6. Violations of Humanitarian Independence
The militarization of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan has resulted from an exclusive focus on US war objectives to the detriment of the international relief effort, as well as from the US strategy of dropping both “bombs and bread.” In October and November, the US and UK rejected calls by relief agencies for a temporary suspension of bombing in limited areas to enable distribution of humanitarian supplies.50 Even after the military collapse of the Taliban throughout most of Afghanistan, the US has continued to subordinate humanitarian objectives to its military priorities. Responding to a question about the need to focus on international peacekeeping and relief aid, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld declared on 30 November: “Needless to say, we would not want anything, including that, to happen in a way that would inhibit us from pursuing our goals of seeking out the al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and seeing that the country is not a haven for terrorists.”51
While humanitarian agencies have been careful to avoid criticism of the conduct of the war, many have openly condemned the well-publicized US military policy of high altitude food drops as “a purely propaganda tool, of little real value to the Afghan people.”52 Military cargo planes have dropped over 2,125,000 individual meals,53 each containing 2,300 calories of beans with tomato sauce, peanut butter, strawberry jam, vinaigrette, biscuit, fruit pastry, shortbread, and a fruit bar,54 in “a yellow plastic pouch bearing a drawing of an American flag,a picture of a person eating food from a pouch and the message, in English: ‘Food Gift From The People Of The United States Of America’.”55 Yet aid agencies point out that even if every food packet reaches a hungry civilian, the total quantity could feed less than one-third of the at-risk population for a single day.56 Moreover, there are numerous reports of food drops being commandeered by armed men and sold in markets,57 and causing fatalities after landing in heavily mined areas.58
But of far graver concern is the prospect that US policy, by deliberately and publicly incorporating a humanitarian component within its military strategy, is undermining the impartiality of relief operations and distracting from more effective land distribution of staple goods. According to Oxfam America:
The current airdrops…risk confusing the military and humanitarian strategies with fatal consequences for the humanitarian effort. They also threaten to take attention off the far more vital need to get the land convoys scaled up.59
UN and private relief agencies have already come under attack during the conflict. Afghan factions in both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance have targeted relief workers and stolen humanitarian supplies. Demonstrations in Pakistan and surrounding countries have destroyed UN facilities.60 Growing anger among Arabs and Muslims at perceived international bias was amplified when Osama bin Ladin publicly blamed the UN for supporting a war against Muslims.61
The US militarization of aid and failure to facilitate the impartial provision of humanitarian aid has identified the overall relief effort with one side of the conflict in the minds of many people in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Moreover, the policy of sidelining relief agencies until all war objectives are completed, despite the urgent need to respond to a grave humanitarian crisis, only heightens the impression that military priorities have totally superceded humanitarian concerns. Previous experience in Bosnia, Somalia, Chechnya and other conflict situations demonstrates that the perception of biased humanitarian involvement in an armed conflict poses grave dangers to the security of international relief workers and threatens the continued viability of the humanitarian concept.62
50 Brian Groom, “Blair Rejects Calls For Allies to Halt Bomb Campaign,” Financial Times (London), 18 October 2001, “Some million worth of food aid, 10,000 tonnes in all, is to leave the U.S. by ship today for Afghanistan in an attempt to show the Bush administration's commitment to the humanitarian crisis as it continues its bombing campaign.” This food aid is stuck in warehouses outside Afghanistan for the most part and has not reached the needy. Mike Blanchfield, “Taliban fighters pose as refugees: Pashtuns blend into woodwork in Pakistan, as they wait to strike”, The Ottowa Citizen, 20 November 2001.
51 Department of Defense news briefing, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace, 30 November 2001, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2001/t11302001_t1130sd.html .
52 Médecins Sans Frontières, press release, “MSF Rejects Link of Humanitarian and Military Actions,” http://www.msf.org/countries/page.cfm?articleid=70FD6D4D-3B90-407D-81F5119552D7CD9E .
53 As of 3 December 2001. “Enduring Freedom Operational Update - Rear Adm. Stufflebeem”, US Department of Defense, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2001/t12032001_t1203js.html .
54 Megan Rosenfeld, “Humanitarian cuisine: the somewhat tasty – and a bit odd – ration packages,” Washington Post, 13 October 2001.
55 Sylvia Carter, “The War On Terror; Food AidPackages Pass Taste Test, New York Newsday, 14 October 2001.
56 George Monbiot, “Folly of Aid and Bombs,” Guardian (UK), 9 October 2001, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attacks/comment/0,1320,565972,00.html .
57 A reporter investigating the food drops discovered that they rarely went to the intended beneficiaries: “This was US humanitarian aid intended to help the Afghan people survive the harsh winter. Instead, rival gunmen from local militias, vying to collect the booty for resale at local markets, opened fire on each other… ‘Armed people are waiting for it,’ Mohammad said. ‘ If someone else tries to take the aid, they shoot.’” David Filipov, “Fighting Terror Battle Over Aid: Idle Combatants Now Wage Battle For Us Aid Drops,” Boston Globe, 29 November 2001.
58 “In late November, two children were killed near Herat as they ran onto a mined field to collect food aid parcels dropped by US airplanes.” Ruiz, MERIP Press Information Note 78.
59 Oxfam America, “Drops in an Ocean”, http://www.oxfamamerica.org/humanitarian/ afghanistan/food_drop_statement.html .
60 “Several international and local relief agencies were reportedly attacked Monday and Tuesday in the towns of Hangu, Landi Kotal, and Bajuar around Peshawar. UNHCR's office in Quetta sustained relatively little damage in Monday's demonstrations.” UNHCR news stories, “Security Problems in Pakistan Pose Obstacles to Afghan Refugee Relief Effort,” http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=3bc446c54&page=news .
61 Videotaped statement released to Al-Jazeera, 3 November 2001.
62 See e.g. the case in which “Russian media reports have suggested that MSF was working illegally in Chechnya” in response to an abduction of aid workers. “MSF Urges Immediate Release of Abducted Aid Worker in Chechnya: Kenneth Gluck Medically at Risk,” Amsterdam/New York, 12 January 2001, http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/pr/2001/01-12-2001.shtml .
