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CNN Live Event/Special

Target: Terrorism - Helping Refugees

Aired October 02, 2001 - 05:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to the building refugee crisis that's happening there on the borders. A team of experts from the U.N. is heading into the Pakistan-Afghan border region right now to prepare a camp that's going to be able to receive, we hear, up to 10,000 refugees.

Meanwhile, the U.S. will send $100 million in aid for those refugees fleeing their country for neighboring Pakistan. As CNN's Harry Smith explains, if the U.S. strikes, even more aid will be needed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Up to now, all the talk has been about sending its war machine into Afghanistan. The United States was one of the first countries to send help. Thousands of tons of food prominently labeled "from the USA" are being loaded onto worries in Pakistan as part of a massive U.N. effort to feed thousands of hungry Afghans.

Many Afghan towns are almost deserted. This is the once bustling heart of Jalalabad. Its citizens have shut up shop and fled their homes to escape the expected military onslaught. This is where many have gone, across the border into Pakistan, carrying what they can on their backs. The refugee camps in southern Pakistan simply can't cope. Even before the latest crisis, the international agencies estimated that five million Afghans were dependent on aid. In this camp, food is scarce and so is shelter. For many, the only way to survive the freezing nights is to build their own huts.

UNIDENTIFIED AFGHANI: He is working. He is making for them a house.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For how many people?

UNIDENTIFIED AFGHANI: For 12 people.

SMITH: And the United Nations warns that another million refugees will be on their way if fighting does break out in Afghanistan.

Harry Smith, ITN.

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