THE DALAI LAMA'S BAD KARMA
Joan Darc | 26.06.2003 14:54
The "nonviolent" Dalai Lama sucked up to the US and endorsed the bombing of Afghanistan while others protested. Now he has earned the fruit of his bad karma.
The Dalai Lama sucked up to the antichrist and endorsed the bombing of Afghanistan while others protested against its documented horrors. Now, with India's acceptance of Tibet as an integral part of China, the Dalai Lama's cause is completely lost. An important lesson for those who think that opportunistic political expediency in the service of "great powers" against others who also face injustice is the way to win support and freedom for themselves.
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"Millstones of Justice turn exceedingly slow, but grind exceedingly fine."
- John Bannister Gibson (1780-1853), American jurist
Please note that 3 articles follow:
*India Recognizes Tibet as Part of China
*Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan [October 24, 2001]
*International Development Select Committee Enquiry into the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Submission by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief /30.10.01 [October 30, 2001]
---
(1)
India Recognizes Tibet as Part of China
Nilofar Suhrawardy • Special to Arab News
Wednesday, 25, June, 2003 (25, Rabi` ath-Thani, 1424)
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27936&d=25&m=6&y=2003&pix=world.jpg&category=World
BEIJING/NEW DELHI, 25 June 2003 — India officially recognized Tibet as a part of China while Beijing agreed to begin trade with India’s northeastern state of Sikkim, officials said yesterday, in signs the two neighbors are trying to resolve long-standing disputes and chart a new relationship.
Ties between the Asian giants have for decades been plagued by tensions over issues such as Tibet, China’s close links with Pakistan and territorial disputes, but Beijing and New Delhi now looked to turn the page on past enmity.
In a joint declaration signed by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is visiting China, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Monday, India for the first time explicitly recognized Tibet as a part of China, according to a copy of the declaration released by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua late yesterday.
As India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans who have fled China and provides the base for the Tibetan government-in-exile, the move to recognize Tibet as part of China could remove a significant source of tension between New Delhi and Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan called India’s recognition of Tibet as Chinese territory “an important and positive expression.”
India and China also said they had appointed envoys to map out a resolution of a long-running border dispute. The one-time rivals have agreed “to explore from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship the framework of a boundary settlement”, the joint declaration said.
Vajpayee said the relationship between the two countries, hampered for decades by mutual suspicion and border disputes, had been transformed.
“Our present course of developing all-round bilateral cooperation while simultaneously addressing our differences has transformed the quality of our relationship,” Vajpayee said after talks with ex-President Jiang Zemin, who commands China’s vast military.
“We have achieved what we set out for,” Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said. “We have created a platform for further action.”
India’s National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and China’s top-ranking Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo would represent their countries in border talks, he said.
“The appointment of special envoys is a special step that reflects the desire of both countries to settle the border issue as early as possible.”
The countries also agreed to border trade at two points along their rugged Himalayan border, one in Tibet and one in Sikkim, the tiny Himalayan state which New Delhi annexed in 1975 and which Beijing has never accepted as a part of India.
Nuclear-armed China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 and, despite a thaw in relations and years of talks, have failed to pin down exactly where their 3,500 km border lies.
Vajpayee, making the first trip to China by an Indian prime minister in a decade, declared the era of mutual suspicion dead on Monday. Yesterday, he also met President Hu Jintao, who took over from Jiang in March, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong. But it was clear that remaining disputes were tricky ones.
The official China Daily said ties had entered a new phase after India explicitly recognized Tibet as part of China in the declaration.
However, Sinha said there was no question of a change in the Indian position.
“What we have said on Tibet is consistent with what we have said in the past and I don’t think the question of the Dalai Lama leaving India or asking to leave India arises at this time,” he said.
China has long resented India’s decision to give shelter to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s leader, following a 1959 revolt against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama and a self-proclaimed government-in-exile are based in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.
The two countries said they had designated Changgu in Sikkim and Renqinggan in Tibet as border trading posts.
