PRESS BRIEFING BY THE U.N. OFFICES FOR PAKISTAN AND
AFGHANISTAN ( 09 January 2002)

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s briefing in Kabul by U.N. Spokesperson Ahmad Fawzi (including question and answer session).

** Ahmad Fawzi, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan

Yet another full day of consultations with both members of the professions in Afghanistan. He has met a group of judges, former members of the Judiciary to be precise. You recall yesterday I told you he met a group from Professor Sayyaf’s organization; he met a different group from the same organization. He met with the Vice-Chairman and Minister of Planning of the Interim Administration, Mr. Mohammad Mohaqeq. He also met a couple of representatives from Missions here in Kabul, French and the Indian Missions. He met a group of women representing women and if you are interested in any of these meetings in greater detail please ask me and I will tell you. (NB: Mr. Brahimi also met Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah).

I left him still meeting Mrs. Ogata, and as you know she is the Special Envoy of the Government of Japan and a still distinguished former UN Senior Official. I am not mistaken in the title you use for her now am I? It is Special Envoy for the Government of Japan for Afghanistan, Special Advisor on Afghanistan, right. They were having, when I left them, having an interesting conversation on Tokyo and the Pledging Conference that is coming up in just under 2-weeks time.

There is one thing I would like to clarify. Yesterday when the US Special Envoy Ambassador Khalilzad was speaking, somebody in the audience asked him a question about heroin and whether there were any plans to do something about the poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. There was not much time for me to comment then… but I did want to remind you that there is a program called the UN Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCCP). It is based in Vienna but it does a lot of work here in Afghanistan and around the world, and over the past few years their program for the eradication of the poppy crop in this country was quite successful and resulted in the eradication of the crop the year before last which meant there was no cultivation and no harvest last year. Sadly, because of the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan in the year 2001, the farmers decided they would start planting again and there has been some cultivation, and we expect some harvesting this year.

What I am trying to say is there is a program, that UNDCCP, that the UN is following and will be pursuing with the new Administration, and in fact I got a call from the Representative of UNDCCP in Islamabad saying he is coming next week to Kabul, for meetings with Afghan officials and the UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General Mr. Brahimi and other officials. I think that is all, I will be happy to take your questions.

(Question about whether and when Mr. Brahimi would come and talk to the press)

I know he would very much like to come and talk to you, but he is so overwhelmed. There are people coming up to the gates of the UN Compound without appointments and demanding to see him, and this happened with about two or three groups today. He could only see one of them and we had to say we could not do it this way. He will have a general meeting with say, Afghan NGOs next week on a certain day at a certain time. I am just trying to say that he has more on his mind than – how can I say this delicately? at the end of the day when I say remember the press, his response is I have not forgotten them but let me do my job first. I hope he can come and talk to you before he leaves Kabul for the Tokyo Conference. I still do not know if he is going, it has not been confirmed, whether he will be able to leave (Kabul) and go to that Conference, and before anybody asks me, well then who else is going, the Secretary-General of the United Nations will be there.

(Question about security)

Somebody asked me yesterday about security, and I am very sorry I am unable to comment. I do not know, simply because the UN has no monitoring facilities in those areas. We do not have peacekeeping troops, monitors or observers. So I really cannot comment on what I do not know.

(Question about UN conducting security survey)

I personally am not aware of such a survey but I will check. I do know we have a coordination meeting between the UN and ISAF and the Afghan Administration.This will be the first of the regular meetings to discuss, among other things, security in and around Kabul and throughout the country.

(Question on the date and time of the meeting)

It is happening tomorrow, Thursday and I cannot at the moment disclose the time or location.

(Question about reports of disarming military units in Kabul)

I am not aware of those reports. As far the Agreement in Bonn goes, yes there is a requirement that military units disarm and leave Kabul. Wherever the international security deploys, whatever happens to them then is their own decision, they can either be reintegrated into the society or join the new Afghan armed forces. Again, ISAF is an assistance force to assist the Afghan Interim Administration maintain security in and around Kabul and also to help them rebuild and train a new army. So they have those two options.

(Question on whether disarming is the same as returning to barracks)

Disarming means, I think, what the Oxford Dictionary tells us, that s to put down your arms. But then I said there are two options. If you choose to stay in the military then you will join the new army, but if you choose to become a civilian you have no need for your weapon.

Question on the dates of the UNESCO visit)

Friday and Saturday, the 11-12 January 2002. He may go straight to Bamyan before he comes to Kabul. (Question on the name of the UNESCO official)

Koichiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO.

