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Humanitarian impact of United Nations sanctions on Taliban

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December 7, 2000 

Washington-- (USIS) -- The deplorable humanitarian situation of the Afghan people is the direct result of over 20 years of war and, now, the worst drought in a generation.

-- Afghanistan's resources are depleted, its intelligentsia in exile, its people disenfranchised, its traditional political structures shattered, and its human development indices among the lowest in the world.

-- The Taliban have done little to improve this bleak situation and much to exacerbate it. The civil war continues with no resolution in sight. The Afghan people have no voice in their government, are subject to widespread patterns of human rights violations, and have little hope for improvement in their standards of living, including health, employment, education, and general welfare.

-- The sanctions that the United Nations Security Council has imposed on the Taliban in UNSC Resolution 1267 (1999) have had no measurable humanitarian impact on the Afghan people, despite the Taliban's efforts to portray the situation to the contrary.

-- Likewise, the measures in the new resolution are scrupulously written so that they should have no harmful effect on the vast majority of the Afghan people.

UNSC RESOLUTION 1267

-- The Security Council, fully aware of the dire humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan, carefully crafted Resolution 1267 to target only the Taliban leadership and organization, as well as indicted terrorist Usama bin Laden. The resolution specifically provides for broad humanitarian exemptions for the people of Afghanistan.

Resolution 1267 is targeted against the Taliban leadership and organization to bring an end to its support for international terrorism and its harboring of Usama bin Laden. It imposes a flight ban on Ariana Afghan Airlines and a freeze on the financial assets of the Taliban. The flight ban on Ariana Afghan Airlines denies the Taliban a convenient link to the rest of the world for international terrorists and narco-traffickers based in Afghanistan.

-- Resolution 1267 does not prohibit private-sector trade and commerce. Goods -- including grain and other food stuffs -- and the international mail move normally by land, according to Taliban press reports.

-- Resolution 1267 does not restrict in any way the work of the humanitarian organizations providing assistance to the civilian population of Afghanistan. International agencies and humanitarian non-governmental organizations maintain routine flights into and out of Afghanistan. Workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees regularly fly into and out of Afghanistan. The U.S.-based non-governmental organization Partners in Aviation and Communications Technology (PACTEC) conducts twice-weekly flights between Peshawar, Pakistan, and Kabul, Afghanistan, for humanitarian aid workers. Other flights to ameliorate the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan continue unimpeded by the sanctions. Non-governmental organizations that want to use Ariana Afghan Airlines for humanitarian missions into and out of Afghanistan, however, need to seek a waiver from the Sanctions Committee.

-- The Sanctions Committee has never denied a request for a humanitarian flight waiver. Shortly after Resolution 1267 went into effect, the non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres flew over 13 metric tons of medicine into Afghanistan. Flights supporting the evacuation of sick Afghan children to Germany occurred in February and August 2000. The Committee has granted eight other humanitarian flight waivers. In addition, the Committee has also granted waivers for 180 round-trip flights for the purpose of fulfilling religious obligations such as the performance of the Hajj.

FURTHER MEASURES UNDER CONSIDERATION

The measures now under consideration are specifically targeted narrowly on the Taliban leadership and on Usama bin Laden, his associates, and his organization, a1Qaida. The measures are crafted in a way that could improve humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan and in the region, if the Taliban comply, as well as avoid adverse humanitarian impact on the population of Afghanistan. Provisions are included in the resolution to ensure that international humanitarian assistance will continue unimpeded. Private-sector trade and commerce will also continue without interruption. The humanitarian and religious-obligation waiver regime of the Sanctions Committee will remain in place, and efforts will be made so that it will be even more responsive and effective.

-- Because the Taliban have ignored their obligations under UNSC Resolution 1267 and have continued to threaten international peace and security, the Security Council will.

-- Demand the Taliban comply with Resolution 1267 and cease providing training and support of international terrorists;

-- Insist the Taliban turn over indicted international terrorist Usama bin Laden so he can be brought to justice;

-- Direct the Taliban to close all terrorist camps in Afghanistan within 30 days.

Until the Taliban fully comply with their obligations under this resolution and Resolution 1267, the Security Council will:

-- Freeze the financial assets of Usama bin Laden;

-- Impose an arms embargo against the Taliban that includes a prohibition on providing military weapons, training, or advice;

-- Close all Taliban offices overseas;

-- Urge Member States to reduce the staff at the limited number of Taliban missions abroad;

-- Advise Member States to restrict travel of top Taliban officials except for the purposes of participation in peace negotiations, compliance with the resolution, or for humanitarian reasons, including religious obligations;

-- Ban the export to Afghan territory of a precursor chemical, acetic anhydride, which is used to manufacture heroin;

-- Close all offices of Afiana Afghan Airlines and ban all non-humanitarian assistance flights into and out of Afghanistan. Broad exceptions are given to humanitarian flights operated by, or on behalf of, non-governmental organizations and governmental relief agencies providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

ASSESSMENT: HUMANITARIAN IMPACT OF THESE FURTHER MEASURES

-- The Taliban argue that UN sanctions prevent them from governing effectively and harm the people of Afghanistan. But the fact is that the Taliban faction has never governed effectively. Rather than provide good governance to improve the economic and social conditions of the people in the areas they control, they have pursued military action in Afghanistan, and systematically followed an expansionist policy to extend their radical ideology north into Central Asia, east into China, and south into Pakistan. They have financed their operations with the considerable proceeds they gain from narcotics trafficking.

-- None of these measures will have a measurable adverse humanitarian impact on the general population, and, in fact, could ultimately improve their situation by allowing Afghanistan to regain its rightful place in the community of nations, if the Taliban comply with the will of the international community. Should that happen, regional stability would be greatly improved, trade and commerce would burgeon in the region, and the reconstruction of Afghanistan could begin.

-- One measure of the resolution -- and only one -- could have a temporary adverse economic impact on the small number of Afghan workers involved in poppy cultivation and the production and trafficking of heroin. However, when these lands are converted to production of food, the overall humanitarian situation in Afghanistan will improve.

The prohibition of chemicals needed for heroin production will curtail the Taliban's ability to engage in narcotics production and trafficking, the proceeds of which they use to fund international terrorism and the war effort. The sale or transfer of acetic anhydride for manufacturing heroin to anyone in Afghanistan could have some economic impact on those who work in the production and trafficking of narcotics. However, if the Taliban leaders sincerely demonstrate their commitment to stopping poppy cultivation and narcotics processing and export, the international community should be prepared to provide additional assistance and crop substitution programs to replace the lost incomes of average Afghan farmers and workers which, in the end, will improve their lives. Likewise, the quality of life of the Afghan people will improve when the fertile farmland lost to poppy cultivation is returned to food production. A decrease in the supply of heroin also will diminish the costly public health threats of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases caused or exacerbated by narcotics abuse.

CONCLUSION

- It is up to the Taliban whether they continue to impoverish and further degrade Afghanistan, or whether they will comply with the will of the international community expressed in the UN resolutions. If they comply, they will allow Afghanistan to regain its rightful place in the community of nations and permit the Afghan people the security, dignity, and rightful standard of living they deserve.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)