UN gears up for “crisis of stunning proportions”

More than five million people in Afghanistan, most of them women and children, have a fragile grip on survival, and require particular consideration as the world deals with the geopolitical fallout of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States, the heads of six UN agencies noted in a joint statement on Monday. After 20 years of brutal conflict, three years of drought, large-scale human rights abuses and significant population displacements, exacerbated in recent days by the fear of a US attack on terrorist targets in the country, “a humanitarian crisis of stunning proportions” was now unfolding in Afghanistan, they said. The Afghan population is waiting, expectantly and fearfully, to see what military action the US-led coalition against terrorism takes in Afghanistan against the Saudi-born militant, Osama bin Laden, who has been accused of involvement in the suicide attacks on the US, and the ruling Taliban movement, which has given him sanctuary. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called for a universal coalition against terrorism to be built through the United Nations in order to give legitimacy to what would be a long-term struggle. Addressing the UN General Assembly, he said the response to the US suicide attacks “must be one that strengthened international peace and security by cementing ties among nations, rather than subjecting them to new strains”. “Let us uphold our own principles and standards, so that we can make the difference unmistakeable, for all the world to see, between those who resort to terrorism and those who fight against it,” he added. [For more details, go to: http://www0.un.org/apps/press/latest.asp] Annan also emphasised what he called “a new urgency” in assisting the conflict- and drought-affected people of Afghanistan, especially those displaced from their homes (who now number more than one million). On Tuesday, the World Food Programme (WFP) strongly condemned the seizure by the Taliban of 1,400 mt of WFP food stocks in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, warning that it could disrupt - if not bring to a halt - the agency’s assistance to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in the country’s southern provinces. Meanwhile, the UN system in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan is bracing for what it fears could become one of the largest operations the organisation has ever undertaken. Already, 3.8 million Afghans relied on food aid to survive, and estimates were that that number would rise to some 5.5 million by 1 November, the UN heads of agency stated on Monday, 24 September. Nearly 20 percent of those in need were children under five years, many of whom were also struggling for survival, they added. The signatories to the statement comprised: Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF; Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of WFP; UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers; UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown; UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima; and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. With expatriate UN and NGO staff having been relocated from Afghanistan for security reasons, Afghan relief workers are continuing to assist vulnerable populations as best they can, but lack of international humanitarian access is hastening the deterioration of the situation, according to the statement from the UN heads of agency. They urged world leaders “to be mindful of the principles of international humanitarian law, and to take all measures to protect civilian populations”. The six heads of agency called on the entire international community - and especially countries in the region - to support humanitarian relief efforts, press for safe international humanitarian access to all populations in need, assure the safety of aid workers, and open their borders to those refugees in need. They also gave particular recognition to Pakistan and Iran - which have carried the burden of hosting millions of Afghan refugees, and face the prospect of an influx of many more - and urged greater international support, especially from donor countries, for these countries of asylum.