Humanitarian liaison centre opens in Islamabad

The Coalition Humanitarian Liaison Centre (CHLC) has opened in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to provide the international aid community with information about the security situation and safe routes in and out of Afghanistan, Lt Colonel Vince Taylor of the CHLC told IRIN on Tuesday. "There was some hesitation from NGOs who've been here almost 20 years to deal directly with the military," he added.

The need for the CHLC came about when some NGOs started to fall short of their delivery goals and were concerned they would not be able to get humanitarian aid into Afghanistan before the harsh winter set in, due to the security situation.

"Our role is to help facilitate the delivery of that aid, so if they need a strategic lift to get food supplies to warehouses or distribution points we'll help them to do that," he said. In addition, they would work to ensure safe road routes, he added.

Taylor refuted claims that the CHLC was set up following the accidental bombing by the coalition in October of a warehouse in Kabul belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), saying that the centre was set up before the ICRC incident.

"We had a phone call from ICRC saying thank you for bombing our warehouse, which made a point," Major Graeme Olley, a British representative of the CHLC told IRIN on Tuesday. "This is not a reactive organisation to try and gloss over a political mistake. There is a coalition force and a humanitarian community and de facto there is interaction," Olley said. He added that although initially the relationship was "semi-hostile", they now enjoyed good relations, especially with the United Nations and international aid organisations, he added.

Stressing that the US-led air strikes had not been a complete hindrance to aid relief Olley said: "More aid was delivered during the air campaign than before or after. We helped that happen by making them feel secure by passing them information about convoys. We want to show people that they can deliver aid when there is a war going on."

With a total number of 14 officers from the coalition of British and American forces and a Pakistani liaison officer to join soon, the CHLC staff come from civil and special operations backgrounds having worked in hotspots such as East Timor, Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

Regarding the security situation inside Afghanistan, Taylor said there was only so much information they could provide. He gave an example saying that they could confirm that truck drivers travelling from Peshawar in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan should not feel threatened by military action. "But what we are not able to say is that the road is completely safe," he added.

While acknowledging that assistance on security issues would be appreciated in Afghanistan, Olley said: "We don't have the ability to assist people on the ground yet. We don't have a Kosovo situation and we don't have a force of occupation in Afghanistan." He added that if a multinational force or a coalition were to be deployed in Afghanistan, it would be able to provide framework security.