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CNN Saturday Morning News

Refugees Cross Afghanistan-Pakistan Border

Aired October 20, 2001 - 08:21   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go live to Amanda Kibel now. We're just getting word, she's along at Pakistan-Afghan border and is evidently being moved out of that area. She's been following the refugees -- Amanda, what's going on?

AMANDA KIBEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, right now the situation here has once again changed. From what we can see, they're allowing people into this border area to cross over from Pakistan and Afghanistan and the other way around. However, the people crossing right now are mostly men and young boys. All of them, from what we can see, have Pakistan identity cards. The scenario is that these people have probably been in Afghanistan either working or doing business and they're now crossing back to their homes.

However, as far as the refugees go, as you can see behind me, there are a number of people waiting to come into Pakistan. These are refugees. They are not being allowed in right now. Officials tell us that the border is closed. It has been officially closed for some time. However, earlier today when we arrived, there was a steady stream of people crossing over, many of them women and children. They were refugees. They told us that they came from Kandahar, which is some two and a half hours, or 60 kilometers, away from here.

Many of them described to us that there had been intense bombardments last night. They were very afraid and they had now decided to leave and cross over. And they described to us that there were a number of people, civilians, who had been injured. They also described to us a number of civilians that had been killed.

We spoke to a doctor in the hospital here in Chaman. He told us that over the past two days, some 10 people had come into his hospital from Kandahar, most of them with broken legs, broken arms. One man he described with a bullet through the head as the result of an explosion at an arms supply store. He told us that most of these people had been treated at the hospital. They had then been moved on either to Quetta City. Some of them had, in fact, been moved back to Afghanistan.

The UNHCR estimates that in the past week some 10,000 people have crossed at various border points from Afghanistan into Pakistan. They estimate just yesterday that three and a half thousand people crossed over. This in spite of the fact that the Pakistani government insists its border remains closed. The UNHCR tells us that they are not ready to receive a major influx of refugees. They tell us there are some 10,000 people waiting just on the other side of the border to cross over. There are no reception camps at the moment for these people. They have no water facilities for them, no food for them.

Most of the people that come in here cross over, they go into the villages and to the cities, they stay with families, they blend into the society and this is a critical situation because they the have the resources to take care of themselves and once they move into the villages and the cities, the aid agencies have absolutely no contact with them. Therefore, they can't supply them with food, they can't give them any aid and the situation for them is fairly critical.

However, right now the UNHCR stresses that their biggest concern is, in fact, inside Afghanistan, where there are literally thousands of refugees with not enough food, not enough water and the winter is coming on. It's going to get very, very cold here and these people could face a critical situation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Amanda, what's the status with the humanitarian aid drops? Are those still continuing? Are those still happening at this time?

KIBEL: Well, as far as we can tell, there is some food going in. When you -- humanitarian aid drops I can tell you about are those that are coming from Pakistan. As far as we know, there is still food crossing over the border. In fact, on the way here we saw some trucks carrying wheat and carrying some sacks of aid. There is a slow stream of trucks crossing this border point into Afghanistan.

However, in terms of where the food is going, is it getting to the people, the aid agencies are very concerned. They have very little contact inside Afghanistan. They really don't know if the food is getting to the people. There were reports at one point that the aid drops that were being dropped by the U.S. in tandem with the missiles, the bombing drops, were not getting to the people. We were hearing that the Taliban were collecting the food, some reports of them burning the food, other reports that the people themselves were a little afraid to actually go near these food drops. They weren't entirely sure what they were and if they were dangerous.

So the situation and the picture that we have from inside Afghanistan is very, very murky. It's not clear exactly what kind of aid is getting to these people -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Amanda Kibel, live from our videophone, thank you so much.

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