TALKING POINTS

Assessment Mission to Bamiyan
The UN were informed late Friday afternoon, 5 April, by the community in Bamiyan of what they called three mass graves. A team was assembled in Kabul, composed of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Human Rights Advisor, the UNAMA Police Advisor, and a senior representative of the Ministry of Interior. An Officer of the UNAMA office in Bamiyan, joined the team at the site, as did the Deputy-Chief of Security in Bamiyan. This was a preliminary examination mission with limited equipment, and limited technical capacity with the purpose to locate, examine, verify and document the site, to note its general status and parameters, and to make recommendations for further action.

On Sunday, 7 April 2002, at 9.00hrs, the team flew to Bamiyan. The team visited two sites. The first site was a well located in the Zargaron section of the village of Daoudi outside of Bamiyan (called simply "Daoudi well" by the residents). The second site was located in the village of Daoudi at a hillside ravine that serves as a water drainage channel at times of flooding. The hillside is marked by a series of clearly visible indentations, said to contain further human remains.

The team examined both sites, took a number of photographs, and interviewed on-site witnesses. The sites contain the human remains of several persons. Clothing was discovered on and around the human remains. The remains of at least four persons have been distinguished, and there are strong indications of some quantity of others yet to be uncovered. There are indications of other similar sites, yet to be investigated, elsewhere in the region.

The team recommended the following action:

The sites should be secured, and should remain secured until follow-up investigations have been concluded.

A team, including forensic specialists, will be immediately assembled and dispatched in order to undertake a more conclusive investigation. The team will include both UN personnel and national officials and technicians. The German police training project group will coordinate activities with the UN on the capacity building of personnel in Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Interior.

Upon conclusion of the technical work of the team, the remains should be subject to reburial, in accordance with local wishes, traditions and practices. All activities should be closely coordinated with the local community. A broader survey, to identify other such sites, should be undertaken.

FAO Staff Killed in Northern Afghanistan
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, was deeply saddened by the death of Mr. Shah Sayed of the Food and Agricultural Organization who was shot by gunmen in the early morning of Wednesday 10 April in his home in Mazar-i-Sharif. He extends his personal condolences to Mr. Sayed's family and colleagues and all others touched by this loss.

This is part of a disturbing pattern of attacks on civilians including humanitarian personnel in the northern region in recent months. Mr. Brahimi will be meeting authorities here in Kabul to discuss measures to ensure the protection of aid workers - a priority in light of this tragic event and the chain of security incidents in recent months.
He and other senior UN officials will be in Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday to meet UN and other aid workers, who are very concerned about their safety and security and that of their families and colleagues. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General will also meet with local leaders and impress upon them their responsibility and obligations to guarantee the safety of humanitarian aid workers and to safeguard humanitarian activities.

Implementation Group Meeting
The Afghanistan Implementation Group meeting began yesterday, 10 April, in Kabul. It will conclude today and will be followed immediately by a press conference at 4.00pm, held by the Chairman of the Implementation Group and Minister of Finance, Mr. Hedayat Arsala. At the opening session, the Special Representative to the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, noted "The time has come for the international community to fulfill the pledges made in Tokyo and write out its cheques, enabling the Interim Administration to begin implementation of the projects that we all have been promising. This is the only way to ensure that the people of Afghanistan feel the concrete improvements in their lives that are needed to nurture their faith in peace."

Update on Assisted Returns from Iran - IOM
The UNHCR repatriation of Afghan refugees in Iran commenced on 9 April. The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) will be providing the transport arrangements at the border crossing point to the main centre of their return province, the running of the transit centres and the medical screening.

IOM have initiated a Return of Qualified Afghans Programme to encourage the return of qualified Afghans from around the world to help the reconstruction process.

WFP Update - Jennifer Abrahamson
Western Afghanistan: For the past two days, WFP has been providing 30 kilograms of wheat in Herat for each Afghan refugee returning into the country from neighbouring Iran.

Also, since February 25, WFP has provided return food rations for more than 14,000 IDPs who have made the journey back to their homes in Badghis and throughout Herat province after living for an extended period in camps around Herat city.

Rapid Food Needs Assessments: Initial results of WFP's countrywide Rapid Food Needs Assessments are starting to come in. Most assessments so far have been carried out in northern Afghanistan's most vulnerable areas. As of late last week, 48 helicopter assessments had been completed in the north, and 14 in Ghor and Badghis provinces had been conducted in the west.

WFP has also undergone several road assessments in these areas, along with southern and eastern regions of the country. Assessments by helicopter in the Central Highlands should begin by late April.

Typically, our findings indicate that in villages without an irrigation infrastructure, people are heavily reliant on food aid because of the three consecutive years of drought. WFP found that food aid in several villages had very positive effects on drought-hit villages.

In many areas, villagers told WFP teams that food aid has helped not only to feed their families, but it has also prevented the sale of land and livestock, has assisted the poorest in repaying loans, prevented out-migration from Afghanistan and halted the early marriage of daughters.

In some villages, however, WFP found that in addition to increased and diversified food aid, more non-food items such as seeds and medicine are badly needed.

