DATE=9/27/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N - AFGHANISTAN (L - ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254385
BYLINE=MAX RUSTON
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A United Nations report released today
(Monday) denounces Afghanistan's Taleban leadership
for increases in fighting, drug production and human
rights abuses in that country. V-O-A's U-N
correspondent Max Ruston has the story.
TEXT: In a report to the U-N Security Council, U-N
Secretary-General Kofi Annan provides a detailed
account of worsening conditions in Afghanistan. He
says the Taleban movement, which controls most of
Afghanistan, is continuing to attack opposition groups
in the north of the country despite pledges to seek
peace. Most alarming, Mr. Annan says, is the fact
that tens of thousands of people have been forced to
flee their homes as a result of new hostilities.
U-N Spokesman Fred Eckhard read portions of the report
aloud:
/// ECKHARD ACT ///
He says it is his sad duty, once more, to alert
the international community to the worsening
human rights situation in Afghanistan. The
Taleban's conduct of forced displacement of
civilians during their recent offensive in the
Shomali plains is particularly alarming, he
says.
/// END ACT ///
The U-N chief says there is a clear pattern of warfare
being pursued by the Taleban: the intentional abuse of
civilians coupled with the destruction of their
property. According to U-N estimates, about 12-
hundred people from the Taleban and 600 people from
opposition groups were killed in the most recent round
of fighting.
Mr. Annan says he is particularly disturbed by the
growing involvement of neighboring countries in the
Afghan conflict. He says there is evidence that the
Taleban's most recent offensive against opposition
groups was reinforced by two-thousand to five-thousand
recruits, mostly from religious schools within
Pakistan. He says some of the non-Afghan fighters are
less than 14 years old.
On the humanitarian front, Mr. Annan warns that the
food security situation is expected to deteriorate
because of poor harvests, adding to the already severe
problems of malnutrition.
While food crops are down, Mr. Annan says, the
production of illegal drugs is up. He says opium
poppy cultivation has increased nearly 50 percent over
the last year. He says Afghanistan now accounts for
about three-quarters of the world's opium production.
(Signed)
NEB/MPR/LSF/TVM/JP
27-Sep-1999 17:29 PM EDT (27-Sep-1999 2129 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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