Afghan refugee disaster looming

By Tahir Ikram

MASLAQH CAMP, Afghanistan (Reuters): Zarif Gul Jan repeatedly slaps a wrinkled hand on his stomach. "I am hungry," he says over and over.

The 79-year-old Afghan, supporting his wiry frame on two crutches, was among the multitude of internally displaced people gathered at Maslaqh camp, 20 kilometers west of the western city of Herat to see Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"I am hungry," he repeated as he pulled at the sleeve of the Reuters correspondent. "I am starving."

Jan was not alone. At the camp site, thousands of Afghans who have fled their homes to escape war and the worst drought in 30 years go to bed without a morsel of food.

UN relief operations have provided tents or mud houses to more than 100,000 people at the camp. Food is also given out, though most camp residents complain about the quantity.

But refugees keep pouring in -- an average of 300 families a day -- stretching the resources of the United Nations, which is predicting a major crisis if there is no immediate international help.

Even a brief visit to the camp, sited by the dusty gravel road from Herat to the Iranian border, shows how inadequate facilities are when more than 120,000 destitute people descend in less than a year.

"I have no water to drink," said Adhan a 70-year-old from Ghor province.

Latest UN figures showed that the number who have fled from their homes due to drought or war exceeds 700,000 since mid-2000.

UN officials privately acknowledge a disaster is brewing. In Maslaqh camp the immediate threat is epidemics -- diarrhea and cholera -- amid dire sanitary conditions.

"We need more latrines," said Hans-Christian Poulsen, the western Afghanistan coordinator for United Nations humanitarian programs.

Lubbers was almost mobbed by thousands of camp residents who ran after his car, demanding to be taken notice of by the United Nations.

"The situation in the camp is extremely bad," he agreed with a few hundred camp elders who surrounded him. In the background, Taliban escorts waved rocket launchers and automatic assault rifles to restrain the crowd.

Lubbers, visiting Afghanistan for four days, wants a ceasefire between the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance for a period of six months to a year so the United Nations can tackle the humanitarian crisis.

But there is little prospect of a halt to fighting between the ruling Taliban and the opposition led by Ahmed Shah Masood. Lubbers said on Thursday the Taliban had rejected the ceasefire proposal.

All indications suggest war is in the offing as the melting winter snows enable the two sides to resume their annual duel.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans urgently need every basic human requirement -- food, water, latrines, shelter, medicine and clothing. A bath is a luxury many have not had in months.

Almost all children ran barefoot as Taliban guards shooed them away. Grime covered their faces and a film of dirt obscured what had once been bright fabrics.

"Where do I go from here," a disgruntled young man said.

"No, I can't go to Pakistan. No, I can't go to Iran," he said about the western and eastern neighbors of Afghanistan that already house millions of Afghan refugees.

Iran has started deporting refugees, accusing many of drug dealing. Pakistan has received some 200,000 more refugees in the last year and says it has no resources to accept more.

Lubbers told reporters that during his visit he had asked Iran to be more considerate to Afghan refugees but also said he acknowledged the best solution would be a safe Afghanistan. He is certain to go over the same ground in Pakistan, which wants the Afghans cared for inside their own country.

But the ruin brought by drought and 21 years of fighting make security inside Afghanistan appear a distant dream. Even in present conditions, the United Nations will not be able to provide the basics of survival unless donors are willing to raise their assistance.

The United Nations says it needs more for Afghanistan this year than the US$250 million it initially sought, warning that any delay could jeopardize its ability to halt what is now becoming a disaster. But it has received little of the initial request.

The main obstacle is donor fatigue. Years of pouring funds into the faction-ridden country have failed to stem the rising misery.

"The donors think that there is always bad news coming out of Afghanistan," Poulsen said. "It is only now that this situation has come home."