Posted on 02/12/2002 10:35:01 AM PST by FresnoDA
Afghan girls on sale for 100kg wheat |
| Updated on 2002-02-12 11:30:25 |
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ISLAMABAD FEB 12 (PNS): An International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) assessment mission on Friday reported that young girls in western part of the war-torn Afghanistan were on sale for a 100 kg bag of wheat. The mission returned from western Afghanistan after watching scenes of great deprivation in villages and remote mountain valleys cut off from the outside world for years. A senior official of the IFRC said: "Girls were offered as brides for as little as 100 kg of wheat flour." The combined effects of 23 years of war and the last three years of drought have left many people entirely destitute. The IFRC team said, "Girls as young as ten are being offered for marriage in exchange for bags of flour in a desperate struggle for survival in parts of Herat and Farah provinces in western Afghanistan." A team member said: "We saw children digging in the fields for roots to eat and use as firewood. Leaves from the trees were also being eaten." The IFRC is currently engaged in channelling non-food support to five provinces in western Afghanistan. However, following the report of the assessment team, the Red Cross is planning further interventions "particularly in bringing mobile health services to remote rural areas and supporting a revival of agriculture through food-for-work schemes tackling irrigation projects, and the distribution of tools and seeds". The IFRC team reported widespread scenes of shocking poverty in the remote mountain valley of Rood Gaz, which provides a snapshot of the appalling legacy of war, and drought in western Afghanistan. The assessment team reportedly surveyed 12 villages in the remote valley, counting a population of 10,305 people. Among them, it found 510 orphans, 261 widows and 699 elderly people largely dependent on their impoverished neighbours and remittances from refugees in Iran to stay alive. A senior team member said in many of the villages there was no agricultural activity because of the drought, no seeds were available for planting, and much of the livestock had either died or been sold off. Meanwhile, Wendy Darby, a top official of the IFRC, urged the humanitarian agencies involved in food distributions to "take into account the needs in remote locations outside the major towns, like the Rood Gaz valley where people have no access to urban centres". Despite the fall of Taliban, the United Nations and some other international agencies could not expand their programmes due to poor security conditions, presence of landmines and unexploded munitions and fear of 'al-Qaeda terrorists'. |
OBL has spent enough money on the Talibanners to feed all of Afghanistan for decades.
Why aren't the super rich Saudis buying wheat and flying it into Afghanistan with the Red Crescent insuring that it gets in the right hands?
Does that include shipping?
Stay Safe !
Somebody gets it.
Let's not forget, folks, the Afghanis have always sold brides. The only news here is how much the prices have dropped.
Where do I put my order in, and does that include shipping? ;o)
(See, you did too corrupt me! ;o)
Lifting The Veil On Sex Slavery - Of all the ways the Taliban abused women, this may be the worst
Source: Time; Published: February 18, 2002;
Author: Tim McGirk, Shomali Plain
Of course they also like paying for Palestinian 'martyrs.'
If you're in Afghanistan, they fall out of airplanes for free.
The better question is, how much is being taken out of your paycheck to pay for it.
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