[Nettime-bold] Accidentally, one more time

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

How many times do you thing Pentagon is able to bomb Red 
Cross warehouses in Kabul accidentally? So far, they admited to 
have done it twice. Would anybody bet that it can happen a third 
time? Or maybe even a fourth?

Meanwhile, the aid agencies like Oxfam, ICRC and MSF are 
asking the US to stop dropping food on Afghanistan. They are fine 
with the US amateurish dispensing of its expensive ordnance over 
the vast Afghan mountainous dessert, with occassional children 
assassinating blunder, but would like that US, please, leave the aid 
delivery to professionals.

And the USA Patriot act is in force now. The law on the books is 
nothing without the implementation. So we should see how worse 
did the US become in terms of its liberties in the course of 
implementation of that act.

Abroad, sadly, everybody took an opportunity to join in the global 
misbehavior. Macedonians vs. Albanian minority. Israelis vs. 
Palestinians. Russians vs. Chechens. Chinese vs. Uighurs. US, 
indeed, takes pains to declare that not all Muslims are terrorists, 
but in the other parts of the world such thinking is regarded as the 
expensive luxury and best avoided.

ivo

Date sent:      	Sat, 27 Oct 2001 02:42:16 -0400
Send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From:           	Daniel Tomasevich <danilo@MARTNET.COM>
Subject:        	Agencies call on U.S. to end food drops
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

Humanitarian agencies that distribute food in Afghanistan say
the food drops are making things worse. They could deliver food
much cheaper by land.


Daniel
(article not for cross posting)
-------------------------------------------------------------

   The Ottawa Citizen   October 26, 2001 Friday

        Agencies call on U.S. to end food drops

   BY: Kate Jaimet

   Humanitarian workers are being put in danger by the American policy of
   air-dropping food into Afghanistan, field workers for Oxfam, the
   International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders said yesterday.

   "Our staff are in danger. If one side of the conflict perceives that
   the other is using humanitarian aid as a weapon of war, we could be
   perceived as the enemy and therefore our staff could be targeted,"
   said Mark Fried, communications and advocacy co-ordinator for Oxfam
   Canada.

   "We're quite concerned that this blurring of the line between
   humanitarian and military is dangerous to our staff on the ground and
   ultimately dangerous to the whole effort of providing humanitarian
   relief."

   Meanwhile, Lai Ling Lee, program director for Doctors Without Borders,
   bluntly called on the Americans to stop the food drops.

   In an attempt to show that its bombing campaign is aimed at
   terrorists, not at Afghani civilians, the United States has dropped
   more than 700,000 packages of single-serving food rations that include
   vegetarian entrees and rice-based nutrition bars.

   But Mr. Fried said the rations are reaching only one per cent of the
   people in need. He characterized the price of the rations as
   "obscene," saying that it cost $27 million to distribute 130,000 meals
   by air -- about $207 per meal -- while Oxfam could distribute roughly
   the same amount of food by land for less than 3.5 cents a meal.

   Attempts by aid groups to distribute food by land have almost ceased
   in Afghanistan, as the U.S. refuses to pause its bombing and the
   Taliban refuses to provide protection to aid workers threatened by
   thieves, looters and pillaging soldiers. Seven million people are said
   to be at risk of starvation inside Afghanistan.

     _________________________________________________________________

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