01 October 2001

Excerpts: Senator Wellstone Urges Humanitarian Aid for Afghanistan

As the United States recovers from the deadliest terrorist attack in history and prepares to seek out Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a U.S. lawmaker has spoken of the need to help the people of Afghanistan.

In October 1 remarks to the Senate, Senator Paul Wellstone (Democrat of Minnesota) said the United States "must do everything it can now to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Afghan civilians."

For the past several years, the United States has been the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. U.S. contributions in fiscal year 2001 topped $180 million.

The United States has also agreed "to participate in U.N. efforts to raise quickly almost $600 million in aid funds" for the Afghan people, Wellstone said.

"We should be leading that effort, including by contributing substantially," added Wellstone, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The United States and its allies, he cautioned, "cannot afford to be indifferent to this humanitarian crisis, especially as we seek to build a coalition of moderate Arab and non-Arab Muslims around the globe for our anti-terror efforts."

According to Wellstone, 4 million Afghans "have abandoned their homes in search of food in Pakistan, Iran, and elsewhere. Those left behind now eat meals of locust and animal fodder. This is in Afghanistan."

Five million people inside Afghanistan "are threatened by famine," he continued.

As President Bush made clear, Wellstone said, "we are waging a campaign against terrorists, not ordinary Afghans -- I think that is an important distinction to make -- who are some of the poorest and most beleaguered people on the planet."

Any military action by the United States, he continued, "must be targeted against those responsible for the terror acts and those harboring them. And we must plan such action to minimize the danger to innocent civilians who are on the edge of starvation."

Wellstone warned there is "no easy solution to this building crisis, and yet our government must aggressively seek solutions to the critical needs of Afghan civilians."

As one of its most urgent tasks, the Minnesota lawmaker said, "the United States must do its part to shore up relief operations and help to again get aid flowing to refugees now."

Following are excerpts from Wellstone's remarks from the Congressional Record:

Mr. Wellstone. Mr. President, . . . I want to borrow from a piece I just finished writing. I will not go through the whole piece, but that deals with the humanitarian catastrophe that is now taking place in Afghanistan. I think it is relevant to talk about this.

You have a situation on the ground that is unimaginable: 4 years of relentless drought, the worst in 3 decades, and the total failure of the Taliban government to administer to the country. Four million people have abandoned their homes in search of food in Pakistan, Iran, and elsewhere. Those left behind now eat meals of locust and animal fodder. This is in Afghanistan.

Five million people inside this country are threatened by famine, according to the United Nations. As President Bush made clear, we are waging a campaign against terrorists, not ordinary Afghans -- I think that is an important distinction to make -- who are some of the poorest and most beleaguered people on the planet and who were actually our allies during the Cold War.

Any military action by our country must be targeted against those responsible for the terror acts and those harboring them. And we must plan such action to minimize the danger to innocent civilians who are on the edge of starvation.

Let me repeat that one more time. Any military action must be targeted against those who are responsible for the terror acts and those who have harbored them. And we must plan such action to minimize the danger to innocent civilians who are on the edge of starvation. And we must be prepared to address any humanitarian consequences of whatever action we take as soon as possible. . . .

The September 11 attacks in New York and Washington require our country to respond assertively and effectively against international terrorism. As the Administration reviews all its options, it must consider the humanitarian consequences of any military action against terrorist sites in Afghanistan, and take urgent steps now to address them.

Even before the world focused on it as a sanctuary for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, Afghanistan was on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, the site of the greatest crisis in hunger and refugee displacement in the world. Now the worsening situation on the ground is almost unimaginable. After four years of relentless drought, the worst in three decades, and the total failure of the Taliban government in administering the country, four million people have abandoned their homes in search of food in Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan and elsewhere, while those left behind eat meals of locusts and animal fodder. Five million people inside the country are threatened by famine, according to the United Nations.

As President Bush made clear, we are waging a campaign against terrorists, not ordinary Afghans, who are some of the poorest and most beleaguered people on the planet and were our allies during the Cold War. Any military action must thus be targeted against those responsible for the terror attacks and those harboring them; planned to minimize the danger to innocent civilians on the edge of starvation; and prepared to address any humanitarian consequences as soon as possible. Since it seems clear that a major international refugee influx will require a massive expansion of existing refugee camps, and creation of new ones, the U.S. and our U.N. Security Council allies should also be thinking now about how to protect those camps, including possibly using a U.N.-sanctioned military force drawn primarily from Arab nations.

Osama bin Laden is not a native of Afghanistan, but of Saudi Arabia. Most Afghans do not support bin Laden. Instead, ninety percent of the Afghan people are subsistence farmers struggling simply to grow enough food to stay alive. War widows, orphans, and thousands of others in the cities are dependent upon international aid to survive.

Now, anticipating military strikes by the U.S. hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians are on the move, fleeing the cities for their native villages or for the borders. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, nearly 20,000 have gathered at one Pakistani border crossing alone. The U.N. says it is the most tense border point in the world, with thousands of people out in the open, exposed to scorching days and frigid nights. Kandahar, the spiritual seat of the Taliban, is said to be "half empty." Those who are left behind are the most vulnerable--the elderly, orphans, war widows, and the mentally and physically disabled.

Inside Afghanistan, the U.N.'s World Food Programme (UNWFP) aid -- much of it U.S.-donated wheat -- is the sole source of food for millions. After the attacks on September 11th, the UNWFP was forced to pull out. It left two weeks of food stocks to be administered by local U.N. staff, but Taliban officials last Monday broke into the U.N. compound and stole thousands of tons of grain. Under intense international pressure, the UNWFP has announced it will resume shipments of grain to Afghanistan. Yet how it will be distributed is uncertain, as the Taliban has severed contact between international aid groups and their Afghan staffs, and taken over many of their facilities. To get needed aid in, and slow the outflow of Afghan refugees driven by a lack of food at home, the Pakistani government should immediately relax its border restrictions enough to allow the flow of food and other humanitarian aid into Afghanistan, while maintaining border security.

There is no easy solution to this building crisis, and yet our government must aggressively seek solutions to the critical needs of Afghan civilians. As one of its most urgent tasks, the United States must do its part to shore up relief operations and help to again get aid flowing to refugees now. We also must prepare for an already critical situation to worsen as Afghanistan heads into its notoriously harsh winter. We must prepare now for huge numbers of refugees and humanitarian problems in the aftermath of military strikes, repositioning in the region the people and resources needed to deal with it.

The U.N. and several privately-funded aid groups are working frantically to set up new camps and bring in supplies and personnel to sites along the border. And yet, developing a stronger response to a massive outflow of Afghans into Pakistan is sure to put pressure on already over-burdened camps, and by extension Pakistani resources and patience. Pakistan is already host to over a million refugees from Afghanistan; 170,000 came as a result of recent drought in Afghanistan. Others fled earlier and have been in Pakistan for years.

The United States must do everything it can now to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Afghan civilians. We have agreed to participate in U.N. efforts to raise quickly almost $600 million in aid funds, a number likely to grow. We should be leading that effort, including by contributing substantially. The U.S. and our allies cannot afford to be indifferent to this humanitarian crisis, especially as we seek to build a coalition of moderate Arab and non-Arab Muslims around the globe for our anti-terror efforts. If a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan is attributed to our military operations, it will weaken international support for our fight against terrorism, and may even make the American people more vulnerable in the end.