Humanitarian Catastrophe in Afghanistan - God help them

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Humanitarian Catastrophe in Afghanistan - God help them
jannah
09/25/01 at 00:31:28
Message from Gladiator/Lightingatnite

Asalamualaikum wa rahmatallahi wa barakatu,

InshaAllah, I pray that we don't forget the plight of the Afghan
refugees.  They are on the brink of starvation, and I hope we can
all pray that they don't face the same tribulation as those in
Iraq.  May Allah Most Powerful protect them.  Here's a pretty
reliable article about the impending attack on Afghanistan by an
American-British coalition.  

http://www.observer.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,556734,00.html

Alhamdulillah, many Muslim countries have refused to aid these
evil armies.  May Allah increase the Muslims in Iman.

During these trying times, even those strong in faith are being
tested.  Many of our brothers and sisters who are not in an
Islamic environment are especially vulnerable.  Please make a
special effort to reach out to those who need a little
reassurance.  We should make a special effort to be in the houses
of Allah and amongst our Muslims brothers and sisters.

Allah Most High has promised us justice on the Day of Judgement.
We must not be influenced by the false god of military might.  
In Allah's Hands is our fate.

massalama,


=============================================================
Afghanistan's Refugee Crisis

Hiram Ruiz and Margaret Emery

September 24, 2001

(Hiram Ruiz and Margaret Emery are policy analysts for the US Committee for
Refugees.)

Over the last two weeks, an estimated 15,000 Afghan refugees have fled to
Pakistan, and hundreds of thousands more are reportedly on the move within
Afghanistan. This latest flight of Afghans from their homes deepens a
humanitarian crisis that has troubled the region for more than 20 years.
Already, some 2 million Afghan refugees are living in Pakistan and more than
1.4 million in Iran, with an estimated 30,000 in India, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and other countries. Additionally, some 900,000 people are
displaced from their homes within Afghanistan. If and when the United States
and its allies launch a military campaign against Afghanistan, UN officials
estimate that the number of new refugees and displaced could climb past 1
million.

>From a humanitarian perspective, the recent terrorist attacks and subsequent
US threat of military action against Afghanistan could not have come at a
worse moment. Even before the current refugee movement, the Pakistani and
Iranian governments were showing impatience with the large, intractable
refugee populations in their countries. Tajikistan shut its doors to Afghan
asylum seekers and drought victims. International aid began to dwindle
nearly a decade ago, as "donor fatigue" set in after the Cold War. Although
some long-time refugees have been integrated into their host countries,
living in cities and working stable jobs, more recent arrivals have been
forced to live in squalid conditions, without access to adequate food,
water, shelter and sanitation.

The recent withdrawal of UN international aid staff and other humanitarian
groups from Afghanistan means that more Afghans, lacking desperately needed
assistance, will migrate to Pakistan and Iran in search of food and medical
care. Some governments, including the US, have already pledged new aid to
the refugee effort. But with Pakistan, Iran and four other nations closing
their borders to refugees, the situation inside Afghanistan could become
catastrophic.

TWO DECADES OF MISERY

The Afghan refugee crisis dates back more than 23 years. Since 1978, as many
as a third of Afghanistan's 26 million inhabitants have been forced to flee
their homes, temporarily or permanently. The first wave of Afghan refugees
came in April of that year, when the country's new communist regime
introduced a massive agricultural reform program that the rural population
deeply resented and resisted. In December 1979, the Soviet Union, concerned
that the communist government in Kabul was losing ground, occupied
Afghanistan and installed a puppet regime. After the occupying forces
unleashed a wave of terror on the civilian population, hundreds of thousands
of refugees poured out of Afghanistan. Within two years of the invasion,
some 1.5 million Afghans were refugees, mostly in Pakistan.

By 1986, the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran had grown to
nearly 5 million. The US and other Western countries were by now supporting
the Islamist resistance movement known as the mujahideen in their struggle
against the Soviet-led government. At the same time, the West poured money
into the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, many of which served as bases for
the mujahideen. The international community did not provide similar
assistance to Afghan refugees in Iran, where the 1979 revolution had put an
anti-Western regime in power. In the decade after the revolution, Iran did
not actively seek aid from the international community, although the UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) consistently kept a presence, albeit a
poorly funded one, in the country.

