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CNN Sunday Morning

Afghans Fleeing Country Could Create Refugee Crisis

Aired September 30, 2001 - 07:09   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: The first U.N. emergency airlift of supplies for the Afghan refugees in Pakistan has arrived. Thousands fleeing their country in anticipation of the possibility of a U.S. strike. It's creating a potential for a refugee crisis along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. CNN's Mike Chinoy reporting live now from Peshawar in Pakistan and brings us up-to-date with more from there.

Mike, hello.

MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT: Hello Bill.

Well, I've spent most of the day in a couple of Afghan refugee camps just on this side of the border with Afghanistan. And I have to say conditions there are extremely grim particularly in the camp where most of the latest arrivals have staggered into.

I spoke with one woman who came with her three children from Kabul on Friday. She talked about a four-day journey, a nightmarish journey with almost no food, almost no water, no shelter. She had to bribe her way to get past the closed border checkpoint here. And when she got to this camp, all she has is a flimsy tent and the barest of emergency supplies.

This camp is one where disease is ripe, where heat stroke, skin diseases, respiratory ailments, typhoid, all rampant. Very little in the way of running water and sanitation and yet, she was absolutely relieved to be there because she, like almost all of the other refugees that I spoke with, said that above and beyond everything else, the great concern in Afghanistan now is the possibility of an American military strike and further conflict. And at least here in Pakistan, they feel that they're safe from that.

But all in all, a very grim situation. Eight agencies working desperately to try and move new supplies in, scout out the sites for new camps to be build, possibility up to a 100 in this one province of Pakistan alone should the estimated flow of what the UNHCR says could be up to 1.5 million people materialized in the event of a American military strike -- Bill.

HEMMER: Mike, clearly, it's one thing to get the aid there in the area where you are. It's another thing to get it in the hands of the people who need it the most. What's being done right now to facilitate that delivery? CHINOY: Well, here in Pakistan, you're in a country that already hosts over two million Afghan refugees. So there is an infrastructure of long-standing operation at work. And eight agencies are reasonably confident that they'll be able to deal with this issue at least to a minimal degree.

The graver humanitarian crisis right now is on the other side of the border, inside Afghanistan, where it's estimated that between four and five million people have already been badly affected by drought and food shortages that predate the event of September 11. We now have large numbers of people on the move, leaving the cities out of fear of what may happen for a U.S. attack, a desperate hunger.

I was told by some aide workers that in one major, Afghan city that crowds ransacked and looted the U.N. Coordinating Committee's office desperately looking for food. They've gone into the warehouses of other NGOs in that same city, trying to find something to eat. There's a sense of what order -- little order is left in parts of Afghanistan breaking down.

And the eight agencies are very frustrated, although we are finally getting the first shipment of food into Kabul, over the weekend. It's not clear that it's going to reach those most desperately in need. The World Food Program, which has sent that shipment, is concerned about the Taliban using that food aid as a kind of political weapon to consolidate its own position. So lots of doubts still about whether the people who really need the aid the most are going to be anywhere close to getting it -- Bill.

HEMMER: And Mike, quickly, the people you talked to in the refugee camps, did you get a sense of how far they had to travel to get out of Afghanistan?

CHINOY: People are desperate to leave. There's all -- that's all there is to it. There's just tremendous fear of what may happen. And when you ask people, "What will it take for you to go back? Does it mean this group in charge or that group in charge or the king, the Taliban?" The anonymous refrain from all of these people is we don't really car who's in charge. We just want peace. We want some security in our lives. And until that happens, we don't want to go back. And that means for Pakistan, already a very poor country, already housing over two million Afghan refugees, a big, big problem for possibly a long time to come -- Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Mike. Mike Chinoy in Peshawar, Pakistan. Thank you.

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