20 November 2001

Famine Still Threatens Afghanistan, USAID Director Says

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

The international humanitarian effort to stave off hunger in Afghanistan brought more than 50,000 tons of food into the South Asian nation from mid-October to mid-November, but the danger of starvation is still real, according to Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"Our problem now is the famine has not peaked," Natsios said at a Washington Foreign Press Center briefing November 20. The international effort to ship food must be unrelenting to save an estimated 6 million people at risk of starvation, the USAID director said. "We need to ratchet up the relief effort, which I believe now is being successfully done."

Natsios had just returned from a trip to South Asia, where he met with the leaders of the countries bordering Afghanistan to urge continued cooperation with the humanitarian effort. Now that the Northern Alliance has seized control of most of the northern areas bordering on Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the USAID director foresees the opening of new routes to facilitate the shipment of aid to places where the three-year drought has been most severe and the risk of starvation is greatest.

"The governments reiterated their support for the relief effort and their cooperation in opening the borders up," he said. Natsios is also urging leaders of the international humanitarian agencies to shift some of their operations from the Pakistani border with Afghanistan to the northern regions in order to better support relief activities.

Natsios' delivered his briefing on the same day that he had participated in the Afghanistan Reconstruction and Development Conference held at the U.S. State Department in Washington. The meeting was held as an initial step to bring together potential donor nations and international institutions in support of the rehabilitation of the country, battered after more than 20 years of war and civil conflict.

The long-term reconstruction of the country is a process that can only begin when greater security is restored and a coalition government has been formed, officials warn, but Natsios said that smaller-scale reconstruction projects on the village level can begin sooner. USAID is studying where and how such projects might get under way, placing "a heavy focus on agriculture."

"The reconstruction of wells, of roads, of the irrigation system are all essential to restoring the agricultural economy and food security, getting people back to work and making the country self-sufficient in food once again," Natsios said. Much of the damage done to the Afghani agriculture infrastructure is attributable to what Natsios described as a "scorched-earth policy enforced by the Taliban."

USAID is working on a plan that would outline the U.S. contribution to an Afghani reconstruction plan, and Natsios said the re-establishment of a functioning education system is an early priority.

Education is only one reason why opening the schools is important, he said.

"The children of Afghanistan have been in a sort of a chaotic circumstance for a very long time, and that's not healthy," Natsios said. "The best way to deal with the trauma is an ordered schedule, and that's what school provides, the socialization" of a structured educational system.

Questioned about whether accidental U.S. bombing of humanitarian facilities may have strained U.S. relations with international relief agencies, Natsios repeated the explanation offered by the Department of Defense that the relief facilities were accidentally hit and not intentionally targeted. But he followed with a stinging attack on Taliban behavior in response to the bombing campaign.

"Taliban was driving military vehicles, tanks and trucks all around those Red Cross facilities. ... It was despicable. They were violating the Geneva Conventions when they did that," Natsios said. The USAID administrator stepped into his position earlier this year after having spent 12 years in other relief organizations, years in which he was involved in humanitarian responses to other disasters, famines and conflicts. Drawing upon that experience, Natsios characterized the Taliban actions as "the most egregious I've seen."