By David Pratt
HeraldOctober 4, 2001
Like all the highly decorated trucks which wind through Pakistan's north-west frontier, the convoy looks like a fleet of Spanish galleons on wheels.
These particular trucks carry additional adornment, the fluttering blue-and-white United Nations flags and the proud message, "Unicef aid for Afghan Children."
The convoy, the first of four from Unicef, is bound for the famine-stricken province of Badakhshan, inside Northern Alliance territory.
It is a race against time. Already the temperatures have started to drop and the first snows have fallen on the only accessible passes.
In Badakhshan, as in so many parts of Afghanistan, life is hard beyond belief. Some 1.6 million people will have run out of food here by December. They have just gone through two years of drought.
Despite this, not everyone welcomes the humanitarian efforts of the UN. "It's nothing but a publicity stunt," admitted one well-placed UN official candidly, asking not to be identified for fear of being sacked.
In the remote mountain village of Garam Chashma, surrounded by the towering peaks bordering Afghanistan, locals and some Afghan refugees looked on as laborers sweated in the afternoon sun, unloading the Unicef aid, ready to be carried by 400 donkeys over the Shah Saleem pass into Afghanistan.
What were in most of the boxes? I asked one of the drivers. "Ketab," he replied, using the Dari word for books.
Some 204,000 books, educational aids, and stationery made up the bulk of the consignment. Of about 220 tons, only six consisted of food, a high protein porridge called Unimix.
"Believe me when I say we are grateful for the books and the possibility of some education for our children, but it is difficult to go to school when you are weak or dead from hunger," said Haji Mohammed, an Afghan refugee man from the Panjshir valley, who was standing nearby. He explained, and apologized at the same time: "Books are important, but these things, the food, warm clothes and medicines, are what will see us through this winter."
Hermione Youngs, the Unicef convoy leader, admits time is short, but claims there is no credible alternative to the donkeys. "Do you know how much it would cost to fly in a consignment, and anyway the Taliban might shoot the plane down," she insists.
This is not quite right. Another UN agency, the World Food Program (WFP), has already ferried over 1000 tons of wheat flour into Badakhshan by a much more direct route overland from neighboring Tajikstan.
The lack of communication is typical of the UN, say insiders.
At one point this week, the convoy was delayed because it tried to use the unofficial border pass of Shah Saleem, 16,000ft up the mountains. Ms Youngs ran into trouble with local Pakistani officials, who said the crossing was out of bounds to foreigners.
That any United Nations humanitarian agency would embark upon what was already a complex logistical operation, without first having secured such crucial permission from the Pakistani authorities, astonished other aid workers.
"It's typical of how the UN operate. They launch into these grand schemes without noticing the devil in the detail," complained one worker from an independent group. "The point is the pressure was on to be seen to be doing something, so they got this under way without checking it through first."
Aid continues to arrive in Pakistan from all over the world. Michael Huggins a WFP spokesman said: "Over 250 tons have already been flown in, and another plane arrived last night carrying 46 more tons of high energy biscuits. Five of these a day can keep an adult alive."
Only time will tell how effective the UN operation will be in saving lives. "What we need is a coordinated and concerted effort and and no more donkey photo opportunities," observed a UN field worker.
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