By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. State Department is channeling another $10 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to assist in the provision of aid to a mounting humanitarian crisis in Central Asia. International officials estimate that 65,000 Afghans have fled for the borders as stability in the country has deteriorated in recent weeks.

In announcing the humanitarian aid October 22, State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker said, "With this latest contribution, the U.S. has contributed $14 million, to date, to the donor alert of the UN High Commissioner to assist the people of Afghanistan over the coming winter. This new contribution is part of the $320 million in aid for the Afghan people announced by President Bush on October 4, 2001."

The problem of refugees and displacement has a long history in the region. As a result of more than two decades of war in Afghanistan and recent years of drought, more than 2.5 million refugees have been in neighboring Iran and Pakistan for years. This longstanding situation could be worsened if the current UNHCR prediction comes true: As many as 1.5 million more Afghans could leave their homeland for one of the neighboring nations because of increasing violence and hardships.

Drought has so adversely affected crops and food supplies that the World Food Program (WFP) estimates between 5-7 million people in Afghanistan may face famine in the upcoming winter.

The U.S. contribution to the Afghan relief effort in the fiscal year ending October 1 was $185 million. The United States has been the single greatest contributor to humanitarian programs in the region in recent years.

The United States is a major partner in the relief activities being carried out primarily by international agencies such as WFP, UNHCR and a broad range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The coordinated aid effort being staged from Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will bring the greatest help to the Afghan population, but the U.S. Department of Defense has also been engaged in humanitarian work at the same time it conducts an air campaign to damage Taliban military capabilities. U.S. planes have dropped almost 700,000 humanitarian daily rations over the country since October 13.

A surge of would-be refugees did head for Pakistan in the week of October 15, even though the border has been officially closed. Pakistan authorities relaxed their policy somewhat as crowds swelled at the border crossing, UNHCR reported, allowing about 5,000 with proper documents to cross.

The refugee agency estimates that more than 10,000 Afghans remain assembled at the Chaman crossing on the southeast border in hopes of leaving their country. Some violence has erupted as Pakistani border guards attempt to control the surging crowds.

UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said at an October 23 press briefing in Geneva that the agency is working inside Pakistan to develop a site to accommodate the "most vulnerable" of these refugees. "These would include women, mothers, children, the elderly, the disabled and those in need of medical attention," he said.

The WFP has also been at this border crossing, distributing food to those stuck in what is called a "no man's land" between the two countries. A WFP report quotes team members who say that the displaced people were tired and "in pretty bad shape."

Meanwhile, WFP continues its effort to transport more food commodities into Afghanistan. A convoy in Pershawar, Pakistan, was loaded October 23 to carry 1,300 tons of supplies into Afghanistan's northeast region.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) is also working to distribute food, reporting October 23 that it has delivered winter food stores to more than 7,000 disabled persons and their families in Kabul. ICRC Medical and Relief Coordinator for Afghanistan Mark Steinbeck said from Pakistan, "In the present circumstances, they have hardly any means of survival and very little chance of fleeing into the countryside or into neighboring countries, as many people from Kabul started doing earlier this month."

Other international agencies provide differing reports about their capabilities to pursue their humanitarian work in the country. At an October 23 briefing, International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Jean Philippe Chauzy described a "deteriorating security situation" that has impeded the agency's ability to operate.

IOM workers based in the western Afghan city of Herat have been unable to travel to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). In the northern city of Kunduz, IOM workers supervise other IDP camps, but their operations are currently suspended by local Taliban officials.

In Mazar-e-Sherif the IOM compound was looted last week, but now stolen vehicles have been returned, Chauzy said, with intervention from the governor. He said the security situation in that city has stabilized despite the city's proximity to the lines between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.

The IOM was one of several relief agencies that experienced incidents of looting and violence during the week of October 15. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported October 22 that its agencies regained control of their operations as the result of a decree from Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

"The Taliban official who had earlier occupied the UNOCHA compound in Mazar left the compound on Saturday minutes after receiving a copy of the latest edict from Mullah Omer," said Hasan Ferdous, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, speaking in Islamabad, Pakistan.

So far, however, the WFP has not regained control of a Kandahar grain warehouse that the Taliban seized October 16 along with 1,600 tons of food. A WFP spokesperson in New York said October 23 they had lost contact with the Kandahar staff and had no new information on what might have happened to the grain stores. Another warehouse taken over by the Taliban in Kabul at the same time was returned to WFP control after several days.