Indian officials have hinted that could allow New Delhi to suggest Chinese acquiescence to Indian control of the tiny state bordering Tibet, which New Delhi took over after its legislature voted to abolish the monarchy. But China’s Foreign Ministry said it had yet to resolve a dispute with India over Sikkim.
“The question of Sikkim is an enduring question which cannot be solved overnight. We hope this question can be solved gradually,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference.
He said Beijing’s development of closer ties with India will not “undermine” relations with Pakistan. “China’s position on South Asia has been very clear,” he said.
“We hope all countries in South Asia can live together peacefully. We hope countries in South Asia can solve their disputes diplomatically. The development of relations between China and India will not undermine relations between China and any other country,” said Kong. He was answering a question about whether a landmark declaration ushering closer political and economic ties between China and India will affect Beijing’s relations with Islamabad.
—Additional input from Agencies
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27936&d=25&m=6&y=2003&pix=world.jpg&category=World
---
(2)
Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan
AFP via World Tibet Network News
Published by the Canada Tibet Committee
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/10/24_3.html
STRASBOURG, Oct 24 (AFP) - The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet and staunch supporter of non-violence, praised the United States Wednesday for taking what he described as a civilized approach to the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. "We need a maximum effort in avoiding violence," he told a press conference following a speech to the European Parliament.
"At the same time, as a quiet fellow, I am amazed and admire that, at this moment, unlike First World War, Second World, Korean War and Vietnam War, I think the American side is very, very carefully selecting targets, taking maximum precautions about the civilian casualties."
"I think this is a sign of more civilization," said the Dalai Lama. He warned, however, that "bombing can eliminate only physical things, not thoughts or emotions. Talk and reasoning is the only long-term solution."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles in this Issue:
Speech of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the European Parliament
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama blasts China, pleads for non-violence
Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan
Writer gives his view of life and dealing with hatred
230 kgs of shahtoosh seized in Delhi
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/10/24_3.html
---
(3)
International Development Select Committee Enquiry into the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Submission by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief /30.10.01
Christian Aid
October 30, 2001
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/afghanistan/idselect.htm
----------------------------------------------
photo:
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/images/photos/afghanis/109cb2.jpg
Jauma Gul and his seven-year-old sister Samar Gula live in Kanghozi village where 80 per cent of the community's food crop has failed. Their father and brothers died after drinking polluted water. Their village wells have dried up and people trek four miles over hills each day to collect water
photo: Christian Aid/ Chris Buckley
----------------------------------------------
1/ Christian Aid and Islamic Relief welcome the opportunity to present evidence to the Select Committee. Christian Aid is the official development agency of 40 churches in Britain and Ireland. It has worked in Afghanistan since 1986 with local partner organisations and opened a field office in Herat in Western Afghanistan in 1997.
2/ Islamic Relief (IR) is a relief and development organisation established in 1984 in Birmingham, UK. Islamic Relief works in Afghanistan through its offices in Kabul and Kandahar linking up with local communities and organisations.
3/ It is important to note that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was in imminent crisis before the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001.
4/ Three decades of conflict and a punishing three year drought had already decimated the Afghan peoples’ coping mechanisms. A Special Alert in June 2001, by the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), warned of emerging widespread famine, collapse of the purchasing power of the people, soaring food grain prices, rapidly increasing numbers of destitute people and ever swelling ranks of refugees and internally displaced persons.
5/ Some 5.2 million people were already receiving food aid in Afghanistan. The airstrikes on Afghanistan by the coalition of allies, which began on 7 October have created widespread fear and displacement among the Afghan people and severely disrupted the delivery of humanitarian assistance. UN agencies say up to 7.5 million people will need food aid and other help.
6/ Over 500,000 Afghans are said to have abandoned their homes but only 65,000 have crossed international frontiers. Pakistan, having hosted three million refugees in the last 20 years is reluctant to open its borders.
