Delivering food to Afghans a `dangerous undertaking'

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Delivering food to Afghan refugees is so dangerous a mission that U.S. military planes performing humanitarian air drops will have fighter escorts, a Pentagon spokesman said.

The relief flights could draw anti-aircraft fire from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said. Afghanistan also has frequent storms that kick up blinding clouds of dust or snow.

Airdrops would be "a particularly dangerous undertaking," Quigley said. "You'd have to be smart in your planning. Generally speaking, we know that the Taliban have anti-air capabilities." Among them are thought to be some U.S.-supplied shoulder-fired Stinger missiles left over from the 10-year war against the Soviet Union that ended in 1989.

An alternative to airdrops would be for the military to help deliver food over land, Quigley said. The food convoys could move under armed escort, he said.

The U.S. military probably will help deliver some of the $320 million in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan that President Bush announced Thursday. Having the military deliver some of the aid would bolster Bush's statements that America has no quarrel with Muslims or Afghans, just terrorists and governments that shelter them.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters during a trip to visit Muslim allies in the Middle East and Central Asia, said the Pentagon would be careful to design an airdrop that could succeed.

"You wouldn't want the rations to fall into the wrong hands," he said, referring to the al-Qaida terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden and Taliban fighters.

The military's rule would be to deliver "humanitarian daily rations," plastic pouches of food with added vitamins and minerals to aid refugees weakened by starvation and travel. The air drops will be focused on areas inside Afghanistan, not refugee camps in Pakistan and other bordering countries, Quigley said.

The food, wrapped so that one packet has enough for one person for one day, is rice-based and does not contain any animal products so as not to violate anyone's religious or cultural practices. Muslims, for example, do not eat pork.

The yellow plastic packets have a picture of a smiling person eating from a pouch, a stencil of an American flag and the greeting in English, "This food is a gift from the United States of America." The United States has a stockpile of about 2 million of the pouches, Quigley said.

The United States would try to prevent the Taliban from taking the food supplies, Quigley said. The regime is sheltering Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile whose al-Qaida terror network is accused of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Afghanistan is among the world's poorest countries. The country has the world's highest rate of women dying in childbirth, and a quarter of children die before reaching age 5, said Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"It has the lowest per-person caloric intake in the world, and it has the highest number of amputees in the world per capita," Natsios said. "So people are weakened. There's been four years of drought, 22 years of civil war. They're not in good shape."

Quigley said the military had learned from past airdrops to refugees in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and Somalia. A 1994 airdrop of food to Rwandan refugees in what was then Zaire drew criticism because the crates landed nearly a mile away from their targets.

Also Thursday, the Pentagon announced that another 3,413 reservists have been called to active duty. That brings the total activated to 25,765 from 183 units in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The 3,283 Army Reserve and Army National Guard members called up Thursday come from units specializing in military police, military intelligence and infantry operations. Most of the 130 Navy Reserve members were called up individually for their special skills, including security, intelligence and medical care.

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On the Net: CIA Factbook Afghanistan section: www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook

APNP-10-04-01 1622CDT