(Question about the return of refugees and whether it is a priority in UN planning to resettle them)

I would like to invite the Spokesperson from UNHCR, Maki Shinohara, to respond to that.

Maki Shinohara: Basically we are assisting these people because they chose to move in during winter, mainly because they thought it would be safe for them to come home. What we are trying to do, basically provide transport for people who cannot arrange it on their own, as well as to give them what we call a ‘return packs’ to help them survive the winter, with heating and coal and things like that. We are also providing them with shelter packages, windows, doors, beams and so forth. But it is still pretty obvious this is really the first assistance we will be giving to them. The second phase that UNHCR is planning for is to do a quick impact project, this is something in the community, we have been doing this elsewhere in the world. Basically to help them to clean up wells if they think this is a priority, preparing communal buildings and schools and so forth. We are also discussing with other specialized agencies which can start assisting these people in terms of water sanitation and setting up clinics, trying to restart schools and so forth. Beyond that we do need more help from the international community. Basically one of the main problems in this area Shomali, aside from the mines is that to revive the community of these farmlands and to deal with irrigation, and this is something we hope will be included in the discussions and as well as bilateral aid maybe to truly repair these infrastructures so that these communities could come back

Ahmad Fawzi: Thank you. I would also like to add to that that the Bonn Agreement invites the international community to help in many ways. One is reconstruction and in rebuilding this country we are indeed sending out a message to all Afghans in exile: come home. Your country needs you and you will be most welcome. I am sure the Afghan officials will support this statement. I want to emphasize that Afghanistan needs all the help it can get and this is as we have said before, in Bonn, a golden opportunity that should not be missed. Neither should it be missed by the international community because we have done mistakes in the past and we do not want to repeat them again.

(Question about the reconstruction conference to be held in Tokyo)

The question for those of you is about the Tokyo Pledging Conference coming up on 21-22 January, and since the Asian Development Bank is involved, how involved will Asian countries be in financing the reconstruction?

That remains to be seen, because as I said, is a Pledging Conference. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is working with the World Bank and UNDP in presenting a report to the Tokyo Conference. They have sent a mission to Kabul, they have looked around and conducted a number of interviews and are preparing a report for the Tokyo Conference. This report will be encouraging all members of the United Nations and the international community to contribute because we are not talking small sums here, we are talking big figures. You may have heard some figures floating around some agencies but we are talking between 10-15 billion dollars and it will take more than one country or group of countries to come up with that commitment, and it is a long-term commitment.

(Follow up question)

I do not want to put a figure on it but we are talking about the immediate and the long term, the Interim Administration has 6 months then there will be a new Transitional Administration for 18 months then there should be planning for the next 5 and 10 and 15 years. So that is what this Tokyo Conference is looking at. However, that is not the end of the road so far as rebuilding…this is a vast operation. We are talking about rebuilding the infrastructure for an entire country, education, health, transport, communications, roads, media, everything, from scratch. You have been around town, you have seen there is a lot needed here and that is why we are here and hope that the international community will have the political will and staying power to see this through. After they have pledged figures they will have to sit down with the Afghan authorities and lets remember nothing is being done without consulting the Afghan Administration. They will have to sit down with them and decide who does what and for how long. It is a big country and needs a lot of help.

(Question on progress achieved)

Lets be realistic, this country has gone through over 2 decades of conflict and war. It is not going to take 2 months to solve. They made a very good start in Bonn, the Afghan groups that met in Bonn made a very good start, but it was just that, a start. The Interim Administration has 6 months to put things together leading to the Loya Jirga. The Emergency Loya Jirga will then put together a Transitional Administration for 18 months which will have a longer time period to plan for the development of this
country. It is not going to be simple or short and it has to take the time it needs. We are planting the seeds and we have to make sure they take their time to grow and bear fruit. There are some urgent matters that need to be resolved and we are asking the Afghans to come up with a list of their priorities. The Chairman of the Authority, Mr. Hamid Karzai will be in Tokyo, he has been invited, he is going to go there with a team of his advisors. He is going to be addressing the international community in Tokyo and we hope he will be telling them precisely what his priorities are for the next 6 months, for the next 18 months, for the next 5 and 10 years. But we have to stress there are immediate needs and longer term needs and it is going to take a lot of planning, pledging and a lot of implementation, and we hope that at the end of the day, we hope the international community has the staying power to see it through.

The Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry is standing nearby to talk to you. His name is Omar Samad and it gives me great pleasure to invite him up here to the UN podium to address the press.