Afghanistan Refugees To Receive Aid

By Amir Shah
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, Dec. 11, 1999; 6:29 p.m. EST

KABUL, Afghanistan –– The United Nations sent a convoy of emergency aid Saturday to cold and hungry refugees in opposition-held territory in the north of war-torn Afghanistan.

The convoy – the third this week for refugees in northern Afghanistan – is distributing aid in Gulbahar, some 35 miles north of the capital Kabul, U.N. spokesman Raz Mohammed said.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia controls 90 percent of the country and is fighting to extend its hold. Most of the 60,000 people stranded in opposition territory are refugees of last summer's fighting between Taliban and opposition forces on the Shomali plains.

The Taliban are Sunni Muslims and mostly Pashtun – Afghanistan's majority ethnic group. The opposition comprises religious and ethnic minorities.

Meanwhile, neighboring Pakistan expressed concern Saturday over World Food Program warnings of severe food shortages in war-battered Afghanistan country this winter. It urged the international community to rush emergency food aid.

"Despite its own dependence on food import, Pakistan will try to help Afghanistan as much as possible to overcome the crisis," said a foreign ministry statement from Pakistan, one of only three countries to recognizes the Taliban.