VALLEY MAN FEARS FOR REFUGEES; CAMPAIGN PLANNED TO HELP 2,000 AFGHANS STAY IN HUNGARY.

Byline: Kathryn Combs Staff Writer

Although he is an unlikely player in international affairs, 26-year-old restaurateur Rob Nowaid plans a campaign to help 2,000 Afghan refugees facing deportation from Hungary this winter.

Nowaid, an Afghan immigrant who lives in Woodland Hills, says he will fight to save the refugees, especially the children. Because Hungary can't support them, they are at risk of winding up back in their mother country where they will be caught in political cross-fire, he said.

``As a child you don't have the luxury of learning about freedom if you are living in oppression,'' he said. ``I want to help these kids see the next day.''

An ultraconservative government, the Taliban, forcibly gained power in Afghanistan in 1996 over then-President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Supporters of the Islamic state of Afghanistan, the government officially recognized by the United Nations, were forced to flee. About 200,000 went to Northern Afghanistan. Others fled to countries such as Hungary.

Nowaid has joined efforts with Knightsbridge International, run out of the home of Woodland Hills resident Edward Artis, who said the organization has sent more than $1 million in medicines, food, crop seeds and other desperately needed supplies to refugees in Northern Afghanistan. Nowaid hopes to raise funds for the refugees in Hungary and, with help from Artis, to find a nongovernmental organization in Hungary to distribute supplies.

He said he read an article about Hungary's not being able to support Afghan refugees, and he wants to help them.

Hungarian officials are trying to find another country to take about 2,000 Afghan refugees. But Nowaid fears the refugees will have nowhere to go except Afghanistan, where he said they would certainly face persecution.

``We don't want them put back into the gristmill of Afghanistan. They'd be thrown back into the cesspool. After all, they fled for a reason,'' Artis said.

Lajos Mayer, interim Hungarian consulate, agreed Afghanistan is unsafe for returning refugees.

``Afghanistan is not a safe country for refugees to transport back to,'' he said. ``Hungary is trying to send people back to the neighboring country where they crossed in from. No country deports Afghans back to Afghanistan.''

But Artis believes that if Hungary is unable to find support for the refugees through the winter, they will be forced back to Afghanistan.

He fears children will be executed or starved by the Taliban.

``As God is my witness, if I can save one child from being executed by the Taliban, it will give me more joy than conquering the whole world,'' he said. ``All I want to do is give these children another chance.''

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Photo: Rob Nowaid, left, an Afghan immigrant, is joining Woodland Hills neighbor Edward Artis in efforts to help Afghan refugees in Hungary.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News