A friend tells me that she had a discussion today where someone brought up that many Afghan refugees are not eating the humanitarian food aid that the U.S. is dropping. I can’t find any online newspaper reports of this.
Has anyone else heard this? If true, what’s the deal? I’d think – as a matter of survival – the refugees would choose the Infidel’s vegetarian victuals over starvation. Perhaps the Taliban is issuing propaganda about the food (that it contains poison, or pork)?
This is almost certainly Taliban propaganda.
Taliban say locals burn food parcels
Envoy accuses US of hypocrisy
Luke Harding in Islamabad
The Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan claimed yesterday that food parcels dropped by US planes as part of a much-criticised humanitarian operation inside Afghanistan are being burned by angry locals.
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said ordinary Afghans were refusing to eat the food because they were incensed by US air strikes. They were setting fire to them instead, he said. The packets had so far landed in the eastern provinces of Logar and Paktya, he confirmed.
In Kabul, Abdul Hanan Himat, a spokesman for the Taliban information ministry, also claimed the packets were being incinerated. “The Americans are killing us and attacking us, and we don’t need this food,” he said.
Aid agencies were unable to confirm whether the food had been burned.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/sciacca10152001.htm
Al-Jazeera is ``editorially independent,’’ yet funded by the government of the desert state of Qatar to the tune of $30 million a year.
It is uncensored,'' yet allows the Taliban to screen everything their correspondent in Kabul puts out. Not that screening is really necessary since the guy puts out garbage like Afghans are burning the food parcels being dropped by American planes . . . They see it as a bribe for the blood of their children, their widows and the others suffering under the bombardment.’’
Sure, the food drops are part of the U.S. propaganda war against the Taliban, but the propaganda response ought to be coming from the Taliban, not its - I mean, Al-Jazeera’s - correspondent.
http://www.dallasnews.com/editorial/columnists/rubennavarrette/STORY.e97de2e630.b0.af.0.a4.58681.html
The Taliban thrive in that arena. Their response to the humanitarian offensive has been to stop trucks delivering U.N. aid, to beat relief workers, and to confiscate cargo. They threaten to burn the food and supplies, including some of those mysterious yellow aid packages that fell from the sky.
I fixed the first link for you. AutoParse doesn’t like commas in URLs
[Edited by DrMatrix on 10-17-2001 at 10:35 AM]
Articles I’ve read indicate people getting the food drops are confused by their contents. Enjoying peanut butter and being able to read English language instructions aren’t normal things in the area
