The United Nations is set to issue an unprecedented appeal to the United States and its coalition
allies to halt the war on Afghanistan and allow time for a huge relief operation.  UN sources in
Pakistan said growing concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country – in
part caused by the relentless bombing campaigns  – has forced them to take the radical step.  Aid
officials estimate that up to 7.5 million Afghans might be threatened with starvation.

Afghanistan is among the world's poorest countries and has the lowest per-person food intake in
the world, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The world Food Program says Afghanistan needs 250 metric tons of food to get through the
winter. The most conservative aid-workers estimate that 52,000 tons must get into Afghanistan
by mid-November, along with stockpiles of 35,000 tons each for the central highlands and
northwest.  If the food isn’t there, tens, maybe hundreds of thousands are going to died.

This means that 122,000 tons need to be moved in the next month at a rate of about 4,000 tons a
day.  The best the World Food Program has managed since the bombing started was 900 tons a
day.  Workers admit it’s impossible to recruit enough drivers while the bombs fall.

The US has been air-dropping 37,000 meals per day which can't begin to replace the interrupted
food relief efforts, which had been feeding up to 5 million people per day. Aid organizations like
Doctors Without Borders, GOAL, Concern and Trócaire have issued statements criticizing U.S.
actions as crippling the already overburdened food relief efforts: "This situation is in breach of
international conventions governing the position of refugees and of civilians in times of
warfare," said Trócaire's statement.

Doctors Without Borders directly attacked the Pentagon's food-drop publicity stunt, saying the
operation "isn't in any way a humanitarian aid operation, but more a military propaganda
operation, destined to make international opinion accept the U.S.-led military operation."

The food aid is being dropped from two C-17 cargo planes flown from Germany at high altitudes
to avoid missiles. But high-altitude food drops end up being scattered over wide areas and often
do not reach the people they are intended for.

"Random food drops are the worst possible way of delivering food aid," a spokesman for a big
international charity active in Afghanistan told The Independent, on condition of anonymity.
"They cause more problems than they solve. We only use them as a last resort.

"They create flows of people fleeing the fighting migrating to the sites where the drops have
been made. And most important, they are happening in Afghanistan, which is the world's biggest
minefield."

Hungry and desperate Afghans could get themselves blown up attempting to retrieve dropped
food packets.

According to Omar, an organization working to rid Afghanistan of its 10 million land mines,
there are still large areas of the country seeded with unmapped mines, a legacy of a Soviet policy
of random mine drops in the 1980s.  The aid spokesman said: "There are still 10 to 15 mine
incidents every day. ... We have to ask if the Americans are aware of the situation on the
ground."

ACTION
Wednesday, October 24th is National Call-in Day for Peace through Justice to demand “No More Victims.”  Join with thousands of concerned citizens from across the country and call the
following persons with this message: I ask you to end the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan to allow
aid workers to return and restore the delivery and distribution of essential aid to Afghan
civilians.  Food drops and bombs are not the answer.  Even if you are unable to call on the 24th,
call nonetheless.

President George W. Bush
202-456-1111 (White House Comment Line)

Secretary of State Colin Powell
202-647-6575 (Sec. State Comment Line)

Your Senators and Representatives
202-224-3121 (Congressional Switchboard)