Taliban using same tactic as Saddam,use civilians has their shields---the cowards <<Malnourished Afghans Head North
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By ALEXANDER MERKUSHEV, Associated Press Writer
PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - About 6,000 people who sought shelter from Afghanistan's Taliban militia have been living in the primitive Anoba refugee camp, surviving largely on a diet of gathered nuts and berries.
As the country's capital, Kabul, braces for what residents fear will be U.S. strikes against the Taliban for its ties with terror suspect Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), new arrivals are joining the desperate masses in the camp, which gets virtually no support from international aid organizations.
The Anoba camp is in the small part of northern Afghanistan controlled by the anti-Taliban opposition, and most of its residents fled Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city in 1996. Most are women and children; the healthy men have joined the opposition's army.
New refugees have been trickling into the camp in the past two weeks, this time fleeing in fear of an American attack and not the Taliban's harsh brand of Islamic rule.
The camp's manager said accounts from newcomers suggest the only reason it is a trickle - not a flood - is that Taliban soldiers are preventing people from leaving the capital, hoping the United States would balk at an attack that could cause high civilian casualties.
``We have some people who are coming from Kabul, and they ... say all of the people want to escape,'' said the manager, Mohammad Tareq. Refugees say the Taliban want people to stay in the city to serve as a human shield, he said.
For those who do make it to Anoba or to one of the dozens of spots nearby where refugees have pitched camp, there is not much the opposition, also known as the northern alliance, can offer.
Tareq said he has room in tents for 800 families, but many more are living in makeshift shelters around the camp. Food shortages have turned most of the Anoba residents into scavengers of seeds, nuts and berries.
``There is a lack of vegetables, of fruits, so there is a lack of vitamins'' that has caused skin diseases, said Dr. Stephane Ottin-Pecchio of La Maison de Sagesse, a French group that has been vaccinating children in the camp to guard against polio, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Most other aid organizations have stayed away from the war zone.
Despite the staggering poverty, the camp has organized a school, where 660 children are learning to read and write.
``Although we don't have enough food, medicine and clothes, we encourage education because ignorance and lack of knowledge is worse than lack of food,'' Tareq said.
On Sunday, a group of boys sat on a tent floor for their English lesson. One pupil stood in front by a blackboard and read out loud, his classmates bursting into applause when he finished.
The school also has classes for girls. Among the Taliban's restrictive rules is a ban on schooling for girls over 8 years old. |
