Focus on new routes for relief to Afghans

Aid agencies have been given access to two key routes in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to enable them to deliver urgently needed food to northern Afghanistan, following a visit by a senior UN official to the Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The Central Asian region has become a crucial hub for delivery of food aid to Afghanistan before the winter onset. All countries neighbouring Afghanistan have closed their borders in fear of a huge influx of refugees, thereby limiting access and making it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to operate. The new crossing points into Afghanistan were negotiated by UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima, who has just ended a week-long tour of Central Asia. This was his second visit to the region in a month, in an effort to shore up Central Asian cooperation in the task of feeding an estimated half a million people displaced in northern Afghanistan, and another 100,000 in the non-Taliban controlled northeastern region. The two crossing points negotiated by the UN are being hailed as a breakthrough, the UN's humanitarian affairs officer for Tajikistan, Ann Davies, told IRIN on Monday. "There were already crossing points, but the breakthrough has been made with access in crossing the Pyandhz river on the Tajik-Afghan border. Also the opening of the ferry-crossing at Termez on the Uzbek-Afghan border, which had been closed for some four years," she said. The routes will provide aid agencies with access to the northern Afghan provinces of Mazar-e Sharif and Konduz, where there are said to be an estimated 500,000 displaced Afghans in makeshift settlements. During his trip to Central Asia, Oshima first met the president of Turkmenistan, who, he said, had committed his government to fully supporting humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, and given his permission to aid workers to establish operations at the border for work in Afghanistan. Oshima next met the Uzbek president, who authorised the use of Termez port so that food aid could be shipped to northern Afghanistan across the Amudarya river by barge, thereby dispensing with two days of trucking through neighbouring Turkmenistan. Aid workers told IRIN that although the move was welcome, the opening of the Termez port and the route into Konduz would not make a dramatic difference to food deliveries into Afghanistan's northern provinces. "It's not really a huge breakthrough by any means. It's now a bit easier for WFP [World Food Programme] to ship food in, but there was a logistics line in before," one aid worker said. "It would have been far more significant if the Uzbek authorities would have agreed to opening the huge friendship bridge," he added, referring to the heavily fortified bridge between southern Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, which has remained closed since the Taliban took power. The Uzbeks were only likely to open it if General Dostum (the ethnic-Uzbek Afghan warlord) returned to power, he said. The use of Termez airport for stockpiling emergency items was also authorised, Davies said. In the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Oshima said he had been assured of Tajikistan's strong support for the humanitarian effort inside Afghanistan. "We hope to use air, road and water to move aid inside Afghanistan," he told reporters at a news conference at the weekend. He added that the support of these three governments was not only what one would hope for and expect under international humanitarian law but that it was also in the best interest of these countries to do everything they could to facilitate the work of the UN in addressing "this terrible vulnerability, this famine, this crisis". However, Davies added that the main concern now was to ensure distribution of the food inside Afghanistan. "Less than half of the UN distribution 'hubs' are fully functional, mostly for security reasons," she said. Oshima also expressed concern over the pace at which financial donations from the international community for Afghanistan and Afghan refugees were being received. He said although pledges had been made, the actual money had not come through. Aid for Afghanistan Meanwhile, aid bound for Afghanistan continues to arrive in Tajikistan. For the last two weeks, planes belonging to the Russian Emergencies Ministry have delivered 123 mt of aid, comprising tents, blankets, food and medicines. The Tajik Ministry of Emergencies and Civil Defence has transported the essential aid to the non-Taliban controlled northeastern province of Badakhshan, the First Deputy Minister of Emergencies of Tajikistan, Abdurahim Rajabov, told IRIN. The head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's team in Tajikistan, Vladimir Fedin, told IRIN that the relief received so far was only 10 percent of the originally planned volume of Russian aid for Afghan refugees. The Russian government had allocated about US $4 million in assistance, he said. A second delivery of 80 railway wagons containing flour, tea, salt, vegetable oil, warm clothes, heating stoves, detergents and medicines would arrive soon, Fedin added. He said it was necessary to provide displaced Afghans with shelter before the winter. Oshima also appealed to donors not to forget the situation in Tajikistan, where an estimated one million people are facing starvation in due to an ongoing drought. Tajikistan's own problems The WFP Tajikistan country director, Ardag Megdessiyan, told IRIN that 67,000 mt of food worth US $36 million was needed to cover the needs of the worst drought-affected people from January to June 2002. Tajikistan's cereal output in 2001, estimated at only 303,000 mt, was down by 36 percent compared to the average of the last five years. The country needs more than 1 million mt of cereals a year for domestic consumption. With commercial imports not expected to exceed 400,000 mt, Tajikistan will have to grapple with an uncovered gap of 341,000 mt until mid 2002. For these reasons the Tajik government has said it cannot cope with an influx of refugees. Tajikistan is already home to thousands of Afghan refugees. Up to 12,000 of them are stuck on flood plains on the Tajik-Afghan border along the Pyandhz river, and another 4,000 are living in Dushanbe, according to the Committee of Afghan Refugees. There had been fears that there would be a noticeable increase of refugees on the flood plains since the US-led strikes began. However, according to the French NGO, ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) only 20 to 30 families have moved to the flood plains recently. In preparation for an expected influx, and despite the closure of the border, the Tajik government appealed for financial help. In response to this, Japan allocated US $2 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghans in and around the border with Tajikistan. "The Government of Japan realises that Tajikistan is in a difficult economic situation. Therefore, we have willingly responded to request of the Tajik leadership to contribute to implementation of the programme of support for refugees," the first secretary of the Japanese embassy in Dushanbe, Tadanori Kumano, said. The first plane carrying 32 mt of humanitarian cargo arrived from Japan at Dushanbe on 20 October, with a second plane due to arrive this week. The supplies include blankets, tents, food and medicine. With 83 percent of the nation living below the national poverty line, Oshima said it was important for financial appeals to be met. "The UN has asked for a modest US $77 million for this year and will ask for a similar amount next year. Less than half of our requirements this year (45 percent) were funded; please help us to do better next year," he said.