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Food shipments to Afghans resume©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Fearing widespread starvation in Afghanistan if America attacks, the United Nations on Saturday sent its first food shipments there since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a U.N. spokesman said. In Afghanistan, the trial of eight foreign aid workers was put off for a day, until today. The eight were arrested last month by the Taliban government, accused of spreading Christianity in the strictly Muslim country. Meanwhile, Pakistan shut down a major militant organization that the United States has branded a terrorist organization. The Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, or Movement of the Holy Warriors, has been fighting Indian soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region. A Harakat commander, Sajjad Shahid, blamed "American pressure" for the crackdown. The move came a day after the United Nations passed a resolution ordering member states to crack down on terror groups. Harakat ul-Mujahedeen has strong ties to Afghanistan, where some of its members trained. Scores of Harakat volunteers are believed to be fighting alongside the Taliban in its battle against opposition guerrillas. In Islamabad, a spokesman for the World Food Program, Khaled Mansour, said convoys carrying 200 tons of wheat left the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Saturday for the Afghan capital, Kabul. Other shipments would be dispatched in a few days for Kabul and the western city of Herat, he said. "We are resuming food deliveries into Afghanistan on a trial basis," Mansour said. "Once we ensure that food aid is reaching the most needy . . . we will move more food into Afghanistan." Humanitarian groups have been warning of impending starvation inside Afghanistan because of political turmoil, drought and the threat of American attack. The Taliban is sheltering Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on America. The United Nations fears that if the United States attacks Afghanistan, up to 1.5-million Afghans will seek shelter in Pakistan and other neighboring countries. In preparation for such an influx, the U.N. refugee agency announced its first emergency flight of supplies to Pakistan to prepare for a possible influx. An Ilyushin-76 cargo plane flew in nearly 50 tons of plastic sheeting for emergency shelter and plans to shuttle more supplies from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Pakistan. The United Nations and international relief organizations evacuated their staffs from Afghanistan after the terror attacks, leaving Afghan staffers to tend to an estimated 5-million people who rely on outside aid for survival. Last week, the United Nations said that its offices in the southern city of Kandahar were shut down and occupied by the Taliban and that most of its staff have been banned from using satellite phones, cutting off communication with the outside world. On Saturday, U.N. spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said U.N. offices have been looted in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, though it wasn't clear what was stolen or by whom. The U.N. decision to resume shipments comes as hopes for peacefully resolving the standoff between the United States and the Taliban are fading. The Taliban has refused to hand over bin Laden and the chief lieutenants in his alleged terror network, al-Qaida. Kabul Radio reported that Taliban officials held meetings Saturday in at least eight provinces to prepare the public for a U.S. attack. "Participants expressed their readiness to defend Afghanistan," the Taliban-run radio said in a broadcast monitored here. "They also expressed their readiness for jihad (holy war) against America." Still, the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, reportedly played down the chances of a U.S. strike. "We do not expect (an attack). There is no reason for an attack," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the Iranian newspaper Entekhab, published Saturday. He gave no specific reason to back up his conviction, but suggested the United States might be facing mounting opposition from other Islamic nations questioning the need for military action.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
