Sealed Tajik border prompts aid in situ

Unable to convince the Tajik authorities to open the border for over 10,000 displaced people stranded on islands in the Panj river, relief agencies have had no option but to start providing “low key aid” to the vulnerable groups within range of the warring Afghan factions. Latest UN reports indicate that the displaced population in the Panj islands was increasing with the arrival of new families who had fled fighting between the Taliban, who control 95 percent of Afghanistan, and the opposition United Front. According to an assessment earlier this week by international agencies, conditions among the displaced were reported to be “deteriorating rapidly”. Mathew Kahane, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Tajikistan, told IRIN that the most recent visit to the border found the displaced had poor shelter and no protection against the cold weather. “They are in miserable, cold and wet conditions and subject to intermittent firing. At present, our aim is to provide low level assistance in situ while we pursue the issue of opening the border with the Tajik government,” Kahane said. He added that the presence of armed fighters among the civilian displaced complicated the delivery of humanitarian assistance. “We need to be sure that we are not simply supporting fighters. One cannot simply deliver food aid if one cannot be sure where the food is going to.” Agencies were considering delivering food and other emergency supplies to families at border crossing points under the protection of Russian border guards, which would enable agencies to deliver aid to heads of families and not expose relief workers to undue risk. Intermittent shootings and shellings in exchanges between Taliban forces and armed fighters who had dug in on opposite banks of the Panj river meant that it was “not a safe place for regular humanitarian work”, Kahane said. Taslimur Rahman, head of UNHCR in Tajikistan, told IRIN that many of the displaced were located on the Tajik side of the unmarked border and were therefore considered “de-facto refugees”. Rahman added that the Tajik authorities were reluctant to open the borders to the displaced as the presence of “controversial people” - referring to armed fighters allied to the United Front and their families - could destabilise the security situation in impoverished and drought ridden southern Tajikistan. Rahman added that the Tajik authorities were also concerned about the long term implications of a refugee population within the country, given the lack of available resources, food or money. Although Rahman did not see the government changing its current position, it was thought that special dispensation would be given to 30 civilians which the British NGO, MERLIN, involved in providing medical care to the civilian displaced, had identified as requiring immediate hospitalisation. According to the Tajik minister of health, the decision to admit these people for hospitalisation had to await the return of President Rahmonov and his entourage from travel abroad. In the interim, Rahman said that international agencies continued to provide emergency assistance “at their peril”.