Today's Headlines: Friday, February 28, 2003
World Bank Chief Says Afghanistan is Proving Ground
Desperate Iraqis Face Mass Starvation, Warns UN
[...]
=================================================================== World Bank Chief Says Afghanistan is Proving Ground ===================================================================
The rebuilding of Afghanistan will be a litmus test of the world's commitment to countries after conflicts, World Bank president James Wolfensohn said Thursday, reports AFP.
"As the eyes of the world focus elsewhere, we should not forget that the experience of Afghanistan is a proving ground for whether the international community can stay the course beside a fragile country as it builds itself up from the aftermath of conflict," he said after a meeting with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai had asked for $600 million in budget support for the next fiscal year starting March 21 be channeled through the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.
"As Afghanistan moves into its next phase of nation building, it is essential that the government has a predictable budget instrument firmly in its hands and which it can align to its development priorities," Wolfensohn said in a statement.
"I trust the international community understands the importance of Kabul building its authority as a reliable government, and it can only do that with predictable budgeting. For this objective, the trust fund is a very important instrument."
AFP reports Karzai Thursday politely asked US President George Bush to do more for Afghanistan, but denied he had painted an overly rosy picture of life in his battered country to avoid embarrassing his host.
Karzai was Wednesday advised by several US Senators to be blunt with Bush, amid criticism that the administration had lost its focus on rebuilding Afghanistan, as it faces down Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, the Independent (UK) notes there are deep fears in Karzai's administration and among its supporters that an American invasion of Iraq will lead to a fall in international support for Afghanistan long before the task of establishing a strong central government, let alone securing peace and reconstructing the shattered country, is complete.
In related news, Reuters reports that Afghanistan's arrears with the IMF have been cleared, a key move that will allow the country to apply for fresh loans if needed, the lender said on Thursday. The country has cleared about $11.1 million in arrears, making it current on all its IMF obligations, an IMF statement said. Afghanistan had already cleared arrears with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. The Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) also reports.
The news comes as the Independent (UK) reports that the UN has suspended aid operations in parts of Afghanistan because of fighting between warlords and generally dangerous conditions, highlighting the weakness of the American-backed transitional government.
The New York Times writes in an editorial that the Bush administration has budgeted reconstruction aid below the levels authorized by Congress. More important than increasing spending will be sustaining the attention of top officials. With the administration increasingly consumed by Iraq, there is a risk that Afghanistan's needs will be shortchanged.
American relief and reconstruction programs in Afghanistan have already registered some notable successes. Schools are being repaired, children inoculated, irrigation works repaired and agricultural seed stocks replenished. American dollars have helped resettle more than two million returning refugees, reopen essential roads and pay the salaries of civil servants while the government rebuilds its finances. Late last year Congress authorized a four-year aid package providing a total of $3.3 billion.
Maintaining that level of aid won't be easy, as a budget already deeply in deficit will be further strained by the substantial costs of war and postwar reconstruction in Iraq. But America can afford no slackening in aid or attention to Afghanistan.
In related news BBC Online reports, citing Afghan television, that the World Bank and the Afghan Rural Development Ministry held a conference to discuss planning for small loans for the people of Afghanistan. The aim of this conference was to specify the criteria to issue loans for low income peasants, the disabled, the owners of small businesses and trades who need cash loans to carry out their productive activities.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the US promised to expand its aid to Afganistan to help repair electrical and irrigation systems. The budget measure Bush signed this month includes $3.3 billion in aid to Afghanistan over four years, primarily for reconstruction and security. The US has also taken a lead in building a highway from Kabul, the capital, to Kandahar, a major city that was a Taliban stronghold.
The Washington Times reported that the Afghan leader seeks US aid with stability, urging President Bush not to abandon his nation and to "do more" to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a haven for terrorists. Finally, the Director of Japan Information Center wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal, in response to a previous Afghan story, explaining that since September 2001, Japan contributed $375 million in humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan, and urged other countries to realize their pledges too.
=================================================================== Desperate Iraqis Face Mass Starvation, Warns UN ===================================================================
A war in Iraq could spark a humanitarian crisis on a scale far worse than the famine in the Horn of Africa or the war in Afghanistan, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, assistant UN secretary-general responsible for the UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq (UNOHCI), warned yesterday, the Financial Times writes.
"If there is a conflict it will be the biggest challenge the humanitarian community has been confronted with," da Silva said.
Da Silva said a conflict would force the UN to halt the oil-for-food program, on which the UN estimates 60 per cent of Iraqis depend totally for sustenance. He said 10 million Iraqis would require food assistance within six weeks of a conflictóor an even shorter time in the event of a mass population movement. "The six-week window [to mount a humanitarian response] can be narrower if we have a forced displacement of the population," he said.
Although plans call for the US military to stockpile 3 million daily rations and the UN World Food Program to store food for 900,000 people for 10 weeks, reports the Washington Post, da Silva said those efforts would not be sufficient to satisfy the need.
The Bush administration has said it regards humanitarian relief as a US responsibility in the early phases of an armed conflict, and US officials have insisted they are moving aggressively to have enough supplies ready. But Lopes da Silva said he and other aid workers worry about uniformed soldiers distributing relief supplies to civilians, saying it "raises questions of blurring the lines" between combatants and humanitarian workers and "increases the danger to the humanitarians."
Da Silva also warned that attacks on Iraq's infrastructure, particularly electricity generating stations, could force water treatment plants to shut down, leading to cholera, measles and other epidemics. While US military officials have said they would attempt to minimize damage to civilian facilities, they have not ruled out hitting power plants.
Even if a war results in minimal destruction to the civilian infrastructure, the downfall of President Saddam Hussein's government likely would result in the collapse of the program that feeds the country's 23 million people, UN officials said.
Meanwhile, Steve Hadley, deputy national security adviser to US President Bush explained the Bush administrationís goals to the Washington Post. Hadley said the US will rely primarily on civilian relief agencies, but is also counting on the efforts of international organizations such as the UN and the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as various nongovernmental organizations. Funding to facilitate their efforts will be provided to the greatest extent possible.
In circumstances where no UN agencies or NGOs are available, the US may be required to provide limited relief, Hadley said. Such relief will be under the guidance of civilian experts, with the goal of getting civilian agencies into these areas as quickly as possible. He also noted that there will be work to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, which for years has been mismanaged and neglected. Early efforts will include restoring electricity and clean water, as well as addressing the immediate need for medical care and public health.
He also notes that there will be work to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, which for years has been mismanaged and neglected. Early efforts will include restoring electricity and clean water, as well as addressing the immediate need for medical care and public health.
Over the longer term, assistance to the Iraqi people in creating a more stable and more vibrant economic system, will be provided. Specifically, the US will help them create a modern system of taxation and budgeting, stabilize the dinar, and resolve debt and reparations obligations.
[...]