- Efforts to bring aid to tens of thousands of earthquake
survivors in Afghanistan are being hampered by the theft of international
aid by local warlords.
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- The gangs, who took over the areas after the Taliban
fled last year, are insisting that aid agencies employ them to deliver
emergency supplies. Once the goods are handed over they are taken for private
consumption or for future sale.
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- Javed, who lost two daughters and a son in the earthquake,
complained that the aid agencies were giving tents, blankets and food to
the warlords.
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- "Many of these commanders have been going to the
aid agencies as soon as they arrive and demanding to distribute the aid.
But they are thieves. We have got very little and much of that aid will
be on sale in markets in other parts of Afghanistan within weeks,"
he said.
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- All of Javedís neighbours backed his accusations
and said aid agencies should try to deliver supplies directly or to representatives
nominated by the stricken communities.
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- Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the UN, said she
was aware of the problem of supplies being siphoned off. She said an inquiry
was under way but it was unlikely to lead to the retrieval of any stolen
supplies.
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- The theft of aid goes on despite the involvement of international
troops in relief efforts. Russian troops have set up two mobile hospitals
and British-led international troops from Kabul have set up another. Humanitarian
relief has arrived quickly to the region, mainly because of the presence
of international aircraft and aid groups engaged in rebuilding the countryís
infrastructure.
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- Heavy dust storms and light rain have slowed some distribution
efforts and one US helicopter carrying aid reported a "trace of firearms"
from the ground earlier in the week.
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- "We canít say for sure it was aimed fire.
It might have been from someone celebrating," said Major Bryan Hilferty,
spokesman for the 10th Mountain Division. Nobody was hurt in the incident.
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- Meanwhile, the ordinary people of the region are coming
to terms with the latest calamity to befall them. Mohamed Safar picked
through the rubble of his home in the old part of the town of Nahrin, which
was at the centre of the earthquake.
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- When the earthquake struck he was in his house with his
wife and six children finishing off their modest meal of rice, beans, bread
and green tea.
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- He said: "Suddenly there was a horrible shaking
and a roar like I had never heard. We tried to flee but we were helpless
and the walls and ceiling collapsed around us until we were buried."
Safar was trapped for two hours before some of his neighbours pulled him
out.
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- He joined in the desperate search for the rest of his
family. Without electric lights or lanterns, only the moon revealed a nightmarish
scene of almost total devastation in the old town.
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- The moans and cries for help of some of his family guided
Safar and they managed to pull out his wife and three children alive from
the rubble. But another three - two daughters and a son aged between four
and 14, died. That pattern of tragedy was repeated hundreds of times throughout
Nahrin and around 80 villages in the area where the earthquake, which registered
6.1 on the Richter scale, struck.
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- At first the Afghan government and international aid
agencies put the death toll at up to 3,000 people. Yesterday Stephanie
Bunker told Scotland on Sunday the confirmed death toll was about 800 but
that many more corpses could be discovered beneath the rubble, especially
in the remoter villages.
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- The earthquake struck an area that is mostly barren plains
with scattered fertile land, in the shadow of the snow-crested mountains
of the Hindu Kush.
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- Nahrin, the biggest town in the area, is composed of
a new town and old town. The old town was built predominantly of mud and
straw and wooden beams. It is now almost completely levelled.
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- Wooden beams and window frames protrude from the rubble
at odd angles. Safar and other survivors search through the pieces of furniture,
cupboards and carpets that provide the only colour in the dusty brown mounds.
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- Clusters of graves lie not far from the remains of the
homes. Islam requires that the dead are buried quickly. The ënewí
part of Nahrin, which contains many brick buildings, has also been badly
affected.
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- Many aid agencies established themselves in the country
after the fall of the Taliban regime and reacted quickly after the earthquake.
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- The international peacekeeping force, headed by the British
army and American-led combat forces, have also provided help. The United
Nations is co-ordinating the relief effort and Bunker said that tents had
been distributed throughout the town and in the outlying villages.
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- Yesterday the stench of undiscovered corpses and dead
animals was beginning to hang in the rubble-filled streets of Nahrin. Aftershocks
from the quake continue to cause the earth to sway and survivors will sleep
in tents or in the open until they can build new earthquake-proof homes.
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- http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=346832002
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