[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 134 (Tuesday, October 9, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H6438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD COMMUNITY MUST DO MORE FOR THE PEOPLE 
                             OF AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. McKinney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, Medecin Sans Frontieres, the 1999 winner 
of the Nobel Peace Prize, has today accused the United States of 
conducting nothing more than cynical military propaganda when we 
describe our operations in Afghanistan as ``humanitarian.''
  The tragic truth is, they are right. The Bush administration's 
celebrations concerning the U.S. Air Force drops of food packages, 
totalling 75,000 food ration packages over the 2 days of Sunday and 
Monday, are not deserved. Medicine Sans Frontieres accuses us of little 
more than window dressing, seeking to divert public attention from a 
scandalous humanitarian disaster that could soon rival the Rwandan/
Congolese catastrophe of 1994 and 1995.
  Before the September 11 crisis, the U.N. World Food Program estimated 
that there were 2 million civilians in Afghanistan totally dependent on 
foreign food aid. The World Food Program was trucking in 500 tons a 
day, or enough to feed only 1 million people. So just 4 weeks ago, each 
day that went by, some 1 million Afghan men, women, and children were 
without food.
  But now the situation is much worse. Our military operations have 
started, and the number dependent on food aid has grown rapidly while 
international food distribution has actually fallen to almost nothing. 
The BBC reports today that UNICEF believes that the number of Afghans 
in need has now grown to 5.5 million people, of which an estimated 70 
percent are women and children.
  Mr. Speaker, that staggering number of people, 5.5 million, easily 
exceeds if not even doubles the population of some of the largest 
cities in our own country. Can we imagine how horrified we would be, 
and how we would, as a nation, react if the entire population of cities 
such as Dallas or San Diego or San Francisco or Detroit were starving 
to death?
  Mr. Speaker, that is the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe now 
confronting Afghanistan. These 5.5 million people desperately require 
about 2,750 tons of food aid each day, based on World Food Program 
estimates of 500 tons per million people per day. And this says nothing 
about the medical needs of these people.
  Clearly, our two airdrops of 37,000 ration packages, though well-
intentioned and bravely carried out by U.S. Air Force air crews, are 
not nearly enough to prevent a humanitarian disaster. Maybe, as alleged 
by Medecin Sans Frontieres, it does help soothe our collective 
conscience, but it does little more.
  The Heritage Foundation has called Afghanistan the worst U.S. foreign 
policy failure of all time, and I have visited the Afghan refugees in 
their camp.
  In addition, Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government should be promoting 
democracy in Afghanistan. Bobby Kennedy had the following to say: ``Can 
we ordain ourselves the awful majesty of God, to decide what cities and 
villages are to be destroyed; who will live and who will die; who will 
join refugees wandering in the desert of our own creation?''
  Although Bobby Kennedy was referring to our involvement in Vietnam, 
his words apply to our involvement in Afghanistan. The United States 
and the world community must do more for the people of Afghanistan. Mr. 
Speaker, the clock is ticking for 5.5 million innocent people.

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