When the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, they left in power
another communist regime, which the mujahideen defeated in April 1992.
Afghan refugees welcomed the mujahideen victory, and over the course of 1992
more than 1.4 million refugees returned home. But far from bringing peace to
Afghanistan, the mujahideen conquest only opened a new chapter in the
conflict, as warlords fought one another for small pieces of territory.

ENTER THE TALIBAN

In 1994, the Taliban emerged as a significant military force, capturing
Kabul two years later. A Taliban offensive in the Shomali Plains in 1999
forced some 150,000 people to flee their homes. Although many of the
displaced returned home in 2000, some 60,000 remained displaced, and a late
July 2000 Taliban campaign displaced more tens of thousands of people, both
internally and to Pakistan. Among the displaced were some 10,000 persons who
became stranded on several islands in a river along the Afghan-Tajik border.
Pushed back from the Tajik border by Russian patrols, the group suffered
periodic attacks by the Taliban and went largely without UNHCR aid, since
they were displaced persons and (technically) not refugees.

The Taliban, who control between 90 and 95 percent of Afghanistan, function
as a repressive police state. Both women and men must adhere to strict
behavioral codes that prevent women and girls from working, receiving
necessary health care and getting an education. In some areas, despite the
hunger and grinding poverty fueled by the drought, the Taliban have
obstructed international relief efforts. The Taliban's ban on the
cultivation of poppies (used to make heroin), while welcomed by the
international community, left thousands of farmers who grew the crop without
any livelihood, and forced many landless laborers to migrate to camps for
internally displaced persons, or to Pakistan.

Over the past year, Afghanistan's refugee crisis has been exacerbated by the
worst drought in 30 years. After inadequate rain and snowfall led to poor
crops, tens of thousands of Afghans abandoned their homes in search of food
beginning in June 2000. By year's end, some 350,000 Afghans had become newly
displaced, many of them due to the drought, others due to the war. Another
172,000 had fled to Pakistan. In early 2001, tens of thousands more Afghans
sought refuge in Pakistan or became displaced within Afghanistan, and by
August 2001, an estimated 900,000 Afghans had been internally displaced,
most living with friends or relatives in Afghanistan's larger towns and
cities.

WHY THEY FLEE

Twenty-three years of unrelenting conflict, widespread human rights abuses
and more recently acute drought have created devastating humanitarian
conditions in Afghanistan. Over the course of Afghanistan's civil war,
warring factions have repeatedly violated human rights and international
humanitarian law, engaging in indiscriminate aerial bombardment and
shelling, summary executions, rape, persecution on the basis of religion and
the use of anti-personnel mines.

Afghanistan reportedly has the highest infant, child and maternal mortality
rates, the lowest literacy rate and life expectancy, and one of the two or
three lowest levels of per capita food availability in the world. In October
2000, the UN Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on Afghanistan
asserted that the country was in "a state of acute crisis -- its resources
depleted, its intelligentsia in exile, its people disenfranchised, its
traditional political structures shattered and its human development indices
among the lowest in the world."

In May 2001, the World Food Program warned that more than 1 million Afghans
were facing famine conditions, and in September reported that in some areas,
people were surviving by eating grass and locusts. Although the UN and other
aid agencies have for years supplied food and other assistance to the Afghan
population, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, all international aid
workers have withdrawn, leaving only a skeleton staff of local UN employees
in place.

HOST COUNTRY FATIGUE

In recent years, Pakistan has displayed a hardening attitude toward its 2
million Afghan refugees, reflected in periodic border closings and attempts
to close long-term camps. Refugees have experienced harassment and violence,
while the government has deported, and possibly returned to persecution,
thousands of Afghan refugees.

>From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, the international community
lavished substantial assistance on Pakistan, the refugees and the
mujahideen, but in recent years has significantly scaled back its
assistance, leaving Pakistan to manage the refugees on its own. Today
Pakistan's faltering economy, weakened in part by economic sanctions imposed
by the US and other countries, has prompted a backlash against Afghan
refugees, who the government of Pakistan says take jobs from local people.
The government also blames refugees for increased crime and social problems,
such as drug use and prostitution.

