Taliban threaten to murder UN workers
The Taliban have threatened to execute any UN workers who use key equipment in their offices in Afghanistan, a move that has nearly shut down the remaining relief work being done in the country.
The militia began raiding UN offices in cities such as Kabul, the capital, and Kandahar, where Taliban leadership is based, over the weekend.
The militia began sealing the offices' satellite telephones, walkie-talkies, computers and vehicles to bar them from further use, said Stephanie Bunker, the chief UN spokeswoman in Islamabad.
‘‘They warned our staff that if they use these things they will face execution,’’ said Gordon Weiss, the spokesman for Unicef in Islamabad.
No immediate comment was available from the Taliban, who in recent months have been repeatedly accused by the United Nations of harassing and intimidating foreign aid workers.
After the terrorist attacks in the United States, the United Nations removed its foreign staff from Afghanistan for their safety but left behind local Afghan employees to continue their crucial relief agency work and mine-clearing operations.
The UN workers are one of the last providers of subsidised food and health care to the impoverished and war-ravaged country.
‘‘We are worried about the safety of our remaining workers there and concerned about the fate of our programmes,’’ Weiss said.
‘‘Life will become more miserable for the more than one million people displaced because of drought and civil war.’’
Bunker said without communications, relief operations would be impossible.
‘‘The UN has ordered its staff to obey the Taliban directive to avoid risking their lives,’’ she said.
‘‘We have requested the Taliban to allow at least one high frequency radio transmitter in cities where the United Nations runs its operations."
The UN World Food Programme condemned the Taliban action, saying the militia had occupied its office in Kandahar and seized its food.
‘‘This could disrupt if not completely stop our aid work in some of the southern provinces of Afghanistan,’’ the WFP said in a statement.
Bunker said the Taliban seized all UN offices and three other foreign aid groups in Kandahar over the weekend. ‘‘We received this information from some of our Afghan workers who managed to cross into Pakistan.’’
There is no information about the UN offices in Kabul, where the communications and vehicles were sealed on Friday, she said. At least in three other Afghan cities the Taliban have launched a similar crackdown, she added.
The United Nations has declared Afghanistan a humanitarian catastrophe.
The plight of impoverished Afghans is likely to aggravate during Afghanistan’s harsh winter with few international relief agencies left in the country, UN officials say.
