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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Jim Jennings

Aired October 14, 2001 - 08:38   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about the refugee and humanitarian crisis with Jim Jennings. He is joining us here in Atlanta, and he is the founder of Conscience International and he's been in Pakistan and Iran and worked on some of this crisis. Jim, we're glad you could join us. Thank you very much.

JIM JENNINGS, CONSCIENCE INTERNATIONAL: Thank you.

KELLEY: When was the last time you were in Pakistan and Iran and Afghanistan?

JENNINGS: In May and June and we were in the northwest country or province here of Pakistan where there are about two million refugees.

KELLEY: Already.

JENNINGS: Already before the crisis, and even maybe half a million others were coming since January because of the severe drought and the continued fighting in the country.

So right now, the humanitarian aid agencies, including the United Nations, the World Food Program, and the High Commission for Refugees, are extremely worried about the situation. They feel that a humanitarian disaster may be in the making.

You have to remember that 30 percent of the people in Afghanistan and the camps around the border are homeless. They are refugees. They are living in tents or under pieces of plastic on the ground. So, that's a concern.

But now added to that, the winter's coming in six weeks and the truck convoys have had to stop going in because of the bombing. What you should remember from the airdrops that are being made is, that even though they doubled the airdrops yesterday...

KELLEY: Yesterday they did double them?

JENNINGS: ... from the ones the previous weekend, actually that's less than 1 percent of the food ration for one day for the people who are at risk here. So that's a concern.

KELLEY: Dropping HDR's which gives them, in the bright yellow packets, enough for one meal -- for three meals for one day is what those are to cover.

Let's look a little bit more here, up around the capital. You were in Afghanistan in the northern part where the Northern Alliance controls?

JENNINGS: Right.

KELLEY: How desperate is the situation, and what's it like on the borders when these refugees try to flee to the borders, some of them that are closed?

JENNINGS: Right now the borders have been sealed. But about 20,000 have come across since the bombing started, into the Northwest Frontier Province, mainly from Kandahar to Quetta.

KELLEY: Kandahar is south of Kabul?

JENNINGS: Exactly. Another 15,000 or 20,000 tried to get into Iran. The Iranian troops pushed them back. And the U.N. high commissioners talked to the foreign minister of Iran and they have assured them they won't do that again, that they will allow camps to be set up.

Right now there are three places where the U.N. high commission for refugees is setting up. One is here in Pakistan, in the Northwest Frontier Province. They expect maybe a million refugees -- that's what they're planning documents...

KELLEY: Initially they're saying they have to get these camps set up for 400,000. That's the initial rush that they're expecting. But they say they are running into a lot of security concerns of course, but then red tape as well.

JENNINGS: It's really not safe there right now, and they've had to close all their offices, about a dozen in Afghanistan, several in Pakistan that have been assaulted by the mobs, and essentially the staff is in hiding. Some of the trucks have started to cross the border, however.

They need 2,000 tons a day. There was a million-ton shortfall of wheat even before this crisis starts, so the donor nations have now had to ante up more money for this.

Iran is expecting -- at least the U.N. documents are planning for another 400,000 to reach into Iran. They just set up a camp there at a place called Nech-vahn-dahn (ph), which is 400 kilometers south of Mashhad in Iran. But only two trucks have reached that base so far. Here, where they're setting up camps for the refugees -- there are 150 camps already there for refugees.

KELLEY: Along the border?

JENNINGS: Yes, but they have started in the Northwest Frontier Province, and remember these are Pashtuns mainly, in that province, which are the same people as Afghans. And they are the ones who support the Taliban. So it's a very difficult situation. The U.N. tried to set up 11 camps, and the Pakistan government vetoed six of them, so they had five they were working on. Then they've had to stop the development of those camps to receive the new refugees. And right now they can't do anything with any of it.

KELLEY: So what happens? I mean, when the aid comes in, is that being stopped wherever it's going until they can get it to the camps, until they can get the camps set up?

JENNINGS: Well, the USA Aid official Andrew Natsios of the United States has said that we don't people moving in large numbers because -- and he said this -- half the people will die if they have to cross the mountain. There -- 70 percent of the people in Afghanistan are malnourished already. And so if they have to go make that journey it may be very risky for them.

That seems like an amazingly high figure, but I suppose it's conceivable given their weak condition, and then the mountains and the weather.

But at any rate, they don't want this disaster to happen. Senator Paul Wellstone has said if a humanitarian disaster follows the bombing, it will actually set back the cause of the United States, because it will arouse the emotions of people throughout the Islamic world, including Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, where they're already having protests, as well as Pakistan.

KELLEY: We are really out of time, but as we end here -- why don't we go ahead and stand up -- but as we end here, tell us what people can do to help real quickly.

JENNINGS: Well, certainly you can send contributions to the private aid agencies as well as the United Nations agencies. World Vision is one of those that's working there. We are already working with them to plan this base here and here and also one base in one of the former Soviet Republics here, perhaps Uzbekistan or Tajikistan.

And they can send money to those organizations. They can also work through their church or denomination to donate money. It will get to the right place. And there is a great need for this, and I appreciate what President Bush said the other day about the children giving to help the children of Afghanistan.

KELLEY: You bet. A lot of agencies that you can check into and make donations. Jim Jennings, who's with Conscience International, we appreciate you being with us.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

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