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Shelling disrupts Olympic shots in Afghanistan

Wednesday, July 24, 1996: A big rocket attack on Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, this morning ended a truce brokered by UNICEF since the opening of the Atlanta Olympic Games to allow health workers to immunize three million children.

Shrapnel tore through the offices of UNICEF, which is working with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) to provide humanitarian assistance to children in war through a programme called Olympic Aid-Atlanta 1996.

UNICEF officials are appealing to all warring factions in the 17-year conflict to re-establish the truce at least for the remaining days of the Olympics. Despite the cease-fire violation, 15,000 immunization workers and volunteers are spreading through the country, some using donkeys in remote mountainous regions to carry cold boxes of vaccines.

The five-day campaign, begun on Monday, is the second of two phases. All major parties observed a truce during the first phase, from 16 to 20 June, which enabled workers to reach 2.4 million children under five years old and 1.1 million women. Olympic and Paralympic gold medalists David Wilkie and Ann Cody (photo) witnessed that effort.

Olympic Aid-Atlanta 1996 aims to alleviate the plight of 18 million children in 14 war-torn countries by trying to raise $21 million worldwide to enable UNICEF to provide immunization, psychosocial counselling, basic education and recreational programmes.

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