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U.N. Official Pleads For More Aid For Afghan Refugees
PESHAWAR, Feb 17 (News Agencies) - United Nations Under Secretary General Kenzo Oshima on Saturday appealed to international donors to do more to help hundreds of thousand Afghans displaced by drought and war.
"Fighting in Afghanistan must stop and the international community can and should do more to help suffering people," Oshima said, while visiting a refugee camp near here.
About 130,000 Afghans are living at the Jalozi camp, located 25 kilometers (15 miles) from here in miserable conditions.
They include some 80,000 out of an estimated 170,000 new refugees who arrived in Pakistan since September, fleeing the drought and civil war between the ruling Taliban and its opponents.
"I have come here representing the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to see plight of refugees and raise awareness about their situation," Oshima said.
"These people are really in very bad, unbelievable misery. It is really heart-breaking to see these people," he said.
Oshima has already visited Afghanistan to inspect the displacement camps set up there in western Herat region after the worst drought in living memory and the unending civil war drove more than 600,000 people from their homes since mid-2000.
The U.N. has confirmed at least 170 deaths from exposure in freezing night temperatures at the Herat camps. Several deaths were also reported recently from camps in Pakistan.
The U.N. official spent about 40 minutes at the sprawling camp, talking to haggard, ill-fed refugees living under plastic sheets without drinking water, sanitation facilities and defenses against biting cold.
Only a few doctors and some paramedics are available to handle the enormous task of health care in the camp.
Oshamia praised the "generous" attitude of the government and people of Pakistan for having accepted new refugees in addition to the 1.2 million it has hosted since the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
"We recognize that here is a tremendous burden put on the government and people. We hope that the open and generous attitude which has been demonstrated will be maintained."
But the international community can and should give more help to Pakistan in looking after the refugees, he said.
Oshima called for concerted efforts to provide succor to the displaced inside Afghanistan.
"The international community has been generous but perhaps not enough in view of the mounting crisis we are now witnessing," he said.
On Friday he met with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.
During the meeting, Musharraf emphasized the need for providing food and other relief to Afghans inside their country so that they were not uprooted, an official statement said.
On his return after the on-site assessment of the humanitarian needs, Oshima is to report to the U.N. Secretary General in New York and to the donor community in Geneva.
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