Aid workers prepare to flee Afghanistan

1.00pm - By NICK MEO in Kabul

Aid workers who remained in Afghanistan throughout the years of Soviet occupation, tribal anarchy and Taleban rule are preparing to flee the country because US military tactics have made it too dangerous to operate there.

A grim shadow was cast over the future of all aid missions to Afghanistan as the French organisation Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) said independent humanitarian work could no longer be safely carried out.

MSF claimed that the US military had endangered the lives of humanitarian volunteers by blurring the distinction between soldiers and aid workers. Five MSF workers were killed last month.

The announcement comes as Britain's Foreign Affairs Select Committee is today due to record its fears over a rise in heroin production since the fall of the Taleban as part of a report into the War on Terrorism.

The Foreign Office yesterday admitted that the opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will be one of the biggest on record.

One member of the Select Committee has already described Afghanistan as a "basket case".

And an image of a nation staring into the abyss was compounded yesterday as MSF suggested the message being sent out by the Afghan government was that it is acceptable to murder aid workers. It failed to take action against suspects in last month's murder of the MSF staff.

The decision to leave Afghanistan two months before the presidential election left Kabul's large foreign aid community in shock.

MSF staff are known as courageous professionals who are usually the first into a dangerous combat zone and the last to leave. The organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 and has worked for 24 years through some of Afghanistan's worst. MSF expressed a 'deep feeling of sadness and anger' following its announcement yesterday.

Although no other organisations have announced plans to follow MSF's lead, many are now reviewing the situation in the run-up to October's presidential elections when Taleban attacks are expected.

Yesterday, a bomb exploded in a mosque in a southeastern town where Afghans were registering for the upcoming elections, killing at least two people and seriously wounding two others, officials said.

Three rockets fired into Kabul overnight set off a secondary explosion at an Afghan military arms dump and blew a hole in the road in front of the Chinese Embassy, but injured no one.

Security experts in Kabul believe more foreigners may be targeted. Since the start of 2003 30 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan, mainly in remote rural provinces where the security situation is worst.

The shooting to death of three European and two Afghan staff members last month was described as an attack unprecedented in MSF's 30-year history of working in the world's most violent conflicts.

The motive for the execution-style murder has not been established, but valuables were not taken from the victims' clearly marked car and they were killed in an area known for opium poppy production.

MSF believes its staff were targeted. Large parts of the country have been too dangerous for Westerners for some time. One aid worker who has been in Kabul for three years said: "Although the economy is doing well and Afghans are more confident, foreigners who know the country have never been more scared.

"In some quarters there's a real sense of dread about what will happen during the election campaign."

Mr Gluck also denounced US military programmes in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan which have sometimes promised aid only to villages which provide intelligence on Taleban fighters.

Mr Gluck said: "The US-backed coalition has consistently sought to coopt humanitarian assistance to build support for its own military and political ambitions.

"MSF denounces attempts to use humanitarian aid to win hearts and minds. That jeopardises the aid to people in need and endangers the lives of humanitarian aid workers."

He said the coalition had several times apologised for activities the aid agencies found threatening, such as distributing leaflets promising aid for information, only for the same thing to happen again later.

"These soldiers are often out of uniform. It's hard to know what nationality they are," he said.

Around 20,000 US combat troops are currently in Afghanistan. A few British soldiers are stationed as peacekeepers, some manning Provincial Reconstruction Teams, small garrisons which have proved controversial with aid workers although many have welcomed security they have brought to cities outside the capital.

Concerns centre on the actions of combat troops attempting to win over villagers in areas afflicted by guerilla warfare.

"MSF has raised our concerns about blurring humanitarian and military objectives over three years with the Coalition, the Pentagon, and the British Government. We are tired of lobbying," Mr Gluck said.

Despite years of work by organisations like MSF in the country, many Afghan villagers now confuse aid workers and soldiers, he claimed.

"We have seen military people with weapons and in white cars providing health care. How can you expect Afghans to distinguish?"

Aid workers particularly criticise US Special Forces teams who sometimes operate clinics to win over local populations or distribute sweets and toys to village children.

The pull-out will affect 80 foreign and 1,400 Afghan staff, most of whom will lose their jobs. Although clinics and health programmes in some of the country's most deprived areas would be handed over to the Afghan government, thousands of people would lose access to health care, he said.

Phil Halton of the independent Afghanistan NGO Security Office, which advises aid workers on safety, said he expected other organisations to now take another look at whether or not to stay.

Two weeks ago GOAL, a small Irish group that works with children, left Afghanistan quoting security fears.

But Mr Halton said: "It really is a watershed when MSF pulls out.
"They are regarded as an outfit which is prepared to go to riskier places than anybody else, although they compensate for that by professionalism."

- INDEPENDENT