7/ It is evident, from Islamic Relief and international press sources, that many people from Afghanistan’s major towns of Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Kabul, have fled to rural areas or their home villages, in fear of the bombing. These attacks have curtailed the delivery of humanitarian aid, disrupting commercial trucking and, just as critically, local level distribution and monitoring.
8/ The combining of air strikes on Afghanistan with food drops by allied forces is ineffective, misleading and dangerous. As of 21 October, USAID had airdropped 696,540 humanitarian daily rations at a cost of $2,945122, some 0.5% of Afghanistan’s monthly food aid requirement. Such actions have diverted attention from the coordinated humanitarian strategy that is required and have undermined the allies’ stated policy that humanitarian action is a critical component of a wider moral response.
9/ The encroaching Afghan winter adds a new urgency to these concerns. The World Food Programme estimates 52,000 metric tonnes (MT) a month of food aid are needed to feed the hungry in Afghanistan and that a further 67,000 MT must be pre-positioned urgently to reach those in the isolated North West and Central Highlands before mid-November. Given the 12,725 MT already in WFP depots, this means that 106,275 MT needs to be delivered over the 30 days from 17 October, an average of some 3,543 MT per day.
10/ Since 17 October WFP has been trying to increase deliveries to 1600MT per day, but this is still only 45% of the amount required. Actual amounts delivered by WFP over recent weeks are less than 25% of requirements. Moreover, WFP and others are struggling to finally distribute all the food delivered because of bad weather, inaccessibility and insecurity. Agencies like Christian Aid and Islamic relief, with strong links to local communities, are deeply concerned by the absence of effective delivery and distribution networks as an essential component of a comprehensive humanitarian strategy.
11/ Secondly, WFP provision is still based on the 5.2 million who needed help before the 7 October bombing campaign. Revised UN estimates indicated 7.5 million would be affected and a further 500,000 have recently fled Afghanistan’s cities. Put simply, while food aid may be provided for close to five million people as many as eight million may need help and delivery trends indicate that it may be increasingly difficult to reach them.
12/ All parties to the current conflict in Afghanistan have an obligation under international law, namely Article 23 of the Geneva Convention IV (Civilians) to allow the free passage of all consignments of humanitarian assistance. Christian Aid and Islamic Relief condemn all actions that disrupt humanitarian assistance and believe that all such assistance must be independent, neutral and impartial.
13/ These compelling circumstances caused Christian Aid, Islamic Relief and other British NGOs to call for a pause in the bombing on 17 October to permit humanitarian aid to be delivered more effectively and more safely to those who need it most, before winter snows cut off Afghanistan’s North West and Central Highlands.
14/This appeal was dismissed by the UK government, most recently by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in his speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies on 22 October, when he argued that a pause would only increase suffering and delay an end to the conflict.
15/ The prospective length of the conflict in the continued absence of an effective humanitarian strategy is of very deep concern to Christian Aid and Islamic Relief. Official estimates have ranged from the Muslim holy month of Ramazan which begins on 17 November to summer 2002. The Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, in a statement on 23 October, suggested that British troops would be deployed in Afghanistan throughout the winter.
15/ The critical components of an effective humanitarian strategy are independence, transport, security and speed. Christian Aid and Islamic Relief repeat their call for a humanitarian pause in the bombing. We urge the allies to work urgently with Afghanistan’s neighbours to open borders and guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid as winter encroaches. We urge the Taliban authorities to work with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ensure that aid is delivered safely and effectively in areas under its control.
16/ Without an effective humanitarian strategy, many thousands of people will needlessly die. There is already a growing complacency over the human cost of this conflict as evidenced by the editorial in The Observer (London) of 21 October which suggests we may not be able to save 100,000 Afghan children this winter. Any suggestion that Afghan lives are expendable for the greater good or the prosecution of a war, will do untold damage to efforts to build and maintain a united international response to international terrorism.