The government of Pakistan takes the position that since the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan -- which caused most "long-term" refugees to
flee -- has ended, refugees should return home. Further, the government
claims that the home areas of many long-term refugees are free of conflict,
and that many Afghans who have entered Pakistan since mid-2000 are victims
of drought, not refugees. Pakistan, a long-time supporter of the Taliban,
may be under pressure from its own Islamic extremists to repatriate the
refugees, whose presence in Pakistan reflects poorly on the Taliban. Since
consolidating its grip on power in most of Afghanistan, the Taliban has also
tried to impose its policies on Afghan refugees in Pakistan, warning
refugees not to send girls over the age of eight to schools and ordering
teachers in refugee schools to limit lessons for girls under age eight to
verses from the Quran.

Pakistan's changed attitude toward Afghan refugees had its most serious
impact on the estimated 200,000 Afghans fleeing conflict and drought who
arrived in Pakistan between mid-2000 and early 2001, particularly those who
sought refuge at Jalozai transit center near Peshawar. For months, only
minimal assistance was provided to the Afghans at Jalozai, and between
January and June 2001, at least 95 refugees, weakened by hunger, dehydration
and disease, died of exposure.

The more than 1.4 million Afghan refugees in Iran, many of whom have lived
there for nearly two decades, have also faced growing hostility and
intolerance from their host country. Claiming that refugees take scarce jobs
away from local people, Iranian officials have made it clear that they no
longer welcome Afghans. Beginning in 1997, the government set several
deadlines for refugees to leave the country, declined to register new
arrivals from Afghanistan as refugees, attempted to round up and confine
refugees to camps, and at times summarily deported them. Hostility toward
Afghan refugees reached a new high in late 1998 and early 1999, when mobs
attacked and in some cases killed Afghan refugees, demanding their
deportation. Iran deported about 100,000 Afghans in 1999, many of whom were
repatriated after roundups in the eastern provinces and urban centers.
Nonetheless, as many as 200,000 Afghans may have fled to Iran between late
2000 and August 2001. During the same period, Iran forcibly repatriated an
estimated 82,000 Afghans.

"HUMANITARIAN COALITION"?

As the threat of US military action against Afghanistan becomes more acute,
a new refugee exodus from Afghanistan could accelerate the descent of the
regional refugee situation into humanitarian disaster. As suggested by UNHCR
chief Ruud Lubbers, the US and the rest of the international community
should at least devote the same efforts to building a "humanitarian
coalition" as they have to building a military one. UNHCR has issued an
appeal to international donors for an additional $6 million. Meanwhile,
internally displaced Afghans will likely face even greater risk than those
who attempt to cross borders. A strong response from the international
community, and a commitment to maintaining an aid network -- inside
Afghanistan as well, if feasible -- could help ensure that fleeing Afghans
do not become incidental victims of the US war against terrorism.

(When quoting from this PIN, please cite MERIP Press Information Note 70,
"Afghanistan's Refugee Crisis," by Hiram Ruiz and Margaret Emery, September
24, 2001.)

-----

For more information on Afghan refugees, see the US Committee for Refugees
website at:
http://www.refugees.org

For background on Taliban policies toward women, see MERIP Press Information
Note 24: Afghan Girls' Struggle for Schooling:
http://www.merip.org/pins/pin24.html

Fred Halliday analyzes Iranian-Taliban relations in the fall issue of Middle
East Report (MER 220), "Shaky Foundations: The US in the Middle East." The
upcoming winter issue of Middle East Report will examine the implications of
the September 11 attacks for the Middle East.

To order individual copies of Middle East Report or to subscribe, please
call Blackwell Publishers at 1-800-835-6770.




Diplomats, reporters, aid staff flee Afghanistan

September 13, 2001 Posted: 10:19 AM EDT (1419 GMT)
U.N. staff leave Kabul  

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- International diplomats, aid workers and many reporters evacuated Afghanistan on Thursday amid growing fears the country may be involved in retribution attacks by the U.S.

