Military

DATE=11/29/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN FOOD AID (L-O)

NUMBER=2-283681

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE= KABUL

INTERNET=YES

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Food Program says the growing lawlessness in Afghanistan since the collapse of Taleban rule is hampering efforts to quickly deliver much-needed emergency food aid. V-O-A's Alisha Ryu in Kabul has details.

TEXT: As the opposition Northern Alliance began swiftly retaking control of northern Afghanistan from Taleban forces earlier this month. W-F-P officials predicted that food aid deliveries to Afghanistan would speed up dramatically.

Decades of fighting and three-years of drought have devastated food production in many parts of Afghanistan.

The W-F-P expected new routes to open in time to deliver enough food to keep an estimated six-million people from starving during Afghanistan's bitter winter.

But renewed fighting in some parts of the country, as well as an increasing number of robberies and hijackings on roads that connect major Afghan cities, have hampered W-F-P's efforts to deliver food quickly into needy areas.

Agency officials say one of the biggest problems in Afghanistan is the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. The W-F-P was counting on the use of the key crossing point of Termez in Uzbekistan, to move tens-of-thousands of tons of wheat flour into Mazar city, just a short drive from the Uzbek border.

From Mazar-e-Sharif, W-F-P workers had planned to use trucks to deliver food to other needy areas in the north. Two-weeks ago the W-F-P was able to use the crossing for the first time since 1998 to move nearly five-thousand-tons of wheat flour into Afghanistan.

But incoming W-F-P Afghan Director Burkard Oberle says lingering insecurity following a bloody three-day prisoner revolt earlier this week outside of Mazar-e-Sharif is forcing delays in the delivery operation.

Mr. Oberle says lawlessness remains a problem in other parts of the country. One-week ago five W-F-P trucks carrying 200-thousand tons of food were hijacked by armed bandits on the road from the western city of Herat to Kandahar in the south.

Despite the security related setbacks, the W-F-P says it is still hoping to distribute 52-thousand tons of food a month, for the next six-months. (SIGNED)

NEB/AR/LTD-T/RAE