The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), one of the country's oldest and largest international aid groups, has suspended activities in Afghanistan following a decree issue by the Taliban that provides for the suspension of all of "Sweden's activities" in the country following the burning of copies of the Koran in Stockholm in June.*
"We are extremely saddened by the current situation and the effects our suspension will have on the millions of people who have benefitted from our services over the past four decades," the organization said in a statement on March 19.
The SCA said it suspended its operations only after the decree called for a halt in all Swedish activities in Afghanistan and that its license was not revoked.
"We strongly condemn and distance ourselves from these acts," the statement said, referring to the June incident.
"Desecration of the Holy Koran is an insult to all Muslims around the world who hold this sacred text dear to their hearts, and it constitutes a flagrant attack on the Islamic faith," it said.
Every year, nearly 3 million Afghans residing in 16 provinces benefit from the SCA's projects in health care, education, and disability and livelihood support.
"We are also gravely concerned about the future of our nearly 7,000 Afghan employees across 16 provinces," the SCA said.
"Many of them are the sole breadwinners of their families and if they lose their jobs, thousands of families will suffer," the organization added.
The closure of the SCA has disappointed Afghans across the country because it was seen as a leading example of how best to work with Afghan communities.
"All these activities were effective in healing our nation's pain," an Afghan aid worker who requested anonymity told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
"While our people face starvation and don't have enough food and water, they are closing such humanitarian organizations," he added.
An SCA employee in the southeastern Ghazni Province told Radio Azadi that the closure of the group's operations was wreaking havoc on the daily lives of Aghanistan's most vulnerable.
"Our hospital was helping more than 200 disabled people daily," he said.
"Now hundreds wait outside the hospital's gates with no prospects of it reopening soon."
In the northern Balkh Province, another employee said that closing an education training institute was a further blow to the region.
"Our people are grappling with monumental problems," he told Radio Azadi. The SCA employees interviewed sought anonymity because they said they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The SCA was founded as a nongovernmental organization in 1980. It first supported millions of Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan who had fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
From a small office in northwestern Pakistan, it established health clinics inside Afghanistan in 1982. In the 1990s, it moved into Afghanistan and provided lifesaving health care and education to millions of Afghans. Various Western donors have supported its projects.