Letter: Refugees under fire in Afghanistan

Sir: A new crisis is facing the people of Afghanistan as increased fighting in the capital, Kabul, and other areas forces thousands more to flee their homes. Fifteen thousand new refugees have joined more than a million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and another 80,000 people have fled heavy rocket bombardment and shelling in Kabul to temporary camps near Jalalabad. A further 250,000 people in and around Kabul have lost their homes.

Humanitarian agencies are doing all they can to meet the most basic needs of these people by providing clean water, sanitation, medicines and warm clothing, but more help is urgently needed. We believe that the international community has a responsibility towards the people of Afghanistan, and that this should be demonstrated by ensuring full funding of the current dollars 59.8m ( pounds 40m) United Nations Appeal for Afghanistan.

We also urge the Overseas Development Administration to respond promptly, as it has done in the past, to requests for assistance from humanitarian agencies so that the health and welfare of huge numbers of people are not compromised by lack of equipment or funds.

The superpowers no longer regard Afghanistan as a site of key strategic importance, but in the post-Cold War era their shared responsibility for the plight of the Afghan people must not be ignored. Weapons that the West and the former Soviet Union helped to provide, including thousands of landmines, are a grim legacy of this era, fuelling the fighting and threatening lives and livelihoods.

Yours faithfully,

RAVI NARAYANAN, Asia Regional Director, Actionaid; PRUDENCE J. LAMBERT, Director, Afghan Aid; SUSANNAH COX, Press Officer, British Refugee Council; MICHAEL TAYLOR, Director, Christian Aid; RICHARD TURNER, Programme Manager, Health Unlimited; MANDY SMITH, Overseas Projects Manager, The Ockenden Venture; DAVID BRYER, Director, Oxfam; MIKE AARONSON, Overseas Director, Save the Children

Oxford

7 February