16 October 2001
Transcript: USAID's Natsios Announces $38.5 Million in Aid for Afghan People
(First installment of Bush's recent pledge of $320 million for
Afghans) (1550)
The administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), Andrew Natsios, has announced the release of $38.5 million
worth of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people on World Food Day,
October 16.
Briefing reporters at the State Department in Washington, Natsios said
the $38.5 million is the first installment of $320 million in aid for
the Afghans, which President Bush recently announced.
Natsios made several key points during his briefing:
-- The President's total Afghan aid program includes 73,000 tons of
food, medical aid, emergency shelter, seed for farmers, and clean
water systems.
-- The aid is being delivered through international organizations and
non-governmental relief organizations (NGO's), which, with their
detailed knowledge of needs in impoverished areas, are keeping the
food from falling into the hands of the Taliban.
-- Despite the military action in Afghanistan, the amount of food
going into Afghanistan has increased significantly.
-- Civilian aircraft and other options are under consideration to
deliver food to inaccessible areas during the coming winter.
-- 4,000 donkeys have been hired to carry relief supplies into
Afghanistan from Tajikistan.
Following is the transcript of the Natsios briefing:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
October 16, 2001
ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING WITH ANDREW NATSIOS,
ADMINISTRATOR OF THE AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
ON WORLD FOOD DAY
October 16, 2001
Washington, D.C.
1:15 P.M. EDT
MR. REEKER: Also today, I think many of you are aware that we are
celebrating World Food Day and it seems very appropriate that we are
able to announce today a major part of the President's initiative
earlier regarding the $320 million that we have committed to helping
the Afghan people. And so, to discuss that, we've brought over our
friend the Administrator of the US Agency for International
Development. And I would like to go ahead and turn it over to Andrew
Natsios, to run through that with you. He has a short time frame, so
we can take a couple of questions after that and then continue with
the regular issues of the day.
So let me introduce Andrew Natsios.
MR. NATSIOS: It is World Food Day today and we would like to announce
a contribution of $38.5 million to purchase additional wheat, lentils,
vegetable oil, corn-soy blend and yellow peas for Afghan relief, and
for Afghan refugees. This is part of the President's humanitarian
assistance program--the $320 million program that was just announced a
couple of weeks ago.
The President's program for Afghanistan is a follow-on to the program
we ran last year, which was a $172 million program prior to September
11th. The President's program nearly doubles that amount. The total
tonnage for these commodities is 73,000 tons of food; 55,000 tons of
wheat that will be made into flour and then almost 18,000 tons of
other commodities that I mentioned earlier.
The President's plan also includes money for emergency shelter for
displaced persons, immunization for children, maternal care for women,
seed for farmers and programs for clean water. And we are now making
grants to international organizations and NGOs to carry out the
President's plan.
If there are any questions, I would be glad to answer them.
QUESTION: Could you kindly describe how typically food would get to an
impoverished person on some hillside hideaway in Afghanistan?
MR. NATSIOS: The food is ordered on the Midwest grain markets. And
sometimes it's up in the northwestern part of the country. It is put
on American ships and shipped across the Pacific Ocean to either an
Iranian port or a Pakistani port. WFP trucks take the food into the
different border areas of Afghanistan. The food is then given to 10
international NGOs that are experienced in food aid. They have lists
in each village, each neighborhood, internally displaced camps and
refugee camps of people who are eligible because of destitution,
widows, orphaned kids who are living at home that don't have parents
there, amputees because of the number of landmines. We have them on
the list; people who have absolutely no other coping mechanisms and no
source of employment. They are on the lists, and food is then
distributed to people on those lists. Usually in the villages, it's
about a month's worth of food.
QUESTION: Could you respond to criticisms from the United Nations that
the food drops right now in Afghanistan are possibly feeding the
Taliban, not getting to the right people, and particularly for Mary
Robinson, that there should be at least two weeks of a bombing-free
time to get that food out to the people?
MR. NATSIOS: Well, one, there was only one day that we were not
running convoys -- when I say "we," the international community -- and
that was a week ago yesterday, one day. And that, frankly, was normal.
There are days we simply don't run things.
In the last four days, during the bombing, we have moved 14,000 tons
of food into Afghanistan. In fact, the volume of food going to
Afghanistan has substantially increased in the last month over what it
was the previous month.
So in spite of what is going on militarily, the volume of food on the
ground going into the country has increased significantly.
QUESTION: But there's a criticism that we may be getting the food in,
but the right people aren't getting it.
MR. NATSIOS: Well, the other comment that apparently was made has to
do with the air drops. The air drops are being done in those areas of
the country where there is very little Taliban control, number one;
two, in areas of high nutritional stress, in very remote locations
that are very difficult to reach on the ground. Is it possible someone
in Taliban got one of those yellow parcels? It is possible. Given what
has been happening in the last week, I think it's very unlikely.
I also make the comment that the people who know most about this are
the operational NGOs and UN agencies on the ground, who know what's
happening.
QUESTION: I have a couple of questions. Firstly, on behalf of my
commodity reporter colleagues, can you give us any details of the --
when you're going to buy and when you're going to ship the 55,000
metric tons of wheat?
And secondly, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't ask you on this
occasion what your comment is on the bombing of the ICRC warehouse,
which destroyed a large amount of food today?
MR. NATSIOS: We do not have confirmation of the details of that. I did
hear the media report, and we are looking into it now. But I can't
make comments, because I don't know the details any more than you do.
What was the first question?
QUESTION: The shipping details.
MR. NATSIOS: Oh, the shipping details. We time all this, because we
want about 50,000 tons of food going into the region, into the country
a month. Sixty-five thousand tons are arriving at the end of this
month; another 100,000 tons will arrive at the end of November, for
November and December.
It usually takes about three months for food -- three, four months --
three months for food to be -- the orders to go in, the paperwork to
be done, for the food to be purchased, put on the ships and then
shipped. So this food is probably more for January, I think it's fair
to say.
QUESTION: Are you taking extraordinary measures to ensure that the
food gets in, especially as winter sets into the areas and the roads
will start shutting down or getting iced over? What other options do
you have other than these convoys for getting the food to the --
MR. NATSIOS: There are a number of options that are being looked at
now, including civilian airlift into areas that will be otherwise
impassable. We have not made a definitive decision on whether or not
to do that, nor have the other aid agencies. But we are looking at the
prices now and the availability of civilian aircraft, which is
typically what we do in these circumstances. We have been doing
airlifts into southern Sudan, for example, for 12 years. And we have
also got it down to a science now, where we can fit a lot on these
planes and move it off very rapidly in a high turnaround time. It is
not the optimum way of doing this, because it's very expensive.
However, in areas where it's inaccessible otherwise, we will use that.
The second method I mentioned earlier, although it has become a source
of some amusement, UNICEF did hire 4,000 donkeys to go into the
northern area from Tajikistan. We undoubtedly will use donkeys and we
could find mules, which are even better, we would use them. But I'm
not sure how many mules are in the region. Mules are an American
invention, I think, or a European invention. And I won't make any more
comments about the mules.
QUESTION: The donkeys were successful?
MR. NATSIOS: The donkeys were successful, yes. But they were not
moving in food; they were moving in medical supplies and blankets and
that sort of thing.
Thank you all very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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