October 8, 2001	Monday	Rajab 20, 1422

LONDON: Aid agencies have stepped up their pleas for emergency food shipments to Afghanistan as the country’s refugee crisis worsens, arguing that the people’s needs outweigh the risk of indirectly helping the Taliban government or a US-led war effort.

The threat of US-led military action interrupted food supplies at a vital time, compelling thousands more families to flee. Oxfam said that between one million and two million people were on the road in Afghanistan, trying to reach safety.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) halted food shipments to Afghanistan after the attacks in the United States but said distribution inside the country continued. Last week, eight trucks arrived in Kabul carrying the first WFP shipment of food to reach the city since then.

WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour said that consignment consisted of 218 tonnes of wheat.

“This is a positive sign and we will continue to ship more food into Afghanistan,” he said. “This food will be very vital for programmes such as the bakeries in Kabul that help about 350,000 Afghans.”

Earlier, Mansour said that access to people in Afghanistan had been reduced since Sept 11. Oxfam’s Renton said: “It is very frustrating. At the moment, we have willing staff who are very eager to do the job, and very little to supply them with.”

The Taliban announced last month that using satellite telephones or radios had become a capital offence. Mansour said: “Almost all our offices are cut off and we have an extremely difficult time trying to get hold of them. However, we are still maintaining contact with some of our aid workers on the ground, and we are still receiving information from them about our activities in various parts of the country.”

Staff security and logistics are one obstacle to food shipments but the politics of food aid during conflicts is also a political minefield.

The WFP’s Mansour said: “Unless we can ascertain to a reasonable extent under the circumstances that the food we are sending in will get to the people who are meant to receive it, we will not send food in. We can’t follow every bag of wheat to where it ends. It’s practically impossible. We can assure to a reasonable extent the food we are sending will get to the people who are meant to receive it.”

Oxfam’s Renton said: “It’s a fact of life for food distribution in conflict zones that you will lose stock. It’s regrettable, and our staff are very experienced in monitoring it and trying to stop it happening.”

Save the Children spokesman Paul Hetherington said: “It’s a learning process. Lessons have been learnt from every single crisis, and steps have been made to try to redress that each time. —Reuters