The United Nations has launched an unprecedented operation to prepare for a "massive crisis" in Afghanistan as people scramble to escape feared US-led military strikes, a UN spokesman said Monday.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Peter Kessler told AFP an emergency contingency operation in neighboring Pakistan was the biggest in the agency's history.
Crisis management specialists and equipment to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees were continuing to pour into Pakistan, on Afghanistan's eastern border, amid reports that more than a million people could try to flee in the event of US strikes.
"It's fair to say that never before have we needed an operation so large ahead of a possible crisis," Kessler said from the UNHCR's headquarters in the Pakistani capital.
"We are following our long experience in northern Iraq, the Balkans and Kosovo.
"The situation inside Afghanistan is so precarious that if it deteriorates it could become a massive crisis if we're not prepared."
Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to be on the move inside Afghanistan as the United States builds a formidable strike force from land, air and sea platforms around the landlocked country.
The ruling Taliban militia, accused of harboring alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, is rallying its people for jihad, or holy war.
UN coordinator's office spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker said the Taliban had taken over UN and other relief agency premises in the southern city of Kandahar, ending mine clearing operations at a time when tens of thousands of people were on the move in the area.
The militia had also sealed UN communications equipment at four regional offices, jeopardizing all UN operations in the country.
"It is possible that any attempt to communicate with the outside world could put staff at the risk of their lives," she said.
"While UN activities continue in the locations without communications, most UN activities have been disrupted or have ceased," Bunker added, without identifying the offices affected.
There are already some 3.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran left over from the last Afghan jihad against the 1979-89 Soviet invasion, which resulted in a humiliating withdrawal for the Red Army.
Another 900,000 people had become homeless due to relentless civil war and a severe drought in the 12 months leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, which bin Laden is suspected of organizing.
Kessler said the UNHCR had received the "green light" from the authorities in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province to start registering and caring for asylum seekers already waiting at the Chaman border crossing.
No figures of the numbers of people waiting opposite Chaman were available, but Kessler said "there should be thousands" even though Pakistan closed its borders to Afghan refugees last week.
The UN has warned of famine following the pullout of foreign aid workers due to security concerns in the days after the terrorist attacks.
Half the population of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar, or some 100,000 people, reportedly fled the city and headed for the safety of the countryside or the Chaman crossing some 120 kilometers to the east.
The exodus has been repeated from other major cities such as the capital Kabul and Jalalabad in the east, UN officials said.
Local officials and aid workers have said they are planning for the arrival of more than one million Afghans in Pakistan and 300,000 in Iran to the west.
"Millions of Afghans have been refugees in the past and they know where the exits are," Kessler said, adding that UN experts feared the current trickle of refugees could quickly become a flood.
"We are guarding ourselves for perhaps a major flow of people if the situation worsens inside Afghanistan. There is no sign of improvement at this point, which is why the UNHCR is making these preparations” -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
