November 21, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 5, 1422

KABUL, Nov 20: The United Nations has been hit heavily by looting in Mazar-i-Sharif and has no more cars or equipment left there, a spokesman said here on Tuesday.

“The UN guesthouse was comprehensively looted,” Eric Falt told reporters, adding that cars, all the agency’s materials and particularly radio gear were stolen. He said the “scale of looting in the north was large”.

Falt also said UN shipments of food aid from Quetta to Kandahar were still suspended because of drivers’ security fears.

He said, however, that six of the 48 trucks carrying World Food Program (WFP) supplies that left Peshawar for Kabul on Tuesday had reached Jalalabad, about half way into their journey.

Falt said that some 52,000 tons of foodstuffs were distributed in Afghanistan from mid-October to mid-November, “enough to feed six million Afghans for a month”.

But he added that relief workers were unable to provide some regions with assistance because of security reasons.

CENTRAL ASIA HOLDS KEY: Philippe Heffinck, Central Asia area representative of the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF, said in Termez, Uzbekistan, that Central Asian countries were playing a major role in the emergency operation in Afghanistan.

“We always look at a maximum number of options. Uzbekistan is convenient to supply Mazar and the surrounding region, while Turkmenistan is probably more useful for Herat, and Tajikistan for northeastern Afghanistan,” he said.

Turkmenistan had already received seven planeloads of UNICEF aid, while Uzbekistan had got five and Tajikistan three, Heffinck said.

United Nations agencies started delivering aid by barge last week from Termez to the Afghan port of Hairaton, 18kms down the Amu Darya. But Uzbek authorities halted all loading on Tuesday due to strong winds.

Authorities cite security concerns in their refusal to open a vital bridge connecting Termez and Hairaton which could substantially boost aid deliveries by truck.

The kilometre-long Friendship Bridge, built in 1982 and used to withdraw Soviet troops in 1989 after almost a decade of inglorious war in Afghanistan, can accommodate both railway and road traffic.

“When will the bridge be opened? It’s up to the Uzbek government to respond to this,” Heffinck said. “I think the government of Uzbekistan has made enormous efforts to assist the relief operation. The bridge is just one element of the problem.”

He said the relief operation was also hampered by difficulties in securing safe access to Afghan regions. He said it was unclear when international staff of relief agencies might safely resume work in northern Afghanistan.—Reuters