Uzbekistan to Serve as Conduit for Relief Efforts

The government of Uzbekistan has agreed to open its border with Afghanistan so that emergency food can be shipped to starving Afghans in Taliban-held territory, a top U.N. official said Thursday.

In an attempt to head off a looming famine, Uzbek President Islam Karimov will allow the United Nations to use his country’s Soviet-era port and barges in the border town of Termez to transport aid across the Amu Darya River to Afghanistan, said Kenzo Oshima, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

“The humanitarian effort is continuing to gather steam,” Oshima told reporters during a swing through Central Asia. “We are all looking forward to the continuing support of the government of Uzbekistan in getting aid to Afghanistan.”

Karimov declined a U.N. request--at least for now--to open the Friendship Bridge that links the two countries, out of concern that ruling Taliban forces or Afghan refugees would try to cross into Uzbekistan.

The bridge, built by the Soviet Union in 1982 so that its tanks and troops could move quickly into Afghanistan, would offer aid agencies the most efficient means of delivering assistance to northern Afghanistan. It has been closed since the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban in 1998.

Instead, aid workers will load food, medicine, clothing, blankets, boots and other supplies onto barges, take them across the river and load them onto trucks supplied by relief agencies on the Afghan side. Officials hope that the deliveries will begin within a week or two.

Aid officials predict a severe humanitarian crisis if the supplies don’t begin reaching people in remote regions in the next month, before the onset of winter. Even before the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan, millions of people were suffering from food shortages because of drought and civil war.

“In a worst-case scenario, we say easily 100,000 kids could die this winter,” said Nigel Fisher, UNICEF’s special representative for Afghan children. “There is going to be a crisis. The issue is how much we can reduce its dimensions.”

UNICEF and the World Food Program began trucking tons of aid to Termez last week in the hope that the border would open. In talks with Oshima, the Uzbek government has agreed to allow aircraft carrying aid to fly directly to Termez.

If the program of transporting the aid by barge goes smoothly, officials hope that Uzbekistan will soon agree to open the Friendship Bridge for relief convoys.

Aid officials say they don’t anticipate problems coordinating aid shipments with the Taliban regime despite the efforts of the opposition Northern Alliance to capture the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Reports from Mazar-i-Sharif indicate that calm has returned to the city in the past few days after last week’s fighting and that the Taliban is firmly in control, Fisher said.

Equipment and aid that were looted from U.N. offices and warehouses in the city last week have been returned this week under orders from the Taliban, he said.