NGOs and the Afghan war: The politicisation of humanitarian aid

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 1990, Pages 62-85

  Baitenmann, Helga ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AID; NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION; POLITICISATION;

AFGHANISTAN; PAKISTAN;

EID: 0025231059     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599008420215     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Using forums such as the UN and the Islamic Conference, Pakistan has repeatedly acted as the representative of the refugees, appealing for more aid and sponsoring resolutions on Afghanistan. A. K. Jones, Afghan Refugees: five years later, Washington DC: USCR, issue paper, January 1985.
2. The Pushtuns in Pakistan (then British India) and those in Afghanistan were divided by the Durand line, a division imposed by the British in 1893. A call for Pushtunistan signifies the desire to re-create a Pushtun cultural/political entity. See R Anwar, The Tragedy of Afghanistan, London: Verso, 1988, chapters 2 and 4.
3. US Senate, ‘Afghanistan: peace and repatriation?’ One-hundredth congress, second session, 14 May 1988.
4. The Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees (CCAR) and the Federal Committee for Relief for Afghan Refugees, both directly under SAFRON, are the agencies responsible for coordinating the work of the organisations involved in the refugee relief effort.
5. NGOS, also referred to as pvos (private-voluntary organisations) and VOLAGS (voluntary agencies) include national (ie Afghan or Pakistani organisations) as well as international organisations (ie European, US, African, Japanese and Arab with or without offices in Pakistan).
6. This article focuses mainly on NGOS in Peshawar and is based on US government documents.
7. N. H. Dupree, ‘The NGO explosion’, Afghanistan Forum 13(6), November 1985.
8. US mission cable, Geneva, 14 February 1980, no 02425.
9. US Embassy airgram, Islamabad, 8 September 1981.
10. The Independent (London), 30 July 1987.
11. DOS cables confirm that this practice was widespread. See for example US embassy Islamabad, cable, 3 June 1982, no 08451.
12. Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 October 1982.
13. US Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research, report no 1381,20 May 1980.
14. US Consulate Peshawar, cable, 23 November 1980, no 00342, quoting a 29 September 1989 Manchester Guardian article.
15. Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 October 1982.
16. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 23 April 1981, no 05275.
17. N. H. Dupree, ‘The demography of Afghan refugees in Pakistan,’ in H Malik, Soviet-American Relations with Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, New York: St Martin's Press, 1987.
18. N. H. Dupree quoted in the Christian Science Monitor, 26 October 1988, p 11.
19. N. H. Dupree, ‘The NGO explosion’, Afghanistan Forum 13(6), November 1985.
20. American embassy cable, Islamabad, 3 June 1982, no 08451.
21. The US Department of State (DOS) asked the US embassy in Islamabad to find out ‘what are likely to be GOP attitudes towards NGO involvement in assisting the refugees, including the active participation by Americans in their activities’, DOS Washington DC, cable, 23 August 1979, no 221826.
22. DOS airgram, Islamabad, 8 September 1981, no A-67.
23. The US embassy in Islamabad took an interest in IRC'S negotiations with Pakistan to get a work permit, checked up on the letter promised to IRC by Pakistan and sent a cable to the secretary of state to inform him about the situation. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 9 May 1980, no 05564. Another DOS cable states it did not foresee that the embassy in Islamabad would be asked to act as advocate for the Salvation Army in seeking Pakistan's authorisation, but appreciated the embassy's efforts in the matter, DOS cable, Washington DC, 26 November 1981, no 314787. The NWFP commissioner appeared unwilling to permit additional NGOS to work in NWFP, claiming there were enough already. Since the restrictions affected the Salvation Army, the US embassy pressed the issue with Pakistan. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 15 February 1982, no 02226.
24. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 3 September 1981, no 11563.
25. US mission cable, Geneva, 21 September 1981, no 09332.
26. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 2 June 1983, no 09573.
27. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 16 November 1981, no 15253.
28. US embassy cable, Islamabad, 30 January 1980, no 00811; US embassy cable, Islamabad, 27 January 1983, no 01659; US embassy cable, Islamabad, 2 June 1983, no 09573; US consulate cable, Karachi, 14 October 1981, no 06011.
29. Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan, hearing on medical operations in Afghanistan, 4 March 1985.
30. Help the Aged funds the International Assistance Mission which runs eye hospitals, and works with the government of Afghanistan on projects for the handicapped and for children.
31. Wall Street Journal, 18 December 1984, p 1.
32. In 1980, the French Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) was the first NGO to engage in cross-border operations.
33. Washington Post, 14 October 1986. NGOS usually interview a commander in Peshawar, making sure he has a following and is trustworthy, send one representative into Afghanistan with the money, and then, when possible, send one representative back to see what happened with that money. Most NGOS require the commander to bring a letter of approval from the party.
