PRESS BRIEFING BY THE U.N. OFFICES FOR PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN (10 January 2002)

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s briefing at the United Nations Information Centre in Islamabad by the United Nations offices for Pakistan and Afghanistan (excluding question and answer session).

** Eric Falt, Director, UN Information Centre

Good afternoon. In Kabul, Mr. Brahimi continues to work towards the appointment of a Special Commission for the convening of an Emergency Loya Jirga and towards the preparation of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction.

Today, he will also be part of a coordination meeting between the UN and ISAF and the Afghan Administration. This will be the first of what should be regular meetings to discuss, among other things, security in and around Kabul and throughout the country.

** Chulho Hyun, Spokesperson for UNICEF

Good afternoon. Got the latest details, earlier today from the UNICEF office in Faizabad, on the ongoing measles vaccination drive in the more remote areas of Badakhshan Province.

Two monitors are maintaining radio contact with Faizabad and report that in the Yumgan Valley of the Jurm District, immunization teams are going from mosque to mosque, village to village, to vaccinate the children.

Yumgan is a valley that links Jurm to the Keran Menjan district. Their remoteness, and lack of road access, makes for greater efforts by vaccination teams, who are trekking it for the most part, while storage equipment containing vaccine vials are being carried atop donkeys.

For this reason also, we expect coverage data to take longer to be reported. The program to vaccinate some 57,000 children in Northeastern Afghanistan, starting back on Tuesday, is part of a nationwide project to immunize up to nine million nationwide, between the ages of six months and 12 years.

It’s an endeavor led by Afghan public health authorities in collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF and various health organizations. The other item for today, also from Faizabad, concerns the scheduled launch of a new supplementary feeding center in the city today.

UNICEF’s recent support to local health authorities, for establishing this center, has included the donation of high-protein porridge and medicines, as well as conducting a training session for public health staff on nutrition and center management issues. That’s all for now, thank you.

** Yusuf Hassan, Spokesperson for UNHCR

The number of Afghans fleeing to Pakistan has considerably increased in recent days. An estimated 4,000 Afghans are now massed at the Chaman border, bringing to 7,000 the number of refugees on the edge of UNHCR’s Killi Faizo transit camp just inside Pakistan.

Border officials say they have instructions not to allow in even the vulnerable among them. UNHCR is providing high protein biscuits and water. Yesterday afternoon, fighting erupted between two groups in villages adjacent to the Old Bagzai camp in Kurram agency in North West Frontier Province, in which a staff member of an implementing partner was killed and two others injured in the crossfire.

UNHCR has consistently expressed concern about the security of its staff, the staff of its implementing partners and the refugees in the tribal areas near the Pakistan-Afghan border, where all the new refugee camps are situated, and very much regrets the death of the worker.

The incident has forced UNHCR to temporarily halt the re-location of Afghan refugees to Jalozai and Peshawar to the Old Bagzai camp. Earlier, a delegation from one of the warring groups had entered the camp and the staff had to call in the local authorities to have them removed.

The fighting occurred about a kilometer away from the camp. The refugees nor the humanitarian workers were the target. All our staff were safely evacuated to the nearby town of Sadda.

The authorities have intervened and paramilitary units have been deployed to separate the two groups. This morning, we understand that a loya jirga (community meeting) was convened to discuss how to resolve the dispute. We hope to resume our work as soon as the security situation permits.

Transfers of refugees to new locations in North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan continues apace. Today, we moved 1,760 refugees from Jalozai to the new Shalman camp in Khyber agency. Since Saturday, over 7,600 refugees have been transferred to Shalman.

In Baluchistan, today UNHCR re-located more than 1,400 refugees from Killi Fiazo and Quetta to Landi Karez and Mohamed Khail camps.