From ReliefWeb: Source: Oxfam Date: 17 Oct 2001 Aid agencies call for pause in bombing-- Joint agency press release

"We have 1000 tonnes of food stuck in Pakistan... enough for 50,000 people but we cannot find truckers to take it in because of their fears" -- Dr Hany el Banna, director of Islamic Relief

"Afghans are an extremely resilient people who will do all that it takes to survive. But if nothing changes, there will be huge loss of life and unspeakable suffering this winter" -- Barbara Stocking, Oxfam director

A group of aid agencies today called for the bombing of Afghanistan to be paused to allow food to be delivered in safety and in sufficient quantities to sustain people through winter.

The call by Oxfam International, Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Tear Fund and ActionAid comes 48 hours after a missile exploded a few hundred metres from a the UN World Food Program depot in Kabul. A convoy of 250 tonnes of food being loaded at the time was to have gone to an Oxfam distribution site in Hazarajat. This would have been the first food into the Oxfam Hazarajat project since September 11.

The agencies said that labourers and truckers were becoming increasingly afraid to load or unload food, to drive deep into Afghanistan, or to stay overnight in Afghan towns and cities. This series of events has significantly affected the ability of agencies to carry out their work.

"It is evident now that we cannot, in reasonable safety, get food to hungry Afghan people," said Oxfam director Barbara Stocking. "We've reached the point where it is simply unrealistic for us to do what we need to do in Afghanistan. We've run out of food, the borders are closed, we can't reach our staff and time's almost run out."

"We have 1000 tonnes of food stuck in Quetta in Pakistan," said Islamic Relief director Dr Hany el Banna. "It is enough for 50,000 people but we need 60 trucks and we cannot find truckers to take it in because of their fears."

"Our partners are managing to get small quantities in but it is nowhere near enough," said Nick Guttmann, emergencies manager for Christian Aid.

The aid agencies need public guarantees from all parties that military forces will not target or impede aid convoys. The call extends to the Northern Alliance, the US and UK-led alliance, and the Taliban, which must drop additional charges on aid convoys, and allow aid workers to monitor the aid effort and resume communications.

The agencies say that a pause in the bombing now gives the best hope of averting a humanitarian crisis on a large scale:

Some 400,000 people are thought to be already having to survive on wild vegetation and essential livestock Two million people do not have enough food aid to last the winter, and of those, 500,000 will be cut off by snow by mid November Millions more are on the move and we just do not know the scale of their need. The UN says 5.5m people are short of food UN food stocks within Afghanistan are now down to just two weeks' supply (9,000 tonnes).

"We just don't know how many people may die if the bombing is not suspended and the aid effort assured. We do know that the Afghans are an extremely resilient people who will do all that it takes to survive. But if nothing changes, there will be huge loss of life and unspeakable suffering this winter," Barbara Stocking said.

Notes to Editors For further information please contact: Sam Barratt (Oxfam Islamabad) 07876476403 or Helen Palmer (Oxfam in Oxford) 01865-312498 John Davison (Christian Aid) 0207 523 2175 Mohammed Imran (Islamic Relief) 0121 605 5555 Keith Ewing (Tear Fund) 07710 573749

Call for bombing halt

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), October 17, 2001

Answers

You can't have your cake and eat it too. One of the great ironies of war is that civilians always get in the way.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), October 18, 2001.