A large proportion of families in just about all villages assessed throughout the country remain weak or extremely weak and will continue to rely on food assistance over the coming months in order to prevent another hunger crisis.

Visit by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees - Yusuf Hassan
The High Commissioner, Mr. Ruud Lubbers will be visiting Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran from 13 April. He will be in Herat from 14 April, 15-17 April in Kabul and he will hold a press conference in Kabul on 17 April at 11.30am.

More details on UNHCR's programme are attached.

Questions and Answers:

Q: Question on Chairman Karzai's speech at the Implemetnation Group
Spokesman: He was making an appeal for all of us. What he was asking for is a taskforce to get together and look at this issue which we all know exists, in any situation where you are dealing with recruitment of qualified personnel in the country where you are. It is an issue that the United Nations is very concerned. We raised this issue several weeks ago with our partners and with the Administration as well.

Chairman Karzai, yesterday in his speech, brought up the problem of disparity of salaries and the capacity of the Government to pay salaries as compared to international organisations. He did not mention the media but it is also one of the actors in this process as you know, in the disparity of salaries. So he asked for a taskforce to be put together bringing together them and the international community representatives to see how best to address this.

Q: Question on the several remains found in Bamiyan and how many in total.
Spokesman: There are no quantities. There was no capacity in this mission to determine the remains of how many bodies, they can just acknowledge there are indeed some remains there.

Q: Question on the possibility of further mass graves.
Spokesman: It is a possibility that there will be other sites similar to these two visited. One of the recommendations [is that] the international experts would be joined by national officials and technicians, and that the German team that [will] be in charge of training the police will also be involved and that is also part of capacity-building of the Ministry of Interior in order to [enable them] to deal with future needs that unfortunately might be similar to the case here.

Q: [Inaudible] Question on other graves.
Spokesman: We need experts, forensic teams to go and really investigate further, and interview people. What we did in the few hours on Sunday would not be enough to have a responsible assessment of that region.

Q: Question on identity and how long the bodies have been buried at the sites.
Spokesman: Of course we do not know the identities of the bodies or of the remains that are there. Again the determination of the length of time that those remains have been there can only be determined by more specialised work of this team that is coming.

Q: Question on the team.
Spokesman: International experts working alongside Afghan technicians and officials.

Q: [Inaudible] Question on shelter for returnees in urban areas.
UNHCR: UNHCR is just actor in a big humanitarian field where there are many others. In this particular case there is a division of labour and we help the return of refugees, and for who those able to go back to their home areas, such as Shomali for example, we have a shelter project in which we will be spending up to US$ 40 million to help people rebuild their homes. People who are coming to admin centres are going to be assisted through the other UN programmes, like help people get jobs and get houses. For the majority of people that we are helping, I think many of those will end up in rural areas and there are arrangements made to assist them to get their houses built and get back to life.

Q: Question on the killing of Mr. Sayed in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Spokesman: Three people entered his house, it was in his bedroom. They dragged him out of his bedroom, and still within the house, they shot him dead.

Q: Question on the definition of mass graves.
Spokesman: While there is no legal definition of mass graves, the United Nations has traditionally used the term to refer to locations where three or more victims "of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions" are buried, not having died in combat or armed confrontation. Others simply use the term to refer to sites in which multiple persons are buried. We have been careful in the language used by the team because the term mass grave might imply a connection to summary executions or massacres, and, pending the results of further forensic investigation, we are not in a position to reasonably arrive at such a conclusion.

Q: [Inaudible] Question on length of time bodies are buried.
Spokesman: [Inaudible] Other than the fact that they have discovered the bodies. As it was mentioned here, they indicated at first, that [the bodies] were very recent victims, we cannot confirm that.

Q: [Inaudible] Question on the number of bodies.
Spokesman: There was a mention, and I saw some of your reports on Sunday and Monday, there was a reference by locals of 35 people in these sites. We cannot confirm that.

Q: Question on killing of FAO personnel.
Spokesman: An investigation has to determine what it is. Certainly it was not robbery and nobody in his house was targeted.

Q: Question on where it took place.
Spokesman: This was in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Q: [Inaudible]
Spokesman: Since these sad incidents started, our colleagues have been making representations to local authorities and commanders. This will continue at the Kabul level and at the regional level. I can give you some idea of the types of incidents, back in January three aid workers were severely beaten and threatened during distribution of humanitarian assistance. This was by the recipients' Uzbek community to prevent distribution to a neighbouring Pashtun community. February, armed men entered the home of one local Afghan aid agency staff. Separated the family members, raped the women and looted all household assets. Still February, the office manager of an international aid agency was kidnapped by armed men on the way to work in the morning, he is still missing. Recently a few days ago, armed men entered the house of the driver of one of the agencies part of the UN effort, part of the international community's effort of assistance. The same driver was also threatened by armed gunmen in his vehicle the following day. I believe you have an idea of the sort of the situation in the north.

Q: Question on the nationality of the victims.
Spokesman: All Afghans.

Q: [Inaudible] Question on the nationality of the experts of the future team.
Spokesman: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have a roster of forensic experts who can be called upon. [The ones coming here are from this source]

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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

More than 200,000 Afghans Return Home