EuropaWorld2 6/10/2001 Afghanistan: 'There are Universal Values to Which we Should All Subscribe'

In this article, Glenys Kinnock MEP reviews the current Afghan crisis and outlines the longer term future for a country that has been beset by conflict for more than two decades.

It is now increasingly clear that a humanitarian catastrophe is developing in Afghanistan. This crisis has to be given the same priority as the military operation. Aid agencies have warned that millions of Afghans will perish in the next few months unless there is a massive increase in the amount of food getting through.

Even before September 11, an estimated 3.8 million Afghans were already dependent on food aid, and now 50-60,000 tonnes of food a week are needed before the winter snows arrive. Hundreds of villages will then be cut off, leaving an estimated 1.5 million Afghans facing starvation, and as many as 7.5 million facing severe food shortages. Civil war, drought and extreme poverty have all forced at least 3.5m Afghans to flee their home.

A deep and severe winter is now less than six weeks away, and aid agencies are racing against time to build up stock piles of food in the country. Temperatures in Afghanistan can drop as low as minus forty degrees. The UN World Food Programme (WFP), it seems, is facing an impossible task unless urgent action is taken, including the cessation of bombing so that food can be safely delivered. Tens of thousands of people are cut off from food, medicine and shelter, and whilst the bombing continues no outside help is getting through to these people. Serious consideration must now be given to a cessation of the bombing in order that food convoys can safely travel into the country.

This is one of the most difficult challenges which the WFP has faced in its entire history, and although efforts have been stepped up, if the bombing continues it is becoming impossible to envisage how the targets will be reached.

The hugely expensive airdrops of food packages by the US are proving largely ineffective in staving off the threat of widespread famine, and have been strongly criticised by the UN as being "totally catastrophic for humanitarian aid." Even if the airdrops reach the neediest people, the $320 million earmarked by the US would only feed one quarter of those who need food for one day. We also need to be sure that people receive the food that they need, and that they are used to eating. Rations being air dropped now include strawberry jam, peanut butter and a fruit bar. People actually need wheat, oil and sugar.

All past experience shows that dropping these packages from high altitude is problematic. You can only have so much control about where they will land - and we should remember that Afghanistan is littered with landmines - and no control about who will end up with them. Aid workers are telling us that the only way to urgently deliver the vast quantities of food needed in Afghanistan is by road, and they are calling for a serious rethink of this strategy.

If we are to get sufficient quantities of food into Afghanistan then the safe passage of food must now be guaranteed - by all warring parties. And food is most likely to reach people in need if the aid effort is impartial and distinctly separate from any military action. Any confusion and there is a real risk that the humanitarian effort will be severely undermined.

We also need to do all that is possible to prevent a mass exodus of people from Afghanistan by making sure they are able to stay at home. At the same time, preparations for the arrival of any new refugees must be urgently stepped up. And Afghanistan's neighbours should open up their borders to allow the safe passage for any refugees.
Now too there is a growing emergency as the UN tries to set up camps for at least 3,000,000 expected Afghanis in the face of the restrictions put in place by the Pakistan authorities. Save the Children Fund has pointed out there is not even earth moving equipment in place yet. And where this is so, there is currently no water or sanitation.

It is now increasingly clear that the needs of Afghanistan, and its people, extend far beyond the immediate humanitarian crisis. For the last 20 years shockingly little interest has been shown in dealing with the wretched poverty of the Afghan people, or with a lethal cocktail of drugs, extremism and the millions of refugees in that country. Now, we are left with a regime which does not only disrespect human rights, but actually systematically destroys human rights.

It should, I believe, be the role of the UN to broker a long term solution, which must include the installation of a government which respects the rule of law and upholds human rights for all of the Afghan people - in particular the long neglected rights of women and children.

The Taliban subjugate women and girls, they have outlawed their right to work and education. Women have been victims of public executions and amputations and severe beatings for 'immodesties' in public. The people of Afghanistan need to be given some hope that a solution can be found which will restore security, and peace, to their country. Let us do what we are doing in the Balkans and build homes, schools and clinics for the Afghan people.

This will be no easy feat. It will take a sustained political and financial commitment on the part of the international community. And should include a long term strategy to control the flow of arms into Afghanistan and the region, a reconstruction plan to tackle the widespread and chronic poverty, displacement and the damage caused by two decades of war.

Furthermore, the Northern Alliance should not be - automatically - seen as central to a permanent solution. Afghanistan needs a federal structure which has broad-based support, perhaps the Grand Assembly (Loya Jurga) could be an effective forum for beginning that process. There needs to be a political settlement found - perhaps the setting up a federal structure in which regions and ethnic groups will be given further autonomy. Then - at last - the Afghan people could feel that they are in charge of their own future. Global action which is designed to bring this about must now be put in place, and it is essential that the UN plays a central, and leading, role in the peace building process.

I very much hope that lessons about the critical importance of working together will be learnt, and remembered, particularly in the US - which has not in the past subscribed with any great enthusiasm to international agreements, or to an understanding that ours is an interconnected world. On everything from landmines to children's rights, or from climate change to the International Criminal Court and the Convention on Biological Weapons, the US has unfortunately had a habit of walking away from the table.

Equally, efforts to bring peace to the Middle East will be key to the success of efforts to fight terrorism. The world's sole superpower must realise that its super power status carries super responsibilities.

I also hope that there will be a better understanding of the fact that we can only achieve a safer world through international agreement, and by giving greater legitimacy to the institutions of global governance.

Finally, if anything comes out of the horror of September 11th, and this mass murder, surely it will be that the wealthy of the world must, once and for all, understand a basic truth. It is that if they do not systematically work to combat poverty, they will contribute to conditions which breed resentment, and provide desperate and fertile minds which can be captured by extremism.
Poverty can never excuse terrorism, but it can explain why human beings are recruited to terrorism.

Although our history in Europe clearly proves that we don't have a clean record of tolerance or generosity towards our fellow human beings - the EU should, I believe, be commended for its long term and sustained commitment to Afghanistan and the region. We now have a duty to assert that there are universal values to which we should all subscribe. The terrible events of September 11th make an understanding of this fact more urgent that ever.