'No more aid while warlords rule'

Sam Kiley12 April 2012

Afghanistan should not get a penny of £4.5 billion foreign aid while warlords remain in control, Northern Alliance foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said today.

Dr Abdullah said: "(Afghan warlords) should be told, 'If there is not a civilian authority in your area then you won't get anything at all.' The donors should be constructive by helping to ensure that there is a civilian authority and that bureaucracy is functioning. If not, then they should not give a thing."

An estimated 1.5 million people, mostly Hazaras in the central highlands, face starvation but food aid is held up at the Uzbekistan border controlled by Afghan Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who wants control of it.

"Foreign money and aid given to the political and military leaders in control of separate parts of the country will mean that they are able to establish themselves as separate emirates and fighting will resume," Dr Abdullah said. "At this time, the international community should make it very clear they will not support warlordism any more."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in