
bigger," said Andrew Wilder, in charge of field operations in Afghanistan
for the American branch of Save the Children.

"The World Food Program is not sending in any food, and we're worried that
time may be running out. We need to get food in there. This is the time of
year we all gear up for winter, and now there is not only winter to worry
about but the aftermath of an attack."

For nearly a year, huge migrations of Afghans have made their way to refugee
camps of one kind or another. These people, oddly enough, are often
considered the better off. They at least could afford transportation in
their escape from hunger. Left behind are those less fortunate, with no
water, no seeds, no food and no savings.

Relief agencies had been attempting to keep people on their land < bringing
food into remote areas through the mammoth, winding mountain passes. But on
Sept. 12, the day after the attacks against America, the United Nations
World Food Program, the primary source of nourishment for nearly four
million Afghans, stopped transporting wheat into Afghanistan.

There were two reasons, said Khaled Mansour, spokesman for the program.
One, it became impossible to hire local trucks to deliver grain to outlying
regions; drivers were using their vehicles for the more lucrative work of
carrying the fleeing. Two, with foreign aid workers gone, there was no
longer adequate oversight. "We can't allow food to be diverted," Mr. Mansour
said. "We have to be assured that the people who deserve the food will get
it."

About 15,000 tons of food are stockpiled in Afghanistan, enough for about
two weeks, he added. What follows is just another of that nation's coming
cataclysms.

"The situation grows worse in Kabul everyday," said Dr. Muhammad Haider
Toryali, a neurologist in Afghanistan's capital. He arrived here today with
his wife and four children in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan. The trip, by
minibus, cost about $60.

"In normal times, the young, the old, so many children go to sleep at night
without food. And now, what can I say? I want to ask Mr. Bush how he will
rationalize attacks on hungry, innocent people. I cry for the Afghan people.
I am leaving my family here in safety and then I will return to Kabul. I am
a doctor and my people will need me."

In the few days after the terrorist attacks, few Afghans even knew of
America's tragedy. Television is forbidden by the ruling Taliban, and radio
bulletins were sketchy. But eventually, the news began to pass freely, and
the panic followed the news. "The government of Pakistan is looking at
800,000 to one million people flooding into the Northwest Frontier Province
and another 500,000 into Baluchistan," said Yusuf Hassan, a spokesman for
the United Nations high commissioner on refugees. "Of course, the scale
depends on what happens in the coming weeks in Afghanistan, but whatever
happens, there is going to be a problem with funding. These countries,
Pakistan and Iran, say they cannot support any more Afghan refugees."

Syed Iftikhar Shah, the governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier, this
morning told reporters: "No more refugees! I have told the United Nations. I
will not allow any more."

The Peshawar area itself has about one million Afghan refugees, a result of
22 years of war within Afghanistan as well as the current drought. Though
the Pakistanis have sealed their border crossings with their neighbor,
thousands of new arrivals are nevertheless snaking across the border on
clandestine smuggler trails.

The plan, according to the governor, is to place an additional one million
refugees in dozens of fenced camps in a "no man's land, a zero line" between
Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is something of a fiction, allowing the
governor to say he has stood firm against the refugee tide. The "no man's
land" does not actually exist.

The camps will be built in Pakistan's so-called tribal areas, which by
reputation are something like America's lawless Wild West < and while
technically separate from the country's four provinces, are definitely part
of the nation.

There, fenced in and fenced out, another horde of unfortunate Afghans will
live in a limbo, waiting to be fed.