Click for printable version
Click to send to a friend

Thursday, November 22, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada doctor fails in bid to get into Afghanistan

Bad weather, bureaucratic red tape blamed

BATTLE MOUNTAIN -- A Nevada doctor was thwarted in his bid to help with medical relief in Afghanistan but was able to deliver computers to a school with Afghan refugees in neighboring Tajikistan.

Dr. John Peters of Battle Mountain said bad weather and bureaucratic red tape kept him from entering the war-torn country.

Peters, 67, who is a veteran of other trips into Afghanistan, said the team succeeded in delivering eight computers to a school of 350 Afghan refugees in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

It will try to supply other aid to the school, which had no paper, books or other supplies.

Peters, who is now back at work at Battle Mountain General Hospital, said two weeks of freezing weather grounded the helicopters they hoped to use to enter Afghanistan.

He said they were the victim of profiteering by government officials once they arrived in Tajikistan. He said the cost of visas suddenly rose from $20 to $200 and the journalists and aid workers accompanying the medical team were charged $1,000 each to go to the border.

The high fees discourage independent journalists from getting into Afghanistan, Peters said. But he said representatives of the major television networks aren't bothered by financial restraints.

Peters has spent the last 20 years taking medical supplies to hot spots in Asia, Central America and South America. His last trip to Afghanistan was in 1998. The Taliban were in control at that time after years of civil war that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

This time, his group had planned to travel to the part of the country controlled by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance despite warnings from U.S. officials who wanted them to scrap the trip.