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Bacon: Humanitarian Corridor Needed in Afghanistan
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"The only good thing is that anywhere you drop food in Afghanistan it will land near a starving person or a hungry person," Kenneth Bacon told IRP Fellows. |
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Click here for audio excerpt |
WASHINGTON, October 9, 2001 -- A leading U.S. advocate for refugees called on the Bush administration to open a humanitarian aid "corridor" in Afghanistan as part of its military campaign so that food can be trucked in to feed millions of starving Afghans.
Kenneth Bacon, former Pentagon spokesman under the Clinton administration and currently president and CEO of Refugees International told IRP Fellows that the current daily US air drops over Afghanistan of 37,000 pre-packed meals were "only marginally better than nothing," and part of a "feel-good policy for the US, to show the international community that we do care about Afghanistan." He said the World Food Program estimates that Afghanistan will need 50,000 tons of food a month to avoid widespread starvation, far more than the air drops provide.
A growing number of refugees and displaced persons is intensifying the effects of a famine that has gripped Afghanistan for three years. "The World Food Program was feeding 3.8 million refugees before September 11," said Bacon. But now, with people fleeing Kabul and Kandahar to escape U.S. military strikes, there are "a minimum of 5 to 7.5 million" refugees and displaced people.
Bacon said that although "the [Bush] administration's response and the response of the international community has been quite extraordinary, the problem is that everyone's playing with less than half a deck" because there are very few aid workers left in Afghanistan to distribute food. "The only good thing is that anywhere you drop food in Afghanistan it will land near a starving person or a hungry person."
Copyright © 2005 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.