Saturday, January 20, 2007

unacceptable; to starve a people

Aid failures are killing UK soldiers in Afghanistan, think tank claims
20 Jan 2007 / scotsman: GERRI PEEV POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

BRITISH troops are dying in Afghanistan because the government's aid department is failing to get food to the poor in the southern provinces, an international security and development think tank claims.

Angry Afghans are turning to the Taleban for support, said the Senlis Council, a French think tank which has staff in the volatile Helmand province.

Its founder told The Scotsman it spent its research budget on food after it found thousands starving in refugee camps and in the province's hospital.

Aid failures are killing UK soldiers in Afghanistan, think tank claims
20 Jan 2007 / scotsman: GERRI PEEV POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

BRITISH troops are dying in Afghanistan because the government's aid department is failing to get food to the poor in the southern provinces, an international security and development think tank claims.

Angry Afghans are turning to the Taleban for support, said the Senlis Council, a French think tank which has staff in the volatile Helmand province.

Its founder told The Scotsman it spent its research budget on food after it found thousands starving in refugee camps and in the province's hospital.

Norine MacDonald said: "The international community has abandoned its military and it is abandoning the people of Afghanistan."

The United States plans to strengthen its poppy eradication programme by spraying large swathes of the countryside, but Senlis warned that stamping out the livelihood of farmers will fuel further violence.

Ms MacDonald's accusations raise questions about how the Department for International Development (DfID) has spent £390 million in Afghanistan.

Ms MacDonald said the Taleban was winning the battle for hearts and minds in southern Afghanistan where the British and Canadian governments and their development agencies had "abandoned their troops".

"The failure of USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency and DfID to provide effective development programmes has substantially contributed to the hostile environment in which the troops are fighting," Ms MacDonald said. "These agencies are therefore responsible for the significant number of military deaths." Up to 70 per cent of the population in the south was facing food shortages.

Ms MacDonald said she was appalled at the lack of a visible presence of DfID in Afghanistan on her latest visit.

"When I saw the extreme starvation, we started using our research operation budget to take them food."

Ms MacDonald said the modest food aid in Kandahar and Helmand stopped last March. "So far we have found no explanation for this, but it has certainly had an extreme impact on the situation. "Seventy per cent of the population is suffering from a lack of food - and hunger leads to anger."

She called for the resignation of Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary. "It's like the development community has been given an assignment and they don't like the difficulties of the situation so they decide not to do it."

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "DfID and the Ministry of Defence (Mod) are at complete loggerheads out there.

"The DfID and the NGOs are taking the view it is not really safe enough out there to operate. This is hampering the ability of the military to make headway in winning the campaign."

DfID has defended its efforts in Afghanistan, saying it is the country's second biggest donor. It has 18 staff there.

A spokesman for the department said

: "DfID is committing considerable resources to make a real difference in the lives of Afghan people. As the country's second largest bilateral donor, we have spent over £390 million on reconstruction and development since 2001."

The spokesman said just £5 million had been committed for projects in Helmand this year.

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