FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sitara Kapoor
email: stopstarvation@yahoo.com
"Day of Urgency" Calls for Immediate Halt to Bombing
(November 8, 2001, San Francisco) The United Nations estimates that up to 7.5 million Afghan people are at risk of starving to death if sufficient food aid isnít delivered before winterís full onset. On Thursday, November 8, 2001, activists will stage a direct action "Day of Urgency" in front of KRON TV to demand that the US immediately stop bombing Afghanistan, ensuring that food aid can be distributed to starving civilians before winter.
The US has included food drops as part of what it calls ëhumanitarian aidí in the war against terrorism. However, so far about 935,000 packages have been dropped to feed 7.5 million people. Millions of people do not have food to last the winter, and many of them will be unreachable after snow begins to fall in mid-November. According to Refugees International, after the bombing began on October 7 the number of trucks that delivered food was curtailed dramatically, since ìtruck drivers areÖunwilling to take to the roads to deliver goodsÖbecause of fear of US-led bombing or attacks by one or another of the factions.
ìAfghan civilians, who were already war-scarred and hungry after more than two decades of war, are starving to death because the US bombing is preventing food aid from entering the country,î stated Day of Urgency organizer Sheehan Grant. ìThe American people, suffering after our own tragic loss on September 11, must tell our government that we donít want more innocent people to die. We mourn our loved ones, and we also mourn the millions who face death by starvation if bombing doesnít cease before winter sets in.
The Day of Urgency, planned to include a candlelight vigil and artistic performance to demand that the bombing stop, will take place at KRON, 1001 Van Ness, in San Francisco, from 3pm to 10pm. Organizers expect a mass turnout at the event.