TALKING POINTS

SRSG's Visit to Mazar-i-Sharif
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, left this morning for Mazar-i-Sharif. He was accompanied by a number of senior officials, including Nigel Fisher, Deputy Special Representative for Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction.

His programme includes meetings with officials and political leaders including General Dostam, Special Representative of the Interim Administration, Haji Raghuzar, Governor of Balkh Province, and Ustad Atta Muhammad, Commander of the 7th Brigade.

Later today he will meet with the Heads of UN agencies and with UN staff working in Mazar. On Monday he will go to Mordian District, Jowzjan Province to attend the first day of the Loya Jirga elections. He is expected back in Kabul late Monday afternoon.

Update on the Earthquake
Following assessments throughout yesterday it is confirