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American Morning

Uzbek Government Closes Bridge to Afghanistan

Aired November 05, 2001 - 10:31   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There are more than a half million refugees wandering across northern Afghanistan and they are dogged by war and stalked by hunger and increasingly isolated by bureaucracy. Their plight comes to a crossroads at a bridge that connects Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, and the Uzbek government has shut it down to humanitarian conveys despite international pleas and a weekend request by the visiting Defense Secretary.

CNN's Alessio Vinci now with more on that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a difficult and time consuming job to move tons of aid halfway across the world. This UNICEF shipment from Denmark arrived in Tashkent last week. It has been unloaded and loaded once for customs clearance, now these trucks can begin their 12-hour drive to the Afghan border where aid will be unloaded once more into warehouses awaiting the green light from the Uzbek government to allow this shipment to cross over into Afghanistan.

(on camera): Uzbek officials have now agreed to allow future aid to be flown in directly into the border town of Termez, less than 50 miles away from refugees and displaced people in Afghanistan. However, there is an additional obstacle.

(voice-over): The government refuses to allow aid trucks to use this bridge across the Amu Darya River. Relief will instead be ferried across on barges, meaning the shipment will have to be unloaded and loaded again before reaching Afghanistan.

RUPA JOSHI, UNICEF SPOKESWOMAN: If the bridge would open up that would really help into prompting more supplies. And getting more supplies in at this moment is very important because the volume that can the bridge -- that we can take across the bridge would be immense. And that would mean the time would be less and that is very crucial at the moment, so therefore, the bridge would have been the best way out.

VINCI: Fearing an influx of refugees and citing security concerns, Uzbek officials say the bridge will not open anytime soon.

ABDULAZIZ KAMILOV, UZBEK FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We will discuss the issue of opening the bridge only when the situation in northern Afghanistan stabilizes. VINCI: Rebels fighting Taliban forces have been fighting for weeks now in northern Afghanistan trying to capture the town of Mazar- e-Sharif. And Red Cross officials say the U.S. bombing campaign aimed at facilitating the rebels advance towards the town is making the aid delivery even more difficult.

OLIVIER MARTIN, ICRC, NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN: It has brought an additional element which is insecurity, volatility. It has also reduced the security for conveys to reach Mazar. Of course most of the goods are transported by private trucks which means that these persons have also to take risk to travel from border areas to Mazar-e- Sharif.

VINCI: A risk, relief officials say, must be taken to deliver aid to an estimated half a million displaced people in northern Afghanistan alone.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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