Military

DATE=2/12/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N AID / AFGHANISTAN (L-O)

NUMBER=2-286348

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The World Health Organization is rushing medical aid to Afghans trapped by winter snows. Meanwhile, other U-N agencies are transferring Afghan refugees to what they say are safer shelters. Dale Gavlak has more from Geneva.

TEXT: The World Health Organization says it is delivering emergency medical supplies by helicopter to the remote northeast Ghor region of Afghanistan.

The area is normally cut off for several months a year because of heavy snowfall, making it virtually impossible for 500-thousand people to have access to medical supplies.

Fadela Chaib, of the W-H-O, says the organization has brought in emergency health kits providing essential drugs for 10-thousand people for a three-month period.

/// CHAIB ACT ///

Medical supplies are essentially to help the Afghan population in this region to treat the most common diseases, which are measles, respiratory infections. These supplies also include obstetric care for pregnant women.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Ms. Chaib says medication for burns suffered by Afghan women during cooking and heating accidents, and surgical supplies for war-related and landmine injuries have also been delivered. /// END OPT ///

In western Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration reports that efforts to re-register internally displaced Afghans (I-D-Ps) at the largest camp inside the country near Herat are so far running smoothly.

International Organization for Migration spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy says the move is necessary to separate the truly displaced from local urban poor.

/// CHAUZY ACT ///

The next stage is getting all this information on the I-D-Ps, who have been registered - where they come from, where they came from, how they came to Herat, if they intend to go back. If so, when and what they need to return to their villages. /// OPT /// This next phase is very important because it allows the International Organization for Migration and other U-N agencies and N-G-Os to plan for these returns. /// END OPT ///

/// END ACT ///

The U-N refugee agency says it will begin helping Afghans living in Pakistan and Iran to return home in March. Three-and-one-half million Afghan refugees live in both countries.

Meanwhile, U-N-H-C-R spokesman Ron Redmond says the agency closed a squalid refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan and transferred 45-thousand Afghans to safer areas.

/// REDMOND ACT ///

We are extremely happy to see the end of the Jalozai makeshift site. We have transferred those people to five new camps basically along the Afghan-Pakistan border where they can get proper shelter, food and other assistance.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// For the past two-years, the Jalozai camp housed tens-of-thousands of Afghan refugees. They built flimsy shelters of plastic and canvas in a dried-up riverbed that flooded whenever it rained. /// END OPT ///

The U-N-H-C-R says the end of Jalozai shows the international community's renewed commitment to help end the suffering of the Afghan people. (SIGNED)

NEB/DG/GE/RAE