17/ The scale of the unfolding tragedy in Afghanistan, exacerbated by the imminent onset of winter, requires the international community and the authorities in Afghanistan to place humanitarian needs at the centre of all plans and activities to resolve the wider crisis.
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/afghanistan/idselect.htm
-
"Millstones of Justice turn exceedingly slow, but grind exceedingly fine."
- John Bannister Gibson (1780-1853), American jurist
Please note that 3 articles follow:
*India Recognizes Tibet as Part of China
*Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan [October 24, 2001]
*International Development Select Committee Enquiry into the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Submission by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief /30.10.01 [October 30, 2001]
---
(1)
India Recognizes Tibet as Part of China
Nilofar Suhrawardy • Special to Arab News
Wednesday, 25, June, 2003 (25, Rabi` ath-Thani, 1424)
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27936&d=25&m=6&y=2003&pix=world.jpg&category=World BEIJING/NEW DELHI, 25 June 2003 — India officially recognized Tibet as a part of China while Beijing agreed to begin trade with India’s northeastern state of Sikkim, officials said yesterday, in signs the two neighbors are trying to resolve long-standing disputes and chart a new relationship.
Ties between the Asian giants have for decades been plagued by tensions over issues such as Tibet, China’s close links with Pakistan and territorial disputes, but Beijing and New Delhi now looked to turn the page on past enmity.
In a joint declaration signed by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is visiting China, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Monday, India for the first time explicitly recognized Tibet as a part of China, according to a copy of the declaration released by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua late yesterday.
As India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans who have fled China and provides the base for the Tibetan government-in-exile, the move to recognize Tibet as part of China could remove a significant source of tension between New Delhi and Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan called India’s recognition of Tibet as Chinese territory “an important and positive expression.”
India and China also said they had appointed envoys to map out a resolution of a long-running border dispute. The one-time rivals have agreed “to explore from the political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship the framework of a boundary settlement”, the joint declaration said.
Vajpayee said the relationship between the two countries, hampered for decades by mutual suspicion and border disputes, had been transformed.
“Our present course of developing all-round bilateral cooperation while simultaneously addressing our differences has transformed the quality of our relationship,” Vajpayee said after talks with ex-President Jiang Zemin, who commands China’s vast military.
“We have achieved what we set out for,” Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said. “We have created a platform for further action.”
India’s National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and China’s top-ranking Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo would represent their countries in border talks, he said.
“The appointment of special envoys is a special step that reflects the desire of both countries to settle the border issue as early as possible.”
The countries also agreed to border trade at two points along their rugged Himalayan border, one in Tibet and one in Sikkim, the tiny Himalayan state which New Delhi annexed in 1975 and which Beijing has never accepted as a part of India.
Nuclear-armed China and India fought a brief border war in 1962 and, despite a thaw in relations and years of talks, have failed to pin down exactly where their 3,500 km border lies.
Vajpayee, making the first trip to China by an Indian prime minister in a decade, declared the era of mutual suspicion dead on Monday. Yesterday, he also met President Hu Jintao, who took over from Jiang in March, and Vice President Zeng Qinghong. But it was clear that remaining disputes were tricky ones.
The official China Daily said ties had entered a new phase after India explicitly recognized Tibet as part of China in the declaration.
However, Sinha said there was no question of a change in the Indian position.
“What we have said on Tibet is consistent with what we have said in the past and I don’t think the question of the Dalai Lama leaving India or asking to leave India arises at this time,” he said.
China has long resented India’s decision to give shelter to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s leader, following a 1959 revolt against Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama and a self-proclaimed government-in-exile are based in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.
The two countries said they had designated Changgu in Sikkim and Renqinggan in Tibet as border trading posts.
Indian officials have hinted that could allow New Delhi to suggest Chinese acquiescence to Indian control of the tiny state bordering Tibet, which New Delhi took over after its legislature voted to abolish the monarchy. But China’s Foreign Ministry said it had yet to resolve a dispute with India over Sikkim.