34. The Austrian Relief Committee, for example, used to work primarily through local commanders but now tries to encourage the creation of agricultural committees or shuras, in which the commander is only one of several members and has less control.
35. Christian Science Monitor, 9 May 1988. 3(S Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan, hearing on medical operations in Afghanistan, 4 March 1985.
36. Alfredo Cestari, UNHCR, at the International Conference of Afghanistan Humanitarian Support Organisations (CAHSO), New York, 3-5 February 1989.
37. In 1985, Massoud's administration conducted a census, established a list of needy families and divided the Panjshir into twenty-two administrative units, each with a designated representative for civilian aid. A civilian aid committee was then responsible for distributing NGO aid.
38. L. Carter, ‘NGO programs and activities in Afghanistan’, paper prepared for USAID on behalf of the Cooperative Committee of NGOS working in Afghanistan, January 1988.
39. Afghan Information Centre, ‘The future of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan’, Monthly Bulletin 93, December 1988, p 38.
40. Deutsches Afghanistan Komitee, 1988 report, Bonn.
41. A. Guilde du Raid/Afrane representative, Thierry Niquet, was murdered in 1986 in Mazar-u- Sharif. Solidarites Afghanistan, ‘Humanitarian help: eight years of action’, 1988. (There were indications that Hizb-i-Islami members were involved in the disappearance.) And a Norwegian mother of two died driving over a land mine. Christian Science Monitor, 26 October 1988.
42. See for example J. H. Lorentz, ‘Afghan Aid: the role of private voluntary organizations’, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 11(1&2), autumn/winter 1987.
43. Bureau International Afghanistan's agricultural projects in Kunar have ‘helped the resistance keep land under production’, L Carter, ‘NGO programs and activities in Afghanistan’, p 35. A Massoud representative said there was no alternative to food aid for the poor and displaced in the area, and ‘to cut this program would undermine the resistance’. Carter, p 8.
44. German Afghanistan Committee representative at CAHSO meeting, New York, 3-5 February 1989.
45. November 1988 interview with aid worker in Peshawar who spoke on conditions of anonymity. According to a Pakistani journalist, the problem with the NGOS is that they want the PDPA to fall, regardless of the extra lives this will take, so that they can have a ‘neat’ reconstruction programme.
46. L. Carter, ‘NGO programs and activities in Afghanistan’, and Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 June 1988. In the summer of 1988, an aid director's warnings against setting up feeding centres in Afghanistan quoted in the Financial Times (London), 7 May 1988, and his ideas reflected in an article in The Economist (London), 21 May 1988, could have been partly why international aid agencies refrained from establishing them.
47. Interview with the Commissioner for Afghan Refugees for NWFP, Brig-. Fahim, Peshawar, 24 November 1988.
48. November 1988 interview with WFP official in Peshawar who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
49. Alan Simmance, Operation Salam, at CAHSO.
50. NGOS received $9.4m in fiscal year (FY) 1986, $9.1m in FY 1987, $6.4m in FY 1988 and ‘could receive’ up to S14m in both FY 1989 and 1990.
51. Washington Post, 14 October 1986.
52. USAID, ‘Economic support fund program summary’, 1986.
53. USAID, ‘Afghanistan cross border program’, (no date) p 1.
54. L. Carter, ‘NGO programs and activities in Afghanistan’, p 21.
55. The University of Nebraska at Omaha, Management Sciences for Health, American Manufacturers Export Group, and Volunteers in Technical Assistance.
56. ‘Assessment of the agricultural sector support project’ of VITA, RONCO Consulting Corporation in association with Devres, Inc. Contracted by USAID, January 1989, p 8.
57. Some publications with a political agenda: Mercy Fund's Behind the Lines, the Federation for American-Afghan Action's Afghan Update, the Committee for Free Afghanistan's Free Afghanistan Report, and Afrane's Les Nouvelles d'Afghanistan. Others, like the Monthly Bulletin of the Afghan Information Centre in Peshawar are more balanced. The Afghanistan Forum collects articles on Afghanistan and reprints them without a political agenda.
58. Washington Post, 12 February 1989, p 34.
59. The Afghanistan Forum, ‘A directory of organisations concerned with Afghanistan’, New York, 1987.
60. Washington Post, 13 January 1987, p 8.
61. The Afghanistan Forum, ‘A directory of organisations concerned with Afghanistan’.
62. The ARC channels NED funds to the Afghan Information Centre, the Afghan Publications Project and the Writers Union of Free Afghanistan, all in Pakistan.
63. US embassy cable, Caracas, 18 June 1980, no 05456 and DOS cable, Washington DC, 19 June 1980, no 161996.
64. CID, ‘Description of the council for international development's international programs’, no date.
65. National Endowment for Democracy, ‘Description of Afghan Projects’, undated paper.
66. T. Barry et al, The New Right Humanitarians, Albuquerque: the Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1986.
67. DOS cable, Washington DC, 6 August 1981, no 208230.
68. Die Tageszeitung, 24 October 1988.
69. In 1986 alone, it received one million US dollars from USAID for a resettlement project. Die Tageszeitung, 24 October 1988.
70. Der Spiegel 44, 1988.