Oregon’s Mercy Corps back in Afghanistan

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland-based international aid group Mercy Corps regained access to their office in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Thursday, nearly three months after local staff were kicked out by the ruling Taliban.

About five workers traveled to the city in southern Afghanistan on Thursday from nearby Quetta, Pakistan, said Laura Guimond, Mercy Corps spokeswoman. They reported that several Toyota pickup trucks, satellite phones and computers were missing and the offices had been lived in.

Mercy Corps’ arrival in Kandahar marks its first penetration into formerly Taliban controlled areas since the U.S. military began attacking the regime in late September, Guimond said.

Also on Thursday, medical supplies for 100,000 people arrived at a Mercy Corps hospital in Darweshan, in the southern Helmund province. The hospital and four medical clinics to its south serve more than 150,000 people.

The shipment was the first to arrive at Hazarjuft Hospital since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, said Guimond.

"It’s a big day for us to get back there," said Lynn Renken, the group’s program director for Central and South Asia.

As the Taliban flee their positions and a measure of calm returns, Mercy Corps has begun a cautious campaign to expand its relief base in the country and beyond.

In the past weeks, small teams have conducted "assessment trips" in the northern provinces of Kunduz, Takhar and Badakshan and established a new office in Taloqan, a town in the northern Takhar province, Renken said.

"Post-Sept. 11, we’ve moved westward and are pushing westward as security permits," she said.

On Wednesday, a Mercy Corps team scouting in northern Afghanistan stumbled into a firefight between rival Northern Alliance factions and were forced to retreat, she said.

Within three months, Renken said, Mercy Corps plans to establish at least three aid camps in southeastern Iran, where Afghan refugees have concentrated.

Workers conducted scouting trips in Iran’s Sistan-Baludistan province last week, she said. As many as 35 staffers could eventually work in those centers.

Once a new coalition government gains control in Afghanistan, the role of international aid groups such as Mercy Corps will become clearer — but also more difficult, Renken said.

The group, which has worked in Afghanistan since 1986, already serves about 200,000 people in Afghanistan and another 200,000 in refugee camps along the Pakistani border.

"Both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance were consumed by fighting and didn’t have time to take care of their people," Renken said. "We’re starting from scratch and it’s going to be a major endeavor."

Eventually, Mercy Corps hopes to replace immediate aid with long-term solutions, she said.

"We want to stop giving out blankets and distributing wheat as soon as we can," she said. "We do not want to create a system of dependency."