A rchive Date
[ 21-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Afghanistan ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur.html
Aid key to Afghani peace
By SALIM MANSUR - For the London Free Press
January 23, 2002
As a Canadian contingent of about 900 soldiers prepares to leave for Kandahar, the American-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan is practically over.
The hard part begins now. The question demanding answers from America and its allies, including Canada, is: Will Afghanistan be abandoned to its misery when the really difficult task of helping its people rebuild their lives in peace beckons?
Afghanistan has always been less of a country defined by its borders and more of a land with a uniquely striking beauty, as if designed for a composite nation of peoples to live together. Its borders have been imposed from outside, by Britain in India, by the Russian czars and the Persian monarchs. Its tragedy has been to be located in the path of conquerors headed elsewhere.
In 1979, the year of the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan's population was estimated at 14 million. Through the last 23 years, any natural increase in population has been mostly nullified by the ravages of war, diseases, hunger and dislocation. One-third of the population became refugees in Pakistan, Iran, India and the countries of Central Asia. Another third became refugees within Afghanistan.
The economy in earlier times was primarily agriculture and animal husbandry. Approximately four-fifths of the population was rural. Until 1978, the year before war ruined the country, Afghanistan was self-sufficient in food.
Now Afghanistan depends almost entirely on food provided by international agencies, such as the United Nations' World Food Program. Moreover, since 1999 Afghanistan has also suffered the horrors of the worst drought in living memory.
The country now ranks at the bottom of the UN index of human misery. More than 80 per cent of the population finds itself below the UN measure of the poverty line and one in four children dieS before reaching the age of five.
This week, the rich countries of the world meting in Tokyo to negotiate developmental assistance for Afghanistan. A preliminary joint report of the World Bank, the UN Development Program and the Asian Development Bank estimates a requirement of a minimum of $15 billion US over 10 years.
Given the needs, this amount, though it sounds a lot, is small change. American Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged this by remarking, "rebuilding Afghanistan is not like the rebuilding of Japan or Europe," and "a little money will go a long way."
After 22 years of warfare, very little of Afghanistan's infrastructure - buildings, roads, irrigation canals and power grids - remain intact or functioning. The World Bank estimates it will cost $500 million to clear landmines and make farming safe again. The UN can only deliver if financial support from donor countries is generously forthcoming.
While governments in Ottawa and elsewhere have been deliberating an aid package this week, people on their own can organize to raise desperately needed funds, as Londoners have already done. A grassroots campaign to help the children of Afghanistan, called We Want to Help, is an example of Londoners reaching out beyond borders.
The City of London could build upon this local initiative and extend its hand of friendship to an Afghani city of similar size. It could become a sister city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the first city to be liberated from Taliban control in the recent war.
This city has repeatedly shown its heart, such as in innovating a program for the children of Chornobyl, affected by radiation from the meltdown of the nuclear power plant there. Similarly, following the famine in Ethiopia in the mid-80s, Londoners organized to provide critical assistance to those affected. And Dianne Haskett, the former mayor, seeking commercial ties in the Asia-Pacific, established a "friendship cities" relationship between London and Nanjing, China, in 1997.
Afghanistan is an example of a failed country and the consequences rippling across national boundaries. We live in a connected world and from a distance we have watched Afghanistan be raped for more than two decades.
It is imperative we help heal the wounds. This is not simply a matter of charity. The ethics and politics of our time demands this. Our well-being cannot be secured, nor terrorism eliminated, while another people suffers war, homelessness and freezes in hunger.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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