16 October 2001

UN Security Council Demands Taliban Stop Blocking Aid Shipments

United Nations -- The Security Council October 16 issued a demand that the Taliban stop obstructing aid destined for the Afghan people.

The Security Council met in private session with top UN officials to discuss the humanitarian, political and military situation in Afghanistan and begin preliminary discussions about a possible future UN role in the country. Attending the meeting in addition to Secretary General Kofi Annan were UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, Under Secretary General for political affairs Kieran Prendergast and Kevin Kennedy of the Office of Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs.

At the end of the two-hour meeting, Council President Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland said that "council members demanded that the Taliban should stop threatening the safety and security of aid workers, and to cease obstructing aid destined for the Afghan people."

"They also called on the Taliban to contribute to the alleviation of hardship of the very large part of the Afghan population comprising women, girls and children," Ryan said.

"Council members expressed grave concern about the humanitarian situation," he said.

At a briefing earlier in the day, UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said that UN humanitarian agencies are urging donor governments to respond more rapidly to the emergency humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received "only $12 million in cash of the estimated the $50 million needed to care for an initial planning figure of 400,000 new arrivals in surrounding states. Donor governments have formally pledged another $11 million, but these pledges have not been translated into cash," Eckhard said.

The World Food Program (WFP) has received less than 6 percent of its appeal for $257 million, despite generous pledges, and UNICEF, which called for $36 million to carry out emergency work, has received only half that amount with only a month until the onset of winter, the spokesman said.

UNHCR and WFP account for the bulk of the $584 million emergency appeal for Afghanistan launched by the secretary general in September.

Council President Ryan said that the council urges states to rapidly disburse the contributions they made to UN emergency aid appeal and stressed the need for all states to cooperate with UN agencies.

Ryan added that the UN hopes that with the cooperation of neighboring states it will be able to open land corridors to get very large amounts of humanitarian relief to Afghans displaced by the bombing now under way in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

The president said that during the meeting there was "a very initial exchange of views about the political situation and prospects for the political situation, including rehabilitation and building structures in Afghanistan."

The council will be looking into the political situation in greater detail next week, he said.