To punish innocent Afghans would be immoral | Poem

23 September 2001

To punish innocent Afghans would be immoral
Chris Buckley
Christian Aid Programme Officer for Afghanistan

I have just returned from Afghanistan, and cannot avoid a growing
feeling of dread at what may be about to befall the people I have left
there. The bellicose statements being issued by America and her allies
about revenge and retaliation for Tuesday's horrific terrorist attacks
against New York and Washington seem to be softening up western
electorates for some kind of massive military action against the Afghan
people.

Because of these threats, aid organisations have been forced to pull out
their foreign workers - fearing both that they may be caught in the
expected raids, or that they would be attacked as westerners after the
NATO bombers have flown away. The effects of this withdrawal could be
infinitely more tragic and devastating than the worst that a wounded
America may now throw at this long, long-suffering country.

For, although it has gone largely unreported, Afghanistan is in the grip
of a three-year drought and on the verge of mass starvation. According
to the UN-run World Food Programme, by the end of the year 5.5 million
people will be entirely dependent on food aid to survive the winter -
that's a quarter of the Afghan population.

As Christian Aid's programme officer responsible for Afghanistan, I have
been helping supply food and seeds to communities in desperate need. In
a few weeks the winter snows will come, cutting off the hundreds of
isolated villages whose only links to the outside world are rutted dirt
tracks. Without seeds they will be unable to replant for next year.
Without food aid now, thousands could be dead before the spring.

Already fears on the ground about this pending catastrophe are filtering
through. Only yesterday (Thurs) I received this message from one of the
local organisations funded by Christian Aid.

'What will happen to the people if aid agencies remain reluctant to
resume full operations? The consequences are quite clear that people who
are already suffering would be the victims. And if any military action
is taken, Afghan staff and civilians will be in real danger.

'Terrorism is the worst thing and it shows how blind these people are as
human beings. But if the leaders do not have patience and tolerance they
can only do further damage.'

This, I think you must agree, is not a voice from a country of dedicated
international terrorists or religious fanatics. But it is a voice from
the real Afghanistan, unrecognisable from the demonised image we are
being urged to accept.

The real Afghanistan is one where 85 per cent of the population are
subsistence farmers. Most Afghans don't have newspapers, television sets
or radios. They will not have heard of the World Trade Centre or the
Pentagon, and most will have no idea that a group of zealots has
attacked these icons of western civilisation. There isn't even a postal
service.

Now, in these isolated villages, families are down to their last few
weeks of food and already men women and children in the bulging refugee
camps are dying of cholera and malnutrition. I have spoken to orphans
with swollen bellies. I have spoken to men who have no money to hire
trucks to escape the drought and make it to the camps. I have spoken to
families who say they will wait in their villages for death.

And that was before the aid agencies were forced to withdraw. Afghans
are not willing victims - they are hardy peoples, as any Soviet general
will testify. For the past three years they have been doing all they can
to survive - sharing food, borrowing money to buy food, crossing the
borders with Pakistan and Iran to find illegal, badly-paid work. Many
used to work on the opium farms as casual labourers.

But all these sources of income have dried up. Pakistan and Iran are
throwing thousands of Afghans out each month, the Taliban have banned
opium production and there is no food or credit to be had after three
years of drought.

And as I write this, our worst fears have just been realised. I have
just received the following message from a friend who works for another
of our partner organisations in western Afghanistan. He writes: 'I hope
you are fine. We have spoken to the World Food Programme in Herat, and
asked them to release food so we can distribute it to our beneficiaries
who are in severe need. But WFP has stopped their activities right now.
Could you please see if it is possible to get the release from WFP?'

That is a real cry for help. Other friends there have stressed the need
for the world to adopt a comprehensive approach to the terrorist threat
- addressing the underlying causes of this terrifying phenomenon rather
than just seeking to extract revenge.

Let me be clear. The murder of thousands of innocent Americans has
shocked and appalled us all. But any military action which disrupts the
flow of aid to millions of equally innocent Afghans would be equally
immoral.

Christian Aid urges everyone involved to show civilised restraint in
responding to an act of barbarism. Thousands of innocent people have
died in the United States. We must now make sure that even more innocent
lives are not lost.
 

 I am a community of no less than a thousand. I am not an I. I am a
 country of persons.

 -Nuruddin Farah
 

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