AFGHANISTAN: Axworthy raises humanitarian concerns

ISLAMABAD, 8 November 2001 (IRIN) - Former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy has said there has been a preoccupation in the world media with the military action in Afghanistan, at the expense of the humanitarian crisis. It was "about time that the humanitarian diplomatic agenda was brought forward for some serious debate", he told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday. Speaking as a member of Oxfam's independent fact-finding mission to the region, Axworthy said there was a compelling concern on the part of the aid community over the degree of suffering relating to the lack of access inside Afghanistan. He said unless something was done very soon, a lot of people would starve. "My assessment is that the needs [of Afghans] are not being met, and the crisis should not be allowed to continue as 'business as usual'," he said. Officials in the region had told him a disaster was now unavoidable. "According to them, it's not a question of whether there will be a disaster, it's a question of the extent of the disaster," he explained, adding that there needed to be a clear engagement by the combatants to help secure a food delivery mechanism. "We need to try and involve local Afghan networks. We may also need the involvement of the [Afghan and coalition] military in the distribution of aid in this crisis," he said. With respect to refugees, Axworthy could understand why Afghan neighbours were unwilling to be lumbered with more refugees, after the international community had walked away and left them with a large number the last time. However, he stressed that keeping asylum-seekers inside the country was a contravention of the Geneva Convention, and a solution to the impasse had to be found soon. While a reconstruction blueprint was being prepared, and there was international recognition that recovery would require "significant aid for the region", Axworthy said there were a series of highly destabilising factors which would remain a challenge to any future Afghan government. The corrosive effect of drug trafficking was one issue that needed to be dealt with. Axworthy also called for "serious diplomatic discussions" to develop a framework to prevent future external interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. The former Canadian minister went on to say that the UN peace process was severely under-resourced, and needed substantial international support for it to succeed. "You can't start a peace initiative on a shoestring. We need to see that the Afghan process is under way, that civil society structures are properly resourced," he said. Oxfam's fact-finding mission's report on Afghanistan warned that tens of thousands may be dead by the end of next month, with more than 100,000 children dead by the end of winter. A statement released on Tuesday called on the parties to the conflict to put resources into addressing the humanitarian crisis, stressing that, in the zeal to protect itself from the scourge of terrorism, the world could not ask the Afghan people for further sacrifices. Meanwhile, staff from the NGO ACTED working in northeastern Afghanistan told IRIN that temperatures had been dropping significantly over the past few days. Speaking from Khvajeh Baha od Din (37.20N 69.32E), 25 km from the Tajik border, Eric Leguen said the displaced people were in desperate need of warm clothing. It had been raining heavily over the past few days, and there had been floods made worse by drought conditions.