The Hindu : International : Stop killing aid workers, U.N. tells Taliban

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Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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International

Stop killing aid workers, U.N. tells Taliban

Declan Walsh

55 food convoys looted by militant gangs

34 workers killed, 76 abducted this year
Five million in need of food assistance

Islamabad: The U.N. on Monday demanded that the Taliban stop killing aid workers and looting aid convoys so that emergency supplies can reach vulnerable Afghans before the onset of winter.

Tom Koenigs, head of the U.N. mission to Afghanistan, said 34 aid workers had been killed by the Taliban and 76 abducted so far this year.

Most of the victims are Afghans, including doctors, mine-clearers and engineers. Some 55 aid convoys have been looted.

“Such attacks are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and they must stop,” Mr Koenigs told reporters in Kabul. “We need all parties to recognise that the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people must come first, above fighting and above politics.”

The aid crisis is a byproduct of wider insecurity. Taliban attacks have destabilised wide swaths of south and east Afghanistan, and a pocket of provinces around Kabul. Aid workers say many areas are becoming no-go zones.

The conflict is “clearly spreading and in certain areas is intensifying,” said Reto Stocker, head of the International Red Cross in the country. More than 5,300 persons have died so far this year.

On Monday, the Afghan government said it killed 50 Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan province, while a suicide bomber in Helmand province killed three civilians and one coalition soldier.

The impact of the violence is spread unevenly around the country. Some large cities and northern areas have enjoyed stability since 2001 and seen improvements in health and education. But in the south and east, the humanitarian crisis is rapidly growing.

The U.N. World Food Programme has lost 1,000 tonnes of food aid because of a six-fold increase in attacks on convoys this year, according to its Afghanistan director, Rick Corsino. As a result, no aid convoys have moved between Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south for six weeks. The Afghan Education Ministry says 400 schools in the south and east are shut because of violence. Taliban fighters have burned down 20 schools in Helmand in the past 15 months.

Mr Corsino estimated the U.N. has six weeks to rush food to 400,000 people living above the snow line before winter cuts off the roads. Five million Afghans need some form of food assistance, he said. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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