17 October 2001
Taliban Seizes U.N. Grain Warehouses in Kabul and Kandahar
(World Food Program vows to continue food distribution) (820)
By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Taliban seized two warehouses in Afghan cities where
the World Food Program (WFP) was storing almost 7,000 tons of grain
for distribution throughout the country. WFP Executive Director
Catherine Bertini said at a Washington press conference October 17
that the WFP is still transporting more grain into the country where
as many as 5 to 7 million people could face starvation during the
oncoming winter.
Describing the October 16 incident to reporters, Bertini said, "We
regret deeply that we no longer have access to these warehouses
because they are critical" to the international humanitarian effort to
feed a country suffering from more than 20 years of war and three
years of drought. WFP is making plans to provide other warehousing
arrangements in the two cities.
The Kabul and Kandahar warehouses seized were two of six major
facilities WFP is operating in the country. They contained about 7,000
metric tons (MT) of grain at the time they were taken by the Taliban,
more than half of the supply currently in the country. Bertini said
supplies are being rapidly replenished, however, with plans in place
to move more than 16,000 tons of grain into Afghanistan over the next
10 days. "We'll try again," she said.
Because of serious communication limitations in the region, the WFP
has few details of the seizure itself. According to Bertini, Taliban
militia members arrived at the warehouses and announced they were
taking over the facilities. The aid workers on duty left without being
injured or threatened, she said. She had no information on what
happened to the grain.
The Taliban's action in Afghanistan came on the same day the U.N.
Security Council, meeting in New York, "demanded that the Taliban
should stop threatening the safety and security of aid workers, and to
cease obstructing aid destined for the Afghan people," according to
Council President Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland.
"We hope that the Taliban will respect the need of their people to
eat," Bertini said as she explained that the WFP will proceed with
food distribution plans despite the heightened security risks that now
threaten the humanitarian operation.
WFP is currently delivering about 900 MT of commodities a day, up from
200 MT in September, which had become an average monthly level in what
has been a longstanding WFP relief campaign in Afghanistan. After the
terrorist attacks on the United States, international humanitarian
officials increased their estimates of how many Afghans might need
assistance as mounting tension and uncertainty created greater
instability and lesser reliability of markets and food supplies.
Bertini said WFP has 48,000 MT of grain in the region now, with
165,000 more on the way, most of it from the United States. Those
stockpiles put the agency fairly close to achieving its monthly goal
to transport 52,000 MT into Afghanistan.
A lack of security for workers and the commodities themselves is
certainly an obstacle to that goal, the WFP director said. "We
certainly did not foresee," that the Taliban might seize the
humanitarian stores.
Poor communication is another major problem, Bertini said, after the
Taliban prohibited the use of all telecommunications devices in
September. There are only limited public phones available for the WFP
workers to use, Bertini said, so international relief workers outside
the country have only sporadic contact with the Afghan local staff
inside the country.
The United Nations system in Afghanistan evacuated all of its 75 staff
members in September due to security concerns. Many non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) withdrew relief workers at the same time.
While some NGOs have described the U.S. bombing as a major impediment
to the delivery of food and the conduct of the humanitarian operation,
Bertini did not identify the military campaign as such. She said that
WFP will transport food supplies to where they're needed "regardless
of circumstances."
The agency has operated in Afghanistan throughout a war with the
Soviet Union and its own civil war. Further, Bertini said in recent
years WFP has fed the hungry in the midst of civil wars in a number of
different areas, accumulating significant experience conducting
humanitarian operations in difficult and dangerous environment. "We
have to continue to try" to deliver food to those in need, she said.
Acquiring adequate transport for the food is another constant problem,
Bertini said. Commercial trucking companies have carried significant
amounts of supplies in the past, but with increased fuel costs and
greater security risks, truckers are now seeking higher compensation.
WFP is negotiating with various transport companies, and even bringing
donkeys into the transportation scheme to carry food supplies into
mountainous regions.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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