Taliban Offer Informal Cease-Fire in Areas Hit by Earthquake
KABUL—The Taliban said Wednesday they wouldn’t interfere with Afghan government efforts to deliver assistance to earthquake victims, raising the prospect of an informal cease-fire while relief efforts are continuing.
“We don’t want to fight in areas hit by the earthquake,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by phone two days after a 7.5 temblor struck the remote Hindu Kush regionin northeast Afghanistan. “If the enemies go to areas affected by the earthquake to help people, we will not attack them. We don’t want to create problems for the aid process.”
Afghan government officials said that no security incidents have so far interfered with rescue-and-relief efforts in areas that were worst-hit by Monday’s quake, which killed at least 115 people in Afghanistan and 267 in bordering Pakistan and destroyed thousands of homes in both countries.
“We are not concerned about security,” Afghan government spokesman Javid Faisal said Wednesday. “This is a humanitarian mission, and we call on the armed opposition to not create obstacles."
More than 34,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan, according to a preliminary assessment by the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations affiliate.
In Afghan territory controlled by the militant Taliban, nongovernmental organizations are in charge of surveying the damage and of delivering assistance to the population. This limits the exposure of government-led rescue teams to possible Taliban assaults.
The eastern Afghan province of Kunar was badly damaged in the earthquake and residents were initially left to handle their own search and rescue operations, officials said. But by Wednesday, aid was beginning to reach even some Taliban-controlled areas in the province, said local police chief Gen. Abdul Habib Sayedkheli.
Tribal elders were helping negotiate access for the relief convoys of non-governmental groups, he added.
“This is not about war—this is a humanitarian cause,” he said.
Abdullah Faizi leads operations of the Afghan Red Crescent Society NGO in the northeastern province of Badakhshan and said the Taliban requested their help in districts where they have a significant presence, including the quake’s epicenter of Jorm.
Crescent has access to these areas, he said the security situation remains fluid as the Taliban often change location and other groups are also active there.
On Wednesday, rescue teams were still assessing the extent of the destruction in numerous areas, and many survivors still hadn’t received any outside assistance.
Two days after the earthquake, for instance, no outside help had reached Nuristan, one of Afghanistan’s least secure provinces. “The aid process hasn’t begun yet,” said a local government official there. "Most of the affected areas are inaccessible and we are waiting assistance from the central government.”
The Kabul government is coordinating its armed forces and outside humanitarian groups to deliver assistance to the victims.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the district of Chitral on Wednesday, one of the country’s worst-hit areas. Mr. Sharif said aid deliveries are being accelerated, and that the government will provide cash grants to the families of those killed or injured and whose homes have been damaged.
—Ehsanullah Amiri in Kabul and Qasim Nauman in Islamabad contributed to this article.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/taliban-offer-informal-cease-fire-in-areas-hit-by-earthquake-1446049185
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