AID GROUPS
Warlords Steal Food Shipments, Hampering Efforts to Relieve Famine
By C. J. CHIVERS with ELIZABETH BECKER
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 3 - An effort to feed Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan descended into violence here today as food ran short and local soldiers beat back a hungry crowd that had swarmed around a Red Crescent Society compound. As the crowd dispersed, relief officials said they had run low on food because shipments had been stolen by local warlords.
The confrontation, which at one point almost turned into a riot, began this morning when several hundred refugees converged on the compound and demanded the bags of rice stored inside.
But the society had fewer than 300 sacks of rice, and its staff decided not to distribute them out of fear that there would be fights between families who had received food and those that had not. The crowd shouted in protest and soldiers, using branches stripped from nearby trees, began driving the refugees away from the compound's concrete walls....
...Outside the Red Crescent compound in Jalalabad, soldiers at times struck children, women and old men indiscriminately. Some soldiers hit women who sat on the ground and begged. At least one struck a boy so hard that the branch broke across the boy's back. The crowd responded by throwing stones.
"There are too many people who come here for food," said Abdul Basir Basirat, the Red Crescent Society supervisor in Jalalabad. "All of them need rice and other things. What should I do?"
As Mr. Basirat spoke from inside his office the crowd wailed and pushed on the compound gate. The crowd surged, the gate held, the crowd relaxed, then surged again. Soldiers could be seen swinging sticks from the top of the walls down into the crowd, striking those who pressed too close.
Mr. Basirat said that the same soldiers who were trying to control the crowd were actually linked to the source of the problem.
The troops are members of the Eastern Shura, the group of anti-Taliban warlords in the region who worked with the United States military to hunt down Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in cave complexes nearby. Since the Taliban fled Jalalabad in November, these warlords have controlled the city and the surrounding Nangarhar Province. They are a largely undisciplined force.
Relief officials said that several days ago six trucks loaded with rice arrived from Pakistan, enough food to feed everyone now requesting assistance. But the Eastern Shura seized four of the trucks to feed its armies or the relatives of soldiers who died in the war. The seizures left little rice for the refugees.
"The local commanders took all of the rice," Mr. Basirat said. "We were allowed only two trucks. All of the rest went to their houses, or to the families of the martyrs."
The thefts were confirmed by Atiqullah Mohmand, the Jalalabad program director for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "That is true," he said. "Right now, we don't have a proper system of government in this province. The mujahedeen put force on us and take the food. They are looting."
Mr. Mohmand said that since late November relief organizations have also tried three times to distribute wheat, and each time local soldiers stole most of the food. He declined to name the commanders responsible.
"Nobody wants to mention a clear name, because it might put them in danger," he said....
...The refugees were not satisfied. One white-haired man wandered near the compound, clutching a petition and begging for food. He spoke English, and said he had been a teacher, but now was destitute.
"There are many different problems about this food distribution," said the man, Zaid Gulab, 50. "Many people do not have any information about how to get food here today. I am hungry. I do not know how to get any. I cannot find out because the soldiers are there with guns and sticks."
Mr. Mohmand, of the United Nations, said conditions today were reminiscent of those in the early 1990's, when guerrilla commanders ran the province, abusing civilians and taking whatever they wanted. Popular anger with their conduct helped bring the Taliban to power.
"The people who are now in the positions of authority in our province, they are exactly the same persons who were here before," Mr. Mohmand said. "They are following the same system as before. It is not good. There is no killing right now, but the thieves are very active."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/04/international/asia/04AID.html> -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>