Yury Razgulayev: Rescue caravans head to Afghanistan from the republic of Kyrgyzstan

The highway Osh-Horog, linking the southern parts of the republic of Kyrgyzstan with the districts of the republic of Tajikistan, which are most difficult to access, is becoming one of the basic ways to deliver international humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

There is no other road to the northern areas of Afghanistan controlled by the troops of the anti-Taliban coalition (with the exception of the air ways, but this is another subject to talk about). According to preliminary estimates, 16 thousand tons of food stuffs, medicines, and clothes are planned to be carried along this road within the coming weeks. One-third of the cargo has already arrived in the southern capital of Kyrgyzstan. The road has been used during the recent years to deliver aid from the UN and other humanitarian organizations.

The official information says that some 100 thousand refugees live under the sky, right on the ground in the border areas of Afghanistan. They are in urgent need of the tents, heat devices, mobile electric stations, and medicines. All these things are currently being shipped along the Osh-Horog road.

The first Il-76 air-freighter has landed this week at the Osh airport. The plane delivered spare parts, uniforms, radios, and other technical devices. Another plane is expected to arrive today carrying 130 tons of grains aboard. Thus, the city of Osh (south Kyrgyzstan) is becoming the major center of the humanitarian aid that is being delivered there from all over the world.

Yury Razgulayev PRAVDA.Ru Kyrgyzstan

AP photo: A general view of an Afghan refugee camp near the village of Khwaja-Bahauddin in Takhar province, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 29, 2001

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/12/33710.html