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At the same time Sunday that the US announced
it had begun bombing Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld repeatedly stated that along with bombs the US was
dropping food for the innocent whose supplies might be cut
off because of the raids.
Jean-Herve Bradol, president of the non-governmental
organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without
Borders), sees it from another angle. For him, the food drops
are a public relations move, and a very bad one at that.
People within the Bush administration
have been quick to point out that given the gravity of the
situation anything is better than nothing. In such circumstances,
however you try to reach the most vulnerable. This operation
is totally uncoordinated with no preparation, it's expensive,
the most needy won't necessarily get any, much will be wasted,
and worse, food dropped like that in the middle of the night
may well end up in minefields.
In its 2001 annual report, Landmine Monitor,
published last month, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
-- of which Human Rights Watch is a major participant -- noted
that 724 million square meters of land in Afghanistan is mine
contaminated, making it possibly the most mined country in
the world.
Given the great movements of populations
arising from 22 years of war, 3 years of drought and now the
bombings, aid agencies differ on what this means, but a figure
often advanced is that it translates into 27
persons per day becoming landmine victims.
Christiane Berthiaume, spokesperson for
the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been the main food
relief agency in the region and has been planning for its
own substantial food drops, stressed the importance of good
advance work for food drops to be worthwhile. They require
much planning and days of
preparation to arrange the right circumstances.
The US dropped 37,500 daily ration units
during each of two nights, with no precise idea of where they
went nor who might collect them, and there are 8 or 10 million
people to feed.
The greatest danger, however, according
to Bradol, is that the planes dropping the bombs are now dropping
food, which creates the image of humanitarian aid coming from
the attackers. There is already much anti-Western feeling
in that part of the world and there's a tendency to lump together
all Westerners, all aid agencies, the UN, etc.
Other non-governmental organizations
share this view but have been loath to speak out for fear
of being sidelined by the US as its actions more and more
dominate the situation.
Although UN agencies such as the WFP
and UNICEF have so far been silent, UN officials have said,
off the record, that some sort of common stance on the question
is being worked out. Following the first night of bombings,
in Quetta, Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, the UNHCR's
building was pelted with stones and UNICEF's was set on fire.
Reuters
Geneva, October 10, 2001
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