TALKING POINTS

Mass Graves in Bamiyan
The report of the mission who visited the site on Sunday (please see 7 April press briefing) is not yet concluded. It was a joint mission, United Nations and the Ministry of Interior, and recommendations are being discussed today between the two institutions.

Implementation Group Meeting
The Implementation Group meeting (please see 7 April press briefing for details) will be held on 10 and 11 April at the Old Prime Ministry Compound in Kabul.

Tuesday, 9 April at 3:30 pm - Press briefing by Ashraf Ghani, Executive Director of the Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority and Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai.

Wednesday, 10 April at 11:00 am - Opening session of the Implementation Group meeting, with presentations by the Chairman of the Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, Minister of Finance and Chairman of the IG meeting Hedayat Amin-Arsala, and Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General. .

Thursday, 11 April at 4:00 pm - Press conference by the Chair and Vice-Chairs with the results of the Implementation Group meeting.

World Bank Agreement with the Afghan Interim Administration
Today 2.00pm, at the Prime Ministry, the Vice President of the World Bank, South Asia, Ms. Mieko Nishimizu will join the Minister of Finance, Mr. Arsala, to sign a $10million dollar grant agreement to help the government strengthen their capacity to manage the reconstruction programme. This is the first project for the World Bank since 1979, and will help the Interim Administration implement other reconstruction programmes by putting in place sound financial management and procurement practices.

Update on Returnees - UNHCR, Yusuf Hassan
Angry protesters yesterday put up road blocks on the Torkham-Jalalabad road halting the movement of thousands of afghan returnees and resulting in considerable hardship. The protesters also prevented UNHCR staff from reaching the Mohmandara centre near the Afghan border, where the returnees collect their cash grants.

Some 700 vehicles with more than 14,000 returnees remain stranded between Torkham and Jalalabad.

For both the safety of returnees and its staff, the UN refugee agency is temporarily suspending the repatriation of Afghans through the Torkham border post. Yesterday's bomb explosion in Jalalabad occurred near a UNHCR's relief distribution centre where the returnees receive their aid packages. As a result of this tragic incident, the distribution centre has been closed.

UNHCR has also been forced to delay the return of Afghans through the Milak-Zaranj crossing point on the Iranian border due to factional fighting in Zaranj, Nimroz province.

The repatriation of Afghans from Iran starts today. The first refugees to take advantage of the Afghan Interim Administration, Government of Iran and UNHCR return assistance programme are expected to cross into Afghanistan through the Islam Qala border post this afternoon.

This morning, we learnt from our Peshawar Office in Pakistan that between 20-25,000 Afghans on 1,000 trucks had gathered outside the Takhta Baig registration centre.

WFP Update - Jennifer Abrahamson
As part of its countrywide rapid food security assessment program, a WFP team has just returned from a critical mission to evaluate the food security situation southern Afghanistan.

The WFP assessment team found that drought conditions continue to be very serious in southern Afghanistan and threaten large populations of people, the majority of whom are nomadic, pastoralist tribes. The WFP team reported that the Arghastan riverbed in Kandahar province is dangerously dry, as are irrigation schemes in the area. WFP is currently looking at plans for continued free food assistance in displaced camps in Spin Boldak and other areas over the next few months.

Starting this week, WFP will be providing 150 kilograms of wheat for each family returning to western Afghanistan through Herat city, after living as refugees for months in neighboring Iran. The food will be given to the returnees in UNHCR/GTZ distribution centers in Herat six days a week at an anticipated rate of 1,000 families per day. Afghans returning alone will receive a 30 kg sack of wheat. Most returnees are from Ghor, Badghis Farah, Faryab and Herat provinces. High energy biscuits will be distributed to vulnerable groups.

In addition, some 3,500 tons of WFP food have so far been distributed for roughly 23,000 refugee families that have been returning to their homes in Afghanistan from Pakistani refugee camps since last month.

From October through early April, WFP delivered more than 400,000 metric tons of food into Afghanistan, which has saved more than 6.6 million lives.

Questions and Answers

Q: Question on the protest in Jalalabad.
UNHCR: There have been a series of protests on both sides of the border. The day before we had protesters blocking the road on the Pakistani side of the border because of the Government of Pakistan cutting electrical supply to the tribal people in the tribal areas of northwestern province. In Jalalabad, the area between Jalalabad and Torkham, these were tribal people again, local people protesting against, what we have been told as the [Afghanistan's] Government's campaign against the poppy cultivation.

Q: Question on the number of refugees at the border.
UNHCR: Yesterday and the day before we had 14,000 who were stranded, some of them had come through but many of them remained between Jalalabad and Torkham. Today we were informed, just before I came here, by our Peshawar office that at the Takhta Baig registration centre there were at least 20,000-25,000 Afghans who had come to be registered so that they could proceed with their journey.

Q: [Inaudible]
UNHCR: No these are just civilians. They have concentrated on the main roads and as a security precaution we have not challenged the road blocks.

Q: [Inaudible]
UNHCR: We have, in consultation with the Afghan Interim Administration, we are watching the situation, they are going to investigate. They will advise us accordingly. If the situation improves we will certainly like to resume as quickly as possible because I think there is a lot of need on the part of the returnees and we like to help them and we like to be there when they come through.

Q: Question on the length of time the bodies have been in so called mass graves in Bamiyan.
Spokesman: All I can tell you is what they told us when they first contacted us. That does not mean there may not be bodies buried there earlier, but I would hesitate to speculate until the report is completed, and I do not think we should forget that this mission was there for just a few hours as a preliminary mission to contact authorities and see and confirm it was the case that there were graves there, and indeed we can confirm that. They did see sites, they did see some bodies but we cannot confirm numbers.

Q: Who contacted the UN?
Spokesman: The Hazara people contacted us.

Q: Has the UN called for any outside experts to come in?
Spokesman: If the group recommends that, we will call. Anything that we do, and I am talking in general, we have to look at the specific situation, but also how can this be a part of capacity building, how can this be a part of strengthening local institutions, so this is also a consideration. This is true of anything we try to do here.

Q: Question on the fighting at Numroz province.
UNHCR: [You should] raise this question with the Afghan Interim Administration.

Q: Question on returnees coming from Iran.
UNHCR: We had 70 people who had registered and we are giving them the choice to be able to travel northwest and try to come in through Islam Qala if they wish to do so.

Q: Seventy is a small number.
UNHCR: Today is the first day of the Afghan/Iranian repatriation programme. Usually the first two-three days, people wait and see.
We have nine registration centres in Iran and only three have registered any returns today to Zaranj, Mashad and Zahedan, but we hope it will pick up.

Q: Inaudible
UNHCR: For the Milak-Zaranj crossing point, but the main crossing point for Iran is the Dogharoun Islam Qala and that is open and we are expecting to see the first arrivals.

Q: Question on the number of returnees from Iran.
UNHCR: I do not know actual figures because they are coming from various destinations.

Q: Question on numbers of people leaving Afghanistan.
UNHCR: We have not had any major out flow in the last few weeks. We have had a large concentration of Afghans who tried to flee to Pakistan on the Chaman border. We had nearly 10,000 people who had fled mainly from the northern parts of Afghanistan, mostly Pashtu minorities from those areas [but] who have not been allowed in Pakistan, they are camped out in no man's land between the two countries' borders.

Q: Are they in your camps?
UNHCR: No they are not in our camp but are just outside our camp, but we are providing them with assistance and WFP is providing them with food, and we have given them shelter material and water.

Q: How long have they been there?
UNHCR: They have been there since January

Q: How many are there
UNHCR: About 10,000.