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Contents: Sanctions on Afghanistan A humanitarian crisis looms in Afghanistan, the scale of which is truly formidable. A UN Report states that "After the December 1979 Soviet invasion, Afghanistan became the world's leading refugee-producing country. In 1996 the refugee population from Afghanistan remained the largest in the world, standing at 2,628,550, as compared to that of Bosnia and Herzegovina which stood at 1,006,450. The number of internally displaced in Afghanistan reached 1,200,000 as of 31 December 1996 (U.S. Committee for Refugees, 1997, 5,6)." The worst drought in recorded history, combined with the devastating effects of over 20 years of war, have forced over 700,000 Afghans in the past year alone to abandon their homes; the Afghans, according to the UNHCR, constitute the largest single refugee group in the world. There are 1.4 million Afghan refugees in Iran, 1.2 million in Pakistan and a further 50000 in other countries. Out of a total population of 17 million, almost 18% have been displaced from their homes. In some refugee camps in Pakistan, the refugees shelter from the cold by wrapping themselves in sheets of thin plastic. According to the UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Kenzo Oshima, at least 1 million Afghans are at risk of famine. The UN Security Council first imposed sanctions on Afghanistan in October 1999. They were further tightened in December 2000, under strong pressure from the United States and Russia. According to a Global Policy Forum report, the new sanctions were imposed despite an August 2000 report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which highlighted the "tangible negative effect" on Afghanistan's populace of the existing sanctions. Another draft OCHA report has said that "no poor country has ever been sanctioned the way Afghanistan has." In fact according to a Taliban envoy, Sayyid Hashemi, who recently visited the United States, the destruction of the statues was primarily the result of an offer of substantial sums of money to protect and rebuild the Buddhas, made by a visiting delegation of some Scandinavian envoys (SGO's) and a representative of UNESCO, at a time when little attention was being given to the humanitarian crisis there. The Taleban asked the envoys to instead donate this money to save lives, and this request was denied. They considered mud statues to be worth more than human lives. As Sayyid Hashemi says: "If they can destroy our future and kill our children with sanctions, who gives them the right to talk about our heritage?" |