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The war's 'dispensable' people
AS WE BEAR witness to the thousands of Afghan refugees flooding into
Pakistan, I am haunted and transported back to my childhood, seeing some
version of my young, anxious face, clutching the hands of worried parents stumbling
through the rugged terrain of the Khyber Pass. In the 1970s, after the overthrow of
the former king, my family was among the first waves of the 5 million Afghan
refugees who were made homeless in the decades of war in Afghanistan.
Since Sept. 11, Afghans have been driven by terror and fear that once again
political decisions beyond their control have branded them the enemy - this time by
one of the most powerful nations in the world. Many have given up their life
savings, a measly $30, to be guided with their few belongings on a mule, or
struggling on foot with just the clothes on their back, through the Khyber Pass. And
the majority find themselves standing at Pakistan's closed borders with nowhere to
run.
Now as the bombs are falling on Afghanistan, the international community cannot
once again blind itself to the impending disastrous humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Mary Robinson, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has predicted that this
could be a worse humanitarian disaster than Rwanda. More than 7 million people
inside the country and in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan will require
humanitarian assistance to survive.
The international community has come together, setting a common agenda to
combat terrorism, and has chosen Afghanistan as the first line of battle against the
Taliban and Osama bin Laden. We must simultaneously develop a common
humanitarian agenda to avert a deadly crisis of calamitous proportions. To do this
right, the United States and the international community have to be as invested in
truly averting the impending humanitarian disaster as they are in achieving a military
success in Afghanistan.
The Bush administration's pledge of $320 million for food and medicine to help
Afghanistan's people survive the approaching harsh and deadly winter is an
important and positive development. While this is commendable, it is only a small
part of the solution.
A comprehensive humanitarian strategy will require action on multiple fronts,
including supporting the World Food Program's efforts towards a large scale airlift
of food this winter to 600,000 to 1 million Afghans isolated in remote areas. The
program has requested a donation of planes, pilots, and cash from the international
community.
In addition, it will be necessary to set up human corridors and food and safety
operations for the thousands of refugees trapped at Pakistan's border. Finally, it is
vital that the US support the efforts of Ruud Lubbers, the UN high commissioner
for refugees, to persuade Pakistan and Iran to keep their borders open to the
fleeing refugees during the duration of the bombing campaign.
Addressing the plight of the refugees is essential, not only from a moral but from a
strategic standpoint. Afghans are needed as allies to prevail in this war, and the
world has to win Afghan hearts and minds by rectifying a history of using Afghans
as military allies and abandoning them to their fate when the agenda has been met.
The situation of thousands of hungry people can also, as it has been in the past, be
a breeding ground for a new swell of radicalism and violence if it is left unattended.
Moreover, thousands of frozen and dead refugees will only undermine the US
public relations efforts in the Muslim world.
Many have resigned themselves to the idea that the Afghan refugees already have
many odds against them and it is inevitable that they will be the casualties of this
war. Or, as one of my friends said, ''Well, Rina, no offense, but it's a war, and if
innocent Afghans have to die, well then, innocent Afghans have to die.''
He had forgotten that I was one of those innocent Afghans, one of the refugees
once caught up in other people's wars, other people's politics.
An Afghan life, a refugee's life, is equally valuable to any other population. It is
morally imperative that the international community reflect this, not just in rhetoric
or symbolic displays, but in sustained humanitarian action and with the commitment
of vital resources.
Rina Amiri is a senior associate for research at Harvard University's Kennedy
School of Government and focuses on Central and Southwest Asian affairs at Tufts
University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is also an adviser to the
refugee relief efforts of the Afghan Women's Educational Fund in Pakistan. |