Reuters news agency also reported that many Arab nationals had fled the country and other residents had begun to build trenches.

Three United Nations flights left the capital Kabul on Thursday for Pakistan.


On board were three international diplomats, from U.S., Germany and Australia.

They had been in the Kabul trying to secure the release of eight international aid workers on charges of converting Muslims to Christianity.

Also on board the aircraft were the last of the international U.N. staff. The U.N. has now completed the evacuation of 80 staff in total.

Before they left they paid off all local employees and packed key documents, taking them with them.

Many overseas j


ournalists who had been reporting from Afghanistan also boarded the planes.

The International Committee for the Red Cross has also started to pull out its 30 international staff based in the country.

The reduction of all international and overseas workers by independent non-governmental aid groups is also under way and expected to be completed later Thursday.
'Sad catastrophe'

The departures have fuelled apprehension and fear on the streets about what will happen next.

Residents have been listening to Taliban-run radio where there have been reports of the events in the U.S.

Many Afghans, like the Taliban leadership, have condemned the terrorism attacks and offered their sympathy.

But CNN's Nic Robertson in Kabul reports that they are very concerned about the possibility that they could be involved in retribution attacks on Afghanistan.

The Taliban on Wednesday issued further statements condemning the terrorism in Washington and New York and appealing to the U.S. not to attack the country.

Taliban officials called the attack a "sad humanitarian catastrophe."

The Taliban appealed to the U.S. not to attack Afghanistan, saying the Afghan people were already in a great deal of misery.

Wednesday's statement came after a meeting between senior Pakistani diplomats and Taliban officials. Pakistan is one of the only countries that recognizes the Taliban government.

The Taliban was swift to deny any involvement in the terrorism attacks in New York and Washington.


Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
NewJehad
09/13/01 at 11:18:11
The Taliban and uthama were on the American hit list along time before this thing happened.
Looks like who ever is responsible they are to blame. But I think this attack is kind of big, so America is going to use it as a excuse to get at all the people they were looking for excuses to get, even if it means not getting the people who really did it.
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
mujaahid
09/13/01 at 12:06:42
Make Dua for them, all of us must do at least this much.

However also take comfort in this. The Afghanis are a mighty fighting force, they took on and defeated a mighty russian army, these are battle hardened people, highly trained, highly determined, and highly equipped, and this is thier territory, the mountain regions of Afghanistan, guerilla warfare, the USA are gona take a severe pounding and suffer massive losses if they try and fight these guys.

Inshallah the Afghanis will once again do the Ummah proud. The are an inncent target here, they have nothing to do with this attack, so they have EVERY right to fight back ANYONE who tries to destroy them.
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Saleema
09/13/01 at 12:51:27
[slm]

War in Afghanistan will hit very close to home for me. At this point, I am not feeling much of anything anymore. I have braced myself for the worst. If it comes, then it comes. I am sick and tired of worrying about what's going to happen to family back home. We share a border with Afghanistan-I wonder if all the Hazara people and the pathans will take up arms in pakistan. They did before, they will likely do now, unless Pakistan takes up some drastic measures to stop them, which might, certainly will actually, create havoc in Pakistan.

I am praying that it won't take place.

[wlm]
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
BroHanif
09/14/01 at 02:28:18
I think one of the most important hadith of our times....

Abu Hurairah (raa) said, "I heard the prophet (saws) saying to Thawban, 'O Thawban, what will you do when the nations call one another to invade you as people call one another to come and eat from the same bowl ?' Thawban replied, 'May my father and mother be sacrified for you, O Messenger of Allah! Is it because we will be so few?' 'The prophet saws answered, 'No, on that day you (Muslims) will be many, but Allah will place weakness in your hearts', The poeple asked, 'What is that weakness, O Messenger of Allah?'  He said, 'It is love for this world and dislike of fighting."

How true is the above hadith... Go to any news website and they will tell you about the new coalition that is taking place. All the countries of the world are together. Yet it seems we are blinded by fury and certainly not ready to learn why people commit such acts.

Afghanistan protests its innocence however, the world needs to hammer someone fast and bloody so it might as well be you Afghanis.