“The question of Sikkim is an enduring question which cannot be solved overnight. We hope this question can be solved gradually,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference.
He said Beijing’s development of closer ties with India will not “undermine” relations with Pakistan. “China’s position on South Asia has been very clear,” he said.
“We hope all countries in South Asia can live together peacefully. We hope countries in South Asia can solve their disputes diplomatically. The development of relations between China and India will not undermine relations between China and any other country,” said Kong. He was answering a question about whether a landmark declaration ushering closer political and economic ties between China and India will affect Beijing’s relations with Islamabad.
—Additional input from Agencies
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27936&d=25&m=6&y=2003&pix=world.jpg&category=World ---
(2)
Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan
AFP via World Tibet Network News
Published by the Canada Tibet Committee
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/10/24_3.html STRASBOURG, Oct 24 (AFP) - The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet and staunch supporter of non-violence, praised the United States Wednesday for taking what he described as a civilized approach to the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. "We need a maximum effort in avoiding violence," he told a press conference following a speech to the European Parliament.
"At the same time, as a quiet fellow, I am amazed and admire that, at this moment, unlike First World War, Second World, Korean War and Vietnam War, I think the American side is very, very carefully selecting targets, taking maximum precautions about the civilian casualties."
"I think this is a sign of more civilization," said the Dalai Lama. He warned, however, that "bombing can eliminate only physical things, not thoughts or emotions. Talk and reasoning is the only long-term solution."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles in this Issue:
Speech of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the European Parliament
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama blasts China, pleads for non-violence
Dalai Lama praises US approach to bombing Afghanistan
Writer gives his view of life and dealing with hatred
230 kgs of shahtoosh seized in Delhi
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/10/24_3.html ---
(3)
International Development Select Committee Enquiry into the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region. Submission by Christian Aid and Islamic Relief /30.10.01
Christian Aid
October 30, 2001
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/afghanistan/idselect.htm ----------------------------------------------
photo:
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/images/photos/afghanis/109cb2.jpg Jauma Gul and his seven-year-old sister Samar Gula live in Kanghozi village where 80 per cent of the community's food crop has failed. Their father and brothers died after drinking polluted water. Their village wells have dried up and people trek four miles over hills each day to collect water
photo: Christian Aid/ Chris Buckley
----------------------------------------------
1/ Christian Aid and Islamic Relief welcome the opportunity to present evidence to the Select Committee. Christian Aid is the official development agency of 40 churches in Britain and Ireland. It has worked in Afghanistan since 1986 with local partner organisations and opened a field office in Herat in Western Afghanistan in 1997.
2/ Islamic Relief (IR) is a relief and development organisation established in 1984 in Birmingham, UK. Islamic Relief works in Afghanistan through its offices in Kabul and Kandahar linking up with local communities and organisations.
3/ It is important to note that the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan was in imminent crisis before the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001.
4/ Three decades of conflict and a punishing three year drought had already decimated the Afghan peoples’ coping mechanisms. A Special Alert in June 2001, by the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), warned of emerging widespread famine, collapse of the purchasing power of the people, soaring food grain prices, rapidly increasing numbers of destitute people and ever swelling ranks of refugees and internally displaced persons.
5/ Some 5.2 million people were already receiving food aid in Afghanistan. The airstrikes on Afghanistan by the coalition of allies, which began on 7 October have created widespread fear and displacement among the Afghan people and severely disrupted the delivery of humanitarian assistance. UN agencies say up to 7.5 million people will need food aid and other help.
6/ Over 500,000 Afghans are said to have abandoned their homes but only 65,000 have crossed international frontiers. Pakistan, having hosted three million refugees in the last 20 years is reluctant to open its borders.
7/ It is evident, from Islamic Relief and international press sources, that many people from Afghanistan’s major towns of Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Kabul, have fled to rural areas or their home villages, in fear of the bombing. These attacks have curtailed the delivery of humanitarian aid, disrupting commercial trucking and, just as critically, local level distribution and monitoring.
