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U.S. Senators Call For More Afghan Refugee Aid
WASHINGTON, May 2 (News Agencies) - Thirteen U.S. senators are calling on Secretary of State Colin Powell to provide $30 million worth in emergency aid for Afghanistan, warning failure to act could spark a humanitarian crisis of "massive proportions".
Tens of thousands of Afghans are facing a miserable future as a serious drought tightens its grip on a population badly weakened by years of civil war.
The letter, signed by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and 12 Senate colleagues asked Powell to offer $15 million in emergency relief and migration aid and $15 million from the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
"The conditions in temporary camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan are horrendous, and people are dying daily from starvation, cold and disease," said the letter to Powell.
"If we fail to act, the world may soon be witness to a humanitarian crisis of even more massive proportions
"We urge your immediate attention to this matter."
The United States is already the largest aid donor to Afghanistan, despite its animosity toward the ruling Taliban Islamic militia, which it blames for backing "terrorism", drug trafficking (although the U.N. has certified that poppy cultivation has been lessened under the Taliban's control) and human rights abuses.
A team of officials from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad and the U.S. Agency for International Development were in Afghanistan last month to assess humanitarian needs.
News of the visit raised speculation about a possible shift in policy towards Afghanistan by the new administration of George W. Bush.
But officials insisted there had been no change in policy, even though it was the first time U.S. officials had set foot in Afghanistan since before the August 1998 U.S. missile strikes against camps there.
The militia is accused of harboring Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden.
Some 80,000 people are living in displacement camps around Herat, Afghanistan, having been driven from their villages by drought since July, while the numbers of displaced people in the north are estimated at around 100,000.
Around 500,000 people were made homeless throughout Afghanistan due to the drought and fighting between the Taliban and opposition forces last year, while another 170,000 have fled to Pakistan.
Senators Joseph Biden, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Russell Feingold, Edward Kennedy, Mary Landrieu, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Harry Reid, Debbie Stabenow and Paul Wellstone also signed the letter to Powell.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers met Afghanistan's ousted president Wednesday to discuss a possible truce to aid 800,000 villagers uprooted by drought and war.
Lubbers met Burhanuddin Rabbani in the northeastern city of Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, and the largest town under the control of forces fighting the Taliban.
"I made it clear that I do not see a political solution coming quickly and therefore, if we have to be really productive with humanitarian efforts, we really need a break of six months or a year in the fighting," he said after the talks.
Fierce clashes between the Taliban and opposition forces erupted last week in northern Afghanistan, with both sides accusing each other of kicking off a new round of conflict.
The Taliban drove Rabbani's government from Kabul in 1996. His four years in power saw a third of the capital destroyed in factional fighting.
He still holds the country's U.N. seat, although his forces, under commander Ahmad Shah Masood, control only Badakhshan and some other pockets of territory.
He told Lubbers that he was always ready for peace but vowed to continue to "defend" his territory against attacks from the Taliban.
"Any option for peace we are ready to consider," he said.
"We believe that there should be a ceasefire, not only for six months, but the war should be stopped for all time. At this time when the people are suffering from drought and other problems, six months is not enough.
"We are never ready to fight, but we are ready to defend our lands. We have asked for peace talks, but we still have not had a response from the Taliban."
Rabbani also rejected the widespread belief that the opposition was backed by Russia and other states in the region, and blamed the Taliban for relying on foreign support.
"We believe that the foreign troops inside Afghanistan should go back, and after that, we can start negotiations with the Taliban," he said without referring directly to Pakistan, the Taliban's closest ally.
Lubbers said he reminded Rabbani that regardless where the weapons came from, it was the Afghans themselves who were prolonging the war.
"It's their decision to fight. Maybe all these countries have given support in terms of money ... sometimes in terms of arms, but it is the Afghan leadership themselves who are using them," he said.
Some 800,000 people have been displaced since mid-2000, and while most have ended up at shabby displacement camps inside Afghanistan, many have become refugees in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
Some 19,000 families, or around 100,000 people, fled their homes amid fighting that erupted in the north late last year.
"My house was destroyed and they took all the beams to make a bunker," said an individual named Sohrab, who has been living with his wife and five children in a displacement camp outside Faizabad for nine months.
He said men in the camps volunteered to return to Masood's frontlines every second month to fight against the Taliban.
The opposition recently appealed for international help, saying people were dying of starvation in Badakhshan's Shahr-i-Buzurg and Ragh districts.
A U.N. team sent to investigate the reports found some people had been forced to eat wild plants including toxic varieties that resulted in limb paralysis.
Lubbers met top Taliban officials in the southern city of Kandahar Tuesday where he told them that international aid was linked to peace.
He is due to meet Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel in Kabul on Thursday before heading to Pakistan, one of only three countries that recognize the Taliban regime.
The Taliban pulled out of U.N.-backed peace talks in January when the U.N. Security Council slapped fresh sanctions on the regime for its alleged support of "terrorism".
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