October 18, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 30, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: Britain has decided to further offer 15 million pounds for Afghan refugees, says the visiting British secretary of state for international development Clare Short here on Wednesday.

She is here at the invitation of finance minister Shaukat Aziz to extend financial support for Afghan refugees and for poverty- reduction in Pakistan.

According to a statement made by the British High Commission she said that Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. “It has some of the world’s highest child and maternal mortality rates, disability is common as a consequence of the large number of land mines that litter the country, health and education services have virtually disappeared, and women and girls have suffered grievously from the restrictions imposed on them by the Taliban.”

Over four-and-a-half million refuges, she said, have already fled Afghanistan but, following the attack on the World Trade Centre, the crisis has escalated.

“We are hopeful that the Taliban regime will continue to crumble and be replaced as soon as possible by a government that is representative of the people of Afghanistan and will co- operate in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.”

These measures she said, are designed to enable us to work with the new government in Afghanistan and the building of a better future for its people.

“Yesterday, I spoke to Kofi Annan and today I met Catherine Bertini, executive director of the World Food Programme which is the key agency for the delivery of food aid.”

The structures, both within and outside of Afghanistan, for the delivery and distribution of food are still in place and “we know that the Afghan staff are keeping all of that going and some trucking has continued even after September 11 when all international staff left Afghanistan, and it has resumed since military action began.