Aid pledged for Afghan refugees

10/05/2001

By David Jackson and Michelle DeLoach
The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Forging a humanitarian front in his war on terrorism, President Bush said Thursday that the United States will spend $320 million to aid millions of refugees fleeing Afghanistan in fear of American attacks on the ruling Taliban.

"This is our way of saying that while we firmly and strongly oppose the Taliban regime, we are friends of the Afghan people," Mr. Bush told employees at the State Department.

Refugee groups said that although the American commitment will help, it is only an initial step toward addressing extensive famine and disease as drought-stricken Afghans try to escape their war-torn country.

U.N. and American officials said the new aid would feed at least 7.5 million people for six months, though more money will probably be needed. Officials said that as many as 1.5 million refugees could try to leave Afghanistan in the coming months, adding to the estimated 3.5 million Afghans who have already decamped to neighboring Pakistan and Iran.

Mr. Bush announced the program as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited more Middle East countries to discuss military retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Mr. Rumsfeld said in Cairo that the Pentagon planned to use transport planes accompanied by fighter escorts to drop the food supplies into Afghanistan. He also said that might require knocking out anti-aircraft weapons controlled by the Taliban.

"You wouldn't want the rations to fall into the wrong hands," he said.

Administration officials said the humanitarian program underscores their argument that the fight is strictly with the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden, whom the administration considers the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, not with the Afghan people or Muslims in general.

"We will fight evil, but in order to overcome evil, the great goodness of America must come forth and shine forth," Mr. Bush said. "One way to do so is to help the poor souls in Afghanistan, and we're going to do so."

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Mr. Bush's package but said the administration should further develop a long-term program that could cost up to $1 billion."While military action and immediate attention to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan are on the front burner, we must also address the long-term needs of the people throughout the region," Mr. Biden said. "The administration's commitment of $320 million is a step in the right direction, but the road is long."

Administration officials said the United States is already the leading source of aid to Afghanistan. The $320 million will carry a new refugee program to the end of the year, when it will no doubt be renewed, the officials said. They called it part of a long-term commitment to the people of Afghanistan, both those resisting the Taliban and others who would run a new government.

"We will work hard with the U.N. and our partners on the reconstruction of Afghanistan when there is a government in Afghanistan that can give the Afghan people better than they currently get," said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Although the United States has not explicitly called for the overthrow of the Taliban, officials have said they would welcome a regime that, in their view, does not protect terrorists.

Administration officials said they are still developing specific ways to deliver the food, water, seed, shelter and health care to refugees. A Pentagon spokesman called air drops "a particularly dangerous undertaking" but added that the military has other options as well.

President Bush and his aides said they also planned to work with a variety of relief organizations, particularly the U.N. World Food Program. That program is already providing assistance to Afghan refugees.

U.N. officials reported that it costs $230 million to feed 7.5 million Afghans for six months – assuming food can be delivered. An additional $27 million is needed in those six months for logistical support, including air transport, communications, truck maintenance and security.

"Nearly 8 million people in the upcoming winter are going to be relying entirely on outside countries for their survival," said Abby Spring, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Program. "That includes clothing, medicine, and food."

Afghanistan has the world's highest rate of women dying in childbirth and the world's lowest rate of caloric intake, U.S. officials said. Civil war has raged for 22 years, starting with an invasion by the Soviet Union that was met by Afghans wielding American-supplied weapons.

Conditions have worsened since the Taliban took over in 1996 and provided haven to Mr. bin Laden and his band of suspected terrorists.

State Department officials said that two deaths per 10,000 people each day constitutes an emergency; some villages in Afghanistan are now seeing six to eight deaths per 10,000 per day.

Nearly 4 million Afghans needed food even before the Sept. 11 attacks, said Hiram Ruiz, director of communications at the U.S. Committee for Refugees. With respect to the war, humanitarian aid also serves military and diplomatic efforts, analysts said.

"It's designed to remind people that more things come from America than bombs," said Philip Zelikow, a National Security Council official for former President George Bush.

Mr. Rumsfeld, who stopped in Saudi Arabia and Oman before heading to Egypt and Uzbekistan, said the United States needs to address the "secondary effects" of the war on terrorism, including the economic ones.

. The Associated Press contributed to this report.