Military

DATE=11/5/2000

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

NUMBER=5-27330

TITLE=AFGHAN-REFUGEES

BYLINE=AYAZ GUL

DATELINE=KHYBER PASS, PAKISTAN

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: After weeks of intense fighting between Afghanistan's ruling Taleban and opposition forces, the two sides agreed last week to a U-N sponsored peace dialogue. But As Ayaz Gul reports, the peace talks will come too late for the refugees are arriving daily at Pakistan's northwestern border post in the Khyber Pass.

TEXT: According to the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees, up to 50 Afghan families a day are crossing into Pakistan at the Torkham border post.

Caught in war and the worst drought in three-decades, these refugees are fleeing Afghanistan with almost no possessions. They wait for assistance under the imposing cliffs of the Khyber Pass.

The U-N Refugee agency says more than 30-thousand Afghans, mostly women and children, have fled to Pakistan since the ruling Taleban movement and opposition forces resumed fighting in September. The agency is taking care of the urgent needs of these refugees by providing tents, food, water, and health services in refugee camps in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The new arrivals are severely testing diminishing U-N resources. Yusuf Hassan, of the U-N-H-C-R, says the agency has funds for the one-point-two-million Afghan refugees already in Pakistan. But he says the United Nations did not anticipate a significant number of new refugees.

/// HASSAN ACT ///

There are two major factors that are pushing them out: one is the drought and [the] second one is that many of them are in areas that are potentially in war zone areas and many of them are getting out - and also the approaching winter. We are concerned that the combination of these two factors will push a lot of people out of Afghanistan, and we fear that many of them will come here (to Pakistan) to seek assistance.

/// END ACT ///

/// SFX OF CAMP ESTABLISH AND FADE UNDER ///

At Torkham, it is not easy to tell who has fled the war between the Taleban and opposition forces and who has been driven from their land by the drought.

Only hours after arriving in Pakistan, a 36-year old shopkeeper, Sardar (one name) says he and his family of 11 fled the northeastern city of Taloqan, which the Taleban captured in early September.

/// REFUGEE SARDAR'S ACT IN PASHTO FADE UNDER ///

He says there were rockets and bombs, and a state of anarchy in Taloqan. He says five-days ago his house was destroyed and his uncle and brother died in rocket and artillery fire.

Nearby, a family of seven from Afghanistan's Baghlan province is waiting for someone to take them to a camp in Peshawar.

/// SHAFIQA ACT IN PASHTO FADE UNDER ///

The 40-year-old mother-of-five, Shafiqa (one name), says there was no fighting in her village, but she blames the drought for destroying their wheat crop and cattle.

Many of the refugees say they were harassed and their property and livestock were stolen by fighters in northeastern Afghanistan. Some refugees say the Taleban did not mistreat them, but did not help because they also have nothing.

The United Nations last month warned that up to one-million Afghans could starve to death unless emergency steps are taken. More than half the country's 22-million people is affected by the worst drought in decades.

U-N-H-C-R's Yusuf Hassan says the agency is short of funds, but it is difficult to tell the refugees to go back because there is nothing for them at home.

/// HASSAN ACT ///

They are mainly ethnic Tajiks from the northeast. They are people from areas that have been very productive, in fact one would say the breadbasket of Afghanistan. Even during the difficult times when their country was occupied by the Soviet troops they never came out. That is very worrying.

/// END ACT ///

Last week the Taleban, which controls most of war-torn Afghanistan, agreed to U-N sponsored peace talks with the opposition force. But there is no provision for a cease-fire and the talks could drag on for years.

The United Nations is concerned that with winter weather only a few-weeks away, those Afghans unable to legally go to Tajikistan may also flee to Pakistan. U-N officials say such a movement can only be checked if fighting stops and drought assistance is provided in Afghanistan. (SIGNED)

NEB/AG/RAE