Afghan Officials Question Accounts of Children’s Deaths From Cold

Afghan government officials cast doubt on Tuesday about whether more than 20 children who died in refugee camps recently had perished from the cold.

The officials were also sharply critical of some of the camp residents, complaining that they had exaggerated their circumstances to attract more aid and that news accounts about the deaths during a period of unseasonably frigid weather were “one-sided.”

Mohammad Daim Kakar, the director general of Afghanistan’s disaster assistance agency, confirmed that camp officials, parents and religious leaders in two of the camps in Kabul had reported the deaths of 21 children, as well as two elderly adults. The New York Times, quoting similar sources, found 22 cases of children under 5 who had died there as of last week, with a 23rd case reported on Sunday.

Mr. Kakar said the cases his agency had confirmed were children reported to have died at night. “Is that reasonable that all of them would die at night?” he said. He was also suspicious because the deaths were not registered, and camp officials did not take his agency’s investigators to cemeteries to show them fresh graves.

“I am not saying they are liars, but for us it is a question mark,” he said.

Temperatures at night have been dropping typically to the mid-teens Fahrenheit during the past month, much colder than usual, along with unusually heavy snowstorms.

“Of course they die at night,” said Mohammad Ibrahim, the camp representative at the Nasaji Bagrami camp. “What do they expect? It is colder at night.” He and the camp mullah, Walid Khan, furiously denied that any officials had tried to see the cemetery there and been rebuffed.

“Let them shave my beard if I am lying,” said Mr. Ibrahim. The two men led reporters to the cemetery on Tuesday and pointed out each of the gravestones marking the 16 children under 5 who died in that camp since Jan. 15, including a pair of paving stones used as markers for the graves of two twin girls, 3 months old, Naghma and Nazia Jan, who died the same night, Jan. 22. The markers could just be seen poking through 18 inches of snow.

“I buried every one of them,” said Mr. Khan. The men’s accounts were corroborated by the graveyard’s caretaker, Abdul Rasoul.

Of those 16 children, the camp officials said, 15 died of the cold and were under 5; the 16th, the 5-year-old daughter of Mr. Khan, the mullah, died of burns after accidentally spilling a pot of boiling water on herself while trying to stay warm. “I blame the cold for that, too,” Mr. Khan said. The most recent cold victim there was a 1-year-old, Qader, son of Sayed Azam, at the Nasaji Bagrami camp, officials there said. He died Friday, but his death was not reported until Sunday.

Most victims were all children who were discovered late at night or early in the morning, frozen and dead in unheated tents and huts after supplies of firewood and fuel were exhausted.

Mr. Kakar said that despite his suspicions, aid supplies would be increased to the camps, which are mostly inhabited by refugees who fled fighting in other parts of Afghanistan. At the two hardest hit camps, Nasaji Bagrami and Charahi Qambar, most of the victims were from families who fled from Helmand Province in recent years. Camp officials at Charahi Qambar reported eight deaths in all, the most recent two last Thursday.

Mr. Kakar made his comments at a news conference held with a spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, Islamudin Jurat. Mr. Jurat was critical of what he called one-sided news reports of the camp deaths that failed to take account of efforts made in the past on behalf of the residents of the camps.

He said that while his ministry had no responsibility for the camp residents, it had warned before winter began of a possible disaster, but international aid groups had ignored that warning. Mr. Jurat also said the ministry had offered the residents land on which to resettle in Helmand Province, but that the camp residents wanted to be resettled in Kabul Province, instead.

He also said that past aid efforts had failed because camp residents had sold off the aid they were given. At one point, he said, rental houses were found as alternatives for camp dwellers, but they soon left them to return to their tents, instead subletting the premises for income.

“That is a lie,” declared Mr. Ibrahim. “They haven’t given us anything. I’ve been to the Ministry of Refugees asking for assistance, even shouting for assistance and nothing has happened, no help.”

Meantime, however, widespread Afghan news media coverage about the deaths of the children over the last two days have spurred action from many quarters. Private Afghan businessmen and companies like Roshan, a mobile telephone carrier, and Ariana Television, through its charitable arm, have visited both of the worst hit camps in recent days, handing out aid, including firewood and cash payments to each family.