AFGHANISAN: FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN BETWEEN THE ISLAMIC TALEBAN MILITIA AND OPPOSITION FORCES CAUSES THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION TO DETERIORATE

Record ID: 291953

  • Title: AFGHANISAN: FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN BETWEEN THE ISLAMIC TALEBAN MILITIA AND OPPOSITION FORCES CAUSES THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION TO DETERIORATE
  • Date: 7th August 1997
  • Summary: BARAHARAK PRISON CAMP, PANJSHER VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN (AUGUST 7, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV TALEBAN PRISONERS OF WAR (POWs) CARRYING WATER BUCKETS INTO PRISON COMPOUND 0.15 2. SV/LV POWs STANDING AROUND IN COMPOUND/ GUARDS (3 SHOTS) 0.30 3. CU/MCU OF FACES (3 SHOTS) 0.49 4. LV PRISON COMPOUND SHOWING GATES FROM INSIDE 0.53 5. MCU/SLV PRISONERS/ ONE ON CRUTCHES (2 SHOTS) 1.02 6. SV PRISON GUARD AT LOOKOUT POST 1.06 7. CU PRISONER'S FACE 1.08 8. SV GUARD AT LOOKOUT POST 1.13 9. CU PRISONER'S FACE/SHOES (2 SHOTS) 1.20 10.MCU POW CALLED HASSAN SAYING IF HE HAD THE CHOICE AGAIN HE WOULD STAY AT HOME, GO TO SCHOOL, FIND A JOB AND WOULD NOT FIGHT AGAIN FOR THE TALEBAN (PUSHTU) 1.29 11.LV/SLV/CU POWs ARRIVING BACK AT COMPOUND FROM WORKING (5 SHOTS) 1.59 MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN (AUGUST 10, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 12.LV EXTERIOR OF ICRC (INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR RED CROSS) ORTHOPAEDIC CENTRE 2.05 13.CU RED CROSS FLAG 2.09 14.SLV LANDMINE VICTIMS EXERCISING ON BALCONY INSIDE CENTRE 2.17 15.CU VICTIMS' FACES 2.23 16.LAS LANDMINE VICTIMS ON BALCONY 2.28 17.MCU DOLAT MIR RAKET, WHO LOST A LEG SIX MONTHS AGO WHEN A LANDMINE EXPLODED, SAYS NOW THAT HE HAS HIS ARTIFICAL LIMB HE MAY BE ABLE TO FIND A JOB (PUSHTU) 2.39 18.SLV/CU ARTIFICIAL LIMBS BEING MADE IN WORKSHOP (5 SHOTS) 3.02 19.MCU ANDREW SMITH, ORTHOPAEDIST WITH BRITISH RED CROSS, SAYING THERE IS A PROBLEM JUST NOW BECAUSE MANY VICTIMS AREN'T COMING INTO THE CENTRE BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE HARVEST TO TEND TO, THE ROADS AREN'T SAFE BECAUSE OF THE CONFLICT ON THREE SIDES. HE'S ANTICIPATING THEY'LL ARRIVE IN ABOUT TWO MONTHS ONCE THEY CAN GET IN BY BUS (ENGLISH) 3.23 20.SV YOUNG MAN BEING PREPARED FOR ARTIFICIAL LEG FITTING (2 SHOTS) 3.34 21.SV/CU ANOTHER YOUNG MAN BEING PREPARED FOR FITTING (2 SHOTS) 3.45 22.LAS/SV ORTHOPAEDIST WATCHES ON AS VICTIMS PRACTICE WALKING ON NEW ARTIFICIAL LEGS (3 SHOTS) 3.56 23.SLV/SV VERY YOUNG BOY WITH ARTIFICIAL LEG PRACTICES WALKING (3 SHOTS) 4.11 Initials P3 S3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PANJSHER VALLEY AND MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA4OJ0MB8GMOYBPO5FUU5YXJUX2
  • Story Text: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is warning that a flare-up in fighting in Afghanistan between the Islamic Taleban militia and opposition forces is causing the humanitarian situation to deteriorate.

    In a statement on Tuesday (August 12) the ICRC criticised the authorities in opposition-held northern Afghanistan for denying aid agencies access to an estimated 3,000 prisoners of war.

    In Panjsher Valley, a rebel stronghold even during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, forces loyal to Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood are holding Taleban POW's at a number of camps in the mountains.

    The Baraharak camp is typical - 350 POW's packed into a compound 60 metres long by 30 metres wide. Forty rebel soldiers keep guard.

    The prisoners are used as a source of manual labour - to repair damaged roads and buildings.

    The Taleban government also holds a similar number of rebel prisoners and POW's have become key bargaining chips in any possible negotiations to head off a final battle for the capital Kabul.

    There have been five deaths from severe diarrhoea and tuberculosis over the past two months at Baraharak, but the Red Cross is being allowed access.

    It's in the provinces of Faryab, Jawzjan and Balkh, areas controlled by forces loyal to General Abdul Malik, leader of one of the partners in the tripartite anti-Taleban alliance, that the ICRC claims its efforts to see prisoners are being denied.

    Fighting flared north of Kabul in May when an opposition group under the former government's top military commander Ahmed Shah Masood broke out of his stronghold in the Panjsher valley in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains to challenge the Taleban in the plains some 60 miles (100 km) north of the Afghan capital.

    Three weeks ago the opposition pushed the Taleban back to within 12 miles (20 km) of Kabul. Although there has been little change in the front lines, there have been sporadic attacks and fierce exchanges of artillery and rocket fire.

    The Red Cross says that it has treated some 7,000 war wounded on both sides of the front line in the last three months, far more than at any other time in the last three years.

    At the ICRC's Orthopaedic centre in Mazar-I-Sharif, a production line in artificial limbs is in full operation. Most of those treated are the victims of landmines. There are believed to be more than 10 million devices scattered around the Afghan countryside - possibly the largest concentration of landmines anywhere in the world.

    The recent upsurge in fighting means many victims are unable to travel from their villages to seek medical attention, forcing many to perform their own amputations, risking infection and often death.

    Those who survive consider themselves lucky. And the artificial limbs mean they may be able to find work.

    But like elsewhere in the world many victims of landmines are young children who have to learn how to walk with an artifical leg.


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