Search the Internet          Tips

Rocca rates Taleban biggest threat to South Asia

Aziz Haniffa
India Abroad Correspondent in Washington

Christina Rocca, President George W Bush's choice to head the South Asia bureau in the state department, said on Thursday that the biggest negative emanating from the region were the Taleban who "continue to pose a grave threat to the people of Afghanistan, to their neighbours and to the international community".

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs as part of her confirmation hearing, Rocca said, "This is an area of the world, which has suffered from our neglect, and the Afghan people deserve better."

She said, "The current humanitarian crisis, grave human rights problems, decades of war, and emergence as the world locus of transnational terrorism pose enormous challenges to both the US and the international community. It is a daunting challenge with no easy solution."

Rocca asserted that "we have a very clear interest in finding a solution to bring peace to Afghanistan. Clearly, the first task will be to get food to the people, who are facing a real threat of widespread famine."

"In this regard," she pointed out, "the United States is the largest contributor of international assistance to the Afghan people. We are co-operating with the international community to counter the other threats that Afghanistan poses to the region."

"But beyond that, I hope that we will be able to find a way to help the Afghan people, who, after all, did so much for us," she said.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Colin Powell, declaring that "Afghanistan is in crisis" and warning of a "widespread famine", announced a package of $43 million in new humanitarian assistance for the Afghans -- 65,000 tons of wheat, $5 million in complementary food commodities, and $10 million in other livelihood and food security programmes within that country.

Powell said the US would shortly announce additional assistance to Afghan refugees. "Nearly four million Afghans are at risk. If the international community does not take immediate action, countless deaths and a terrible tragedy will certainly follow," he warned.

He said the assistance the US provides "bypasses the Taleban, who have done little to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people and, indeed, have done much to exacerbate it".

Powell said the United Nations sanctions against the Taleban are "smart" sanctions and "do not hurt the Afghan people. Nor do these sanctions affect the flow of humanitarian assistance for Afghans."

He also urged the international community "to mobilize and respond generously to help avert this looming humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan", and said he would ask United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with whom he has discussed this situation to "raise the international community's awareness about this crisis and to impress upon them the necessity to respond with dispatch and energy".

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report