Associated Press
December 12
usted rails and bureaucratic snags left hundreds of sacks of U.N. wheat for hungry Afghans languishing on an Uzbek railroad track Wednesday. The delay added to confusion on whether a key bridge to northern Afghanistan was really open for business.
"We just keep hoping," Petar Bojilov, the U.N. World Food Program coordinator overseeing the shipment, said after two days of negotiating to get the aid across the sole bridge spanning the Amu Darya River that marks the Uzbek-Afghan border.
The white sacks of wheat in four rusty train cars were promised permission to cross the Friendship Bridge on Tuesday. By Wednesday night, Bojilov said, the train cars were "still waiting." He said he was promised they would be allowed across Thursday.
Uzbek authorities closed the bridge in 1997 when fierce fighting broke out on the Afghan side. After the Taliban militia was driven from northern Afghanistan last month, aid groups urged Uzbekistan to open the bridge to send blankets, medicine and food to more than 3 million needy Afghans.
Uzbek officials held a ceremonial opening of the bridge Sunday, allowing one train of mainly Uzbek aid across. But no aid has crossed since, leading to speculation that the opening was just a one-time gesture to the United States after Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan has cited security reasons for restricting border traffic, saying it fears an influx of Islamic militants or refugees into this tightly controlled, secular and impoverished state.
The wheat was meant to join up with a group of United Nations and other aid officials who traveled from the Uzbek port of Termez to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif to reopen offices closed since Sept. 11.
Bojilov and other WFP officials said logistical details were holding up the crossing, including last-minute requests for permission from Uzbek and Afghan state organs and repairs to dilapidated rails leading to warehouses in Hairaton on the Afghan side.
Ramazan Oshurov, spokesman for the Termez city government, said the bridge was open for anyone with the proper documents, but had no comment on the WFP wagons.
In the Uzbek capital Tashkent, Emergencies Minister Ravshan Khaidarov said Wednesday the government had authorized his ministry to coordinate and simplify all customs and border crossing procedures for humanitarian shipments to Afghanistan, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Meanwhile, U.N. personnel planning to cross the bridge Wednesday were stopped at the last minute by U.N. security officials, U.N. Children's Fund spokeswoman Rupa Joshi said. The reason for the change was unclear, but it indicated continuing concerns about the safety of travel in Afghanistan, where there have been robberies and aid has been diverted.