BBC Monday, 24 September, 2001, 17:06 GMT 18:06 UK Taleban seize Afghan food aid

Medical supplies are running low in Afghanistan

Taleban officials have reportedly seized about 1,400 tonnes of food from a UN food agency office in Afghanistan, which aid workers fear is on the brink of a massive humanitarian crisis.

A spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme, which has an office in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, says the premises were closed down shortly after the supplies were confiscated.

Taleban officials began raids on UN offices in Afghanistan over the weekend, in which they locked up communication equipment apparently to prevent staff passing on information to "enemies".

Correspondents say the moves mean the near end of relief work in the troubled country, with all the UN's foreign workers already pulled out.

UN activities in the country are now restricted to some camps in the north and around the town of Herat, near the Iranian border.

Aid agency officials have warned of the dire situation in Afghanistan, where 300,000 people are expected to run out of food by the end of the month and one million more by the end of the year.

"Humanitarian misery"

There are an estimated 3.5 million Afghan refugees already living in Iran and Pakistan and at least a million more displaced inside Afghanistan.

The crisis in the impoverished and war-torn country is being exacerbated by the fear of a US military strike against the ruling Taleban, which has triggered an exodus from Afghanistan's cities.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has urged the US to consider carefully its decision to attack Afghanistan in the light of the people who are likely to suffer as a result.

"I say to Washington: take your time and think hard," Mr Lubbers told Reuters television, warning against "disproportionate military activity that is so massive it creates humanitarian misery."

The refugee agency says it is putting in place the largest emergency contingency operation in its history in neighbouring Pakistan.

Thousands of Afghans have arrived at the border on foot, aboard trucks and on donkey carts, and are waiting to be let in

Pakistan has closed its borders to Afghanistan, but BBC correspondent Kate Clark says there appears to be some easing of restrictions on refugees coming into one Pakistani province.

It is not clear however whether everyone was being allowed through or only those with valid visas and passports.

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2001

Answers

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has urged the US to consider carefully its decision to attack Afghanistan in the light of the people who are likely to suffer as a result.

"I say to Washington: take your time and think hard," Mr Lubbers told Reuters television, warning against "disproportionate military activity that is so massive it creates humanitarian misery."

So, if the US takes a few months, or a year to decide, that will help the people in there? Or maybe, if the US hits them within the week, and there is considerable collateral damage as a result, that will help the survivors to make the food last longer?

Perhaps Mr Lubbers should go over there and see for himself how things really are, and while he's there...BOOM!

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001

There was an article in the local paper today which reported on a forum at Duke where three of the four Duke professors speaking said the US has a right to retaliate under the UN charter. At the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, no less, not exactly a hotbed of right-wing conservatism. If those three think it's legal, then it must be--and morally too.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001

There's another recent article about how the UN workers are forbidden to use any computers, or perhaps other communications. That might have put a serious crimp right there in their being able to function.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2001