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Sanctions report highlights vulnerability

The population of Afghanistan is highly vulnerable and has little capacity to cope with any further economic shocks, according to the UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan (UNOCHA). A summary report on the potential humanitarian impact of UN Security Council sanctions was released on Tuesday, a day before a scheduled Security Council session on the situation in Afghanistan. Last November, the Council imposed limited sanctions on Afghanistan in response to the Taliban’s sheltering and training of terrorists, and its refusal to extradite the Saudi Arabian fugitive Osama bin Laden, who has been indicted by the US in relation to the August 1998 bombing of its embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Taliban has said it has no extradition treaty with the US and that Islamic and cultural traditions precludes it from handing over bin Laden. The sanctions imposed included a ban on international flights by Ariana Airlines and a freeze on specified bank accounts linked to the Taliban movement. Media reports have suggested that additional sanctions considered by Security Council members include: a complete international travel ban on Taliban officials, fuel sanctions, trade and financial sanctions, and an arms embargo. Tuesday’s UNOCHA report, the result of a two-month field investigation in Afghanistan on the effects of the current sanctions regime, concluded that “any increase in the price of basic staples and medicines, or any reduction in income and employment opportunities, will have a significant impact on a population that is already operating on the margins of survival.” “Given the economic hardship the Afghan people are facing, especially with this year’s drought, one must question how much more ordinary Afghans can take,” UN Coordinator for Afghanistan Erick de Mul told IRIN on Tuesday. The recent Taliban edict restricting women’s employment outside the home was only expected to exacerbate that situation, he added. The greatest effect of the current sanctions regime has been on Ariana Airlines, and especially its cargo operations, with a knock-on effect on the agriculture and health sectors. Cheap, good quality Indian medicines have had to be replaced by more expensive products from Pakistan and Iran, and health agencies were experiencing additional costs and delays in clearing health products through Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, UNOCHA reported. Afghanistan has also lost export markets for its fresh fruits, with resultant losses in income and employment, it said. The sanctions - widely considered to have had has little impact on the Taliban’s policies and activities - have increased Afghans’ sense of being isolated and victimised, according to the report. “There is a strong sense of bitterness and bewilderment in that the Security Council action is perceived as targeting an innocent population and not the authorities with which it has a quarrel,” it stated. Humanitarian agencies operating in Afghanistan had been largely insulated from frustrations over sanctions so far, but aid agencies were “likely to face more serious fallout, amounting to security threats, in the event of further economic sanctions,” according to UNOCHA’s research. Although there was almost no support with Afghanistan for further economic sanctions, “an overwhelming majority of those interviewed indicated that an arms embargo would command widespread support and moral authority,” its report stated. Many of those interviewed in its research had indicated that such restrictions on the transfer of weapons to the warring parties would avoid the humanitarian contradictions associated with economic measures, it said. There was also “a strong consensus within Afghanistan on the need for the UN to upgrade and intensify its political engagement and peace-making efforts. Afghans from all walks of life repeatedly queried why more is not being done to achieve peace and bring the war to an end,” the report added. [The full research findings are due to be issued in early September. The summary report, “The humanitarian implications of United Nations sanctions on Afghanistan” is available at: http://192.168.1.201/news/Sanctions/index.shtml]

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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