To you afghanis a special poem which I once found:

The asked for strength...
And Allah gave them difficulties to make them strong

They asked for courage...
And Allah gave them danger to overcome

They received not what they wanted...
They received everything they needed
Their prayers had been answered.

Allah be with you fellow Muslims, and may your entry be fast into Jannah.
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
blissfull
09/14/01 at 06:07:53
slm
all of our duas and deepest concerns are for the welfare of our Muslim brothers and sisters.
what i can not come to terms with is,Pakistan is under scrutiny of how much info or help they are willing to give
and that includes military help. to what extent can we allow this. how can we allow the massacre of innocent Muslims. if we don't help,well be a terrorist state, and therefore doomed by the self appointed gods. if we help in the so called justice plan, we sign death warrents to Muslims.  this is indeed a great trial by ALLAH(SWT).  
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
BroHanif
09/14/01 at 06:56:47

Check this out man, how can they...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,551833,00.html

We can write to all our MP's and ask em not to take this action.
Tell your imams about making duas and shed tears of blood in thajud, maybe the only Islamic state in the world is about to fall. But from the ashes of the war a new Islamic state will rise that will be more Islamic, insha-allah. Allah be praised.

May Allah make entry into jannah easy for them. Ameen.

According to prophet saws ...the noblest death is the death of a martyr. In simple, as these people will be defending their land and lives, they will attain martydom.

salaams for now
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Haniff
09/15/01 at 00:59:30
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

[img]http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/arabic/3_126.gif[/img]
[img]http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/arabic/3_160.gif[/img]
[img]http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/quran/arabic/2_286.gif[/img]

Haniff
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Ziggy
09/15/01 at 08:30:12
salaamz.

hope y'all are doin good insha Allah.

Afghanistan is a wartorn country, they've constantly been bombarded with missiles and stuff...its just really bad...everybodys pointin at bro Osmama Bin Laden... i pray that Allah gives the afghans the strength to fight the evil..and they will insha allah cuz like a bro said earlier..they've always done the ummah proud.. insha allah once again..they'll make us proud. But to help 'em we gotta pray hard so that we ain't just on the sidelines, watchin them suffer for sumthin they didn't do..we're in this together, we're gonna come outta this stronger than ever, insha Allah.

Bro hanif..jazakallha for the poem... masha Allah..they have a stong willpower..we will be victorious in da end, insha Allah.

mujahida..sis i know exactly how u feel...my family also live in hazara..right on da border...i hope they're ready for whatever is gonna happen...
Allah (swt) promised us victory in the end..don't forget that..

wassalaam
zakira
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Saleema
09/15/01 at 12:49:57
[slm]

Ziggy! You speak Hindko? I don't but I can understand it. Two of my younger sibling speak it very well.

Do you know pashto? I don't. But my dad does and my mom can speak it a little.

So what part of Hazara are you from? Tribe?

:)

[wlm]
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Ziggy
09/15/01 at 17:22:09

[quote]

Ziggy! You speak Hindko? I don't but I can understand it. Two of my younger sibling speak it very well.

Do you know pashto? I don't. But my dad does and my mom can speak it a little.

So what part of Hazara are you from? Tribe?

:)

[/quote]

salaamz.

nah...i don't speak hindko..i understand it...kinda :)
yeah..i speak pashto, my parents speak pashto and my whole family speak pashto! :)

we're from the NWFP, Hazara, you heard of Ichrian? i have close relatives livin there..right on the border...i think the silk route passes before their house..i'm not sure.. :)

so what language do u speak with your parents?

:)
peace
zakira
Re: Make Dua for the people of Afghanistan
Saleema
09/15/01 at 19:03:50
[slm]

I speak Urdu! :)Born in Shinkiari, Hazara, raised up in karachi though. And when we moved back to NWFP, I refused to speak anything but urdu, so never did learn how to speak pashto or hindko. Can understand though, a little. Actually when I was finally cathcing on to Pashto we moved to the US and well... no one to speak pashto to here. :) it's different when you hear it everyday.

Do you know where Shinkiari is? It's not at the border, border, but you know the people there. Something happens in Afghanista, likely ppl will take up arms.

[wlm]


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