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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview with Susan Safi Rafiq
Aired January 27, 2002 - 10:09 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Winter has settled in on Afghanistan, and the cold weather has proven to be an enemy to thousands of Afghan refugees. Some are quite literally freezing to death. We'll talk about this problem in just a moment.
But first, just an update for you. How cold is it in Kabul? Jacqui Jeras with a quick update on the temperatures in Afghanistan this time of year.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, Kabul sits at about 2,900 feet, which is comparable to Denver, Colorado. However, they don't get a lot of the warm-ups during the winter that Denver occasionally can.
The average high in Kabul for January is 36 degrees, average low is down to 22. We jump up a little bit for February, 40 and 24, and then for March 51 degrees for a high and 34 for a low. And, of course, all of this is elevation dependent.
If you get above 2,900 feet, the higher you go, the colder it's going to be, and you usually on average will lose about five degrees per 1,000 feet. So a lot of freezing temperatures throughout much of the month of January, and a little bit of warming in February. Miles, back to you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Jacqui, obviously dependent on elevation there too, with some peaks approaching 20,000 feet in that country. Joining us to talk about it is Susan Safi Rafiq of the Atlanta Afghan Women Association. She's part of the delegation that will put a spotlight on the refugee problems in Washington this week. Good to have you with us, ma'am.
SUSAN SAFI RAFIQ, ATLANTA AFGHAN WOMEN ASSOCIATION: Good to be here, thank you.
O'BRIEN: All right, first of all, just give us a sense of the scope of this problem, if you will. It's probably difficult to get, you know, reliable numbers but what do we know?
RAFIQ: Well, yes, international aid organizations are trying their best to be helping the internal refugees. As you know, there are very many camps, one of which is the (inaudible) camp, with 325,000 internal refugees in there. The international aid agencies are very limited to their actions of bringing in food and much needed supplies, because of cross border bureaucracies and their own regulations of step-by-step following.
That's why we are here to talk about how to mobilize the global communities to come and help the international community to be a support, to mobilize themselves with less bureaucracies and less regulations, and faster action to get these people to survive this very cold winter and not freeze on a daily and (inaudible) basis inside Afghanistan.
O'BRIEN: Now as you have been talking, we've been showing some file footage, which doesn't necessarily reflect current conditions. It looked like it was fairly temperate conditions.
Let's look at some of the still images, which show perhaps more accurately the situation now. There you see a small child and then a tent behind the child, covered in snow. Many of these refugee sites, are they in the higher elevations, where the cold is more brutal?
RAFIQ: Yes, indeed. Northern and eastern and southern part, and the northern and western southern part of Afghanistan are of much higher elevations and the internal refugee camps are much larger, and it's really hard for the international organizations to go through their step-by-step limitations and reach each and every one of them; 325,000 people in one internal refugee is a very large number to be serviced.
A hundred days plus are gone by and yet people are still freezing, because they're not being served, and that's why globally, global communities have to mobilize themselves to get these people through this very, very cold winter.
O'BRIEN: Aside from the remote locations in some of these camps, what else is limiting your ability to, not you personally, but I say that collectively, all sorts of aid groups, their ability to help out in this situation?
RAFIQ: As I said before, cross border bureaucracies that are limiting the organizations, international organization, yet community organizations locally and globally are in a much better position to mobilize themselves to get some chartered airplanes with aviation companies and directly fly in food, much, much needed food and clothing inside Afghanistan.
O'BRIEN: But given the scope of it, with hundreds of thousands of refugees, you have to do some overland deliveries. Is there some concern about security?
RAFIQ: Well, the security is being taken care of. The government is working hard and also the international community security forces are working hard on them. This one particular camp is very close to the western border to Tajikistan and Iran.
Transportation shouldn't be much of a big problem in this particular camp. Yes, security is being worked on. That is why it's much easier for the private sector to mobilize themselves without too much bureaucracy and regulations to fly charter flights inside Afghanistan and get volunteers to bring that much, much needed winter clothes and food and tents inside so these people don't freeze.
O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Our time is expired, but I just got to ask you. What's it like being in one of these camps?
RAFIQ: I think really bad. You will not have food to eat, not a tent to sleep under. In the ground, people are having to dig inside the bare ground to not freeze overnight because they don't have tents or even a (inaudible) or something to sleep on or under to just cover themselves.
O'BRIEN: Susan Safi Rafiq with the Atlanta Afghan Women Association, thank you for being with us this morning on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
RAFIQ: Thank you for having me.
O'BRIEN: Good luck in your efforts. Back with more in a minute.
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