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Afghans Starve to Death As Aid Donors Talk
Thursday, January 10, 2002
Islam Online & News Agencies

IRC field co-coordinator Idrees Rahmani said the reason the helicopter request was turned down was that, due to the high altitude, a helicopter would only be able to carry one metric ton of food at a time. Since October 7, 2001, U.S. F-16s and B-52s have been dropping bombs weighing up to 7 metric tons in a so-called "war on terrorism", supposedly aimed at finding Osama bin Laden, whom the United States suspects of masterminding the September 11 attacks.

KABUL, Afghanistan
As delegates from around the world prepare to head to Tokyo to haggle over what they can offer a country devastated by 23 years of conflict, the Afghans are starved to death in remote mountainous areas, news agencies reported Thursday, January 10, 2002.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), a U.S.-based aid organization, said that an estimated 50,000 people in the remote mountainous region of Abdullah Gan are surviving on grass, a mixture of water and straw and roots of wild vegetables, reported British daily newspaper, The Guardian.

IRC said it is providing another 44,000 people with emergency food aid in the Mazar-e-Sharif area.

Some of the stronger villagers in Abdullah Gan have started coming down from the mountains to collect bags of wheat from Zari, some four and a half hours away by donkey, said Ken Burslem, a spokesman for IRC.

"Some are coming on foot, some on donkey, and they're taking [food] back to the villages for people who can't walk," Burslem told BBC News Online service.
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Dan