8/ The combining of air strikes on Afghanistan with food drops by allied forces is ineffective, misleading and dangerous. As of 21 October, USAID had airdropped 696,540 humanitarian daily rations at a cost of $2,945122, some 0.5% of Afghanistan’s monthly food aid requirement. Such actions have diverted attention from the coordinated humanitarian strategy that is required and have undermined the allies’ stated policy that humanitarian action is a critical component of a wider moral response.
9/ The encroaching Afghan winter adds a new urgency to these concerns. The World Food Programme estimates 52,000 metric tonnes (MT) a month of food aid are needed to feed the hungry in Afghanistan and that a further 67,000 MT must be pre-positioned urgently to reach those in the isolated North West and Central Highlands before mid-November. Given the 12,725 MT already in WFP depots, this means that 106,275 MT needs to be delivered over the 30 days from 17 October, an average of some 3,543 MT per day.
10/ Since 17 October WFP has been trying to increase deliveries to 1600MT per day, but this is still only 45% of the amount required. Actual amounts delivered by WFP over recent weeks are less than 25% of requirements. Moreover, WFP and others are struggling to finally distribute all the food delivered because of bad weather, inaccessibility and insecurity. Agencies like Christian Aid and Islamic relief, with strong links to local communities, are deeply concerned by the absence of effective delivery and distribution networks as an essential component of a comprehensive humanitarian strategy.
11/ Secondly, WFP provision is still based on the 5.2 million who needed help before the 7 October bombing campaign. Revised UN estimates indicated 7.5 million would be affected and a further 500,000 have recently fled Afghanistan’s cities. Put simply, while food aid may be provided for close to five million people as many as eight million may need help and delivery trends indicate that it may be increasingly difficult to reach them.
12/ All parties to the current conflict in Afghanistan have an obligation under international law, namely Article 23 of the Geneva Convention IV (Civilians) to allow the free passage of all consignments of humanitarian assistance. Christian Aid and Islamic Relief condemn all actions that disrupt humanitarian assistance and believe that all such assistance must be independent, neutral and impartial.
13/ These compelling circumstances caused Christian Aid, Islamic Relief and other British NGOs to call for a pause in the bombing on 17 October to permit humanitarian aid to be delivered more effectively and more safely to those who need it most, before winter snows cut off Afghanistan’s North West and Central Highlands.
14/This appeal was dismissed by the UK government, most recently by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in his speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies on 22 October, when he argued that a pause would only increase suffering and delay an end to the conflict.
15/ The prospective length of the conflict in the continued absence of an effective humanitarian strategy is of very deep concern to Christian Aid and Islamic Relief. Official estimates have ranged from the Muslim holy month of Ramazan which begins on 17 November to summer 2002. The Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, in a statement on 23 October, suggested that British troops would be deployed in Afghanistan throughout the winter.
15/ The critical components of an effective humanitarian strategy are independence, transport, security and speed. Christian Aid and Islamic Relief repeat their call for a humanitarian pause in the bombing. We urge the allies to work urgently with Afghanistan’s neighbours to open borders and guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid as winter encroaches. We urge the Taliban authorities to work with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ensure that aid is delivered safely and effectively in areas under its control.
16/ Without an effective humanitarian strategy, many thousands of people will needlessly die. There is already a growing complacency over the human cost of this conflict as evidenced by the editorial in The Observer (London) of 21 October which suggests we may not be able to save 100,000 Afghan children this winter. Any suggestion that Afghan lives are expendable for the greater good or the prosecution of a war, will do untold damage to efforts to build and maintain a united international response to international terrorism.
17/ The scale of the unfolding tragedy in Afghanistan, exacerbated by the imminent onset of winter, requires the international community and the authorities in Afghanistan to place humanitarian needs at the centre of all plans and activities to resolve the wider crisis.
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/afghanistan/idselect.htm
Joan Darc
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