Thousands of Afghans jam makeshift refugee camp in Taliban territory

By HAROON RASHID
Associated Press Writer

SPINBOLDAK, Afghanistan – Qasim Khan, whose hands were blown up by a land mine, had to leave a Kandahar hospital because the doctors fled when the bombing of the Taliban stronghold began.

"Give me some money to cure my hands," he pleaded Tuesday, blood running down his arms.

During the first visit by foreign journalists to a Taliban-run refugee camp, the displaced pleaded for an end to the U.S.-led bombings launched to punish the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Men held up sick babies, children showed wounds and the elderly rattled off lists of the dead.

"Bombing day and night made us run for our lives. Our children and women got scared and cried," said Faizullah Noorzai, a man in his 70s with a white beard.

The Pentagon says it has tried to avoid causing civilian casualties.

The camp is in one of the last parts of Afghanistan still controlled by the Taliban. The fundamentalist militia claims it is caring for tens of thousands of refugees displaced by fighting.

The camp is just outside the border town of Spinboldak near the Pakistan frontier. Long rows of white canvas tents stretch out into the desert fastness.

"There are 1,500 tents set up, while many more refugees are living in the open," said Mullah Najibullah, a Taliban foreign ministry official.

The authorities say about 15,000 refugees are registered and under the care of a Muslim charity from the United Arab Emirates. But the numbers on the ground appear to be far greater.

It was impossible to independently confirm any claims or figures.

A second camp of homemade tents and shelters sits beyond the first and it is at least as big. Nearer the frontier there are at least three other refugee settlements with about 7,000 families, Najibullah said.

Many at the camp said they had fled U.S. bombing in the north and southwest of the country that preceded the Taliban flight from most of Afghanistan.

APNP-11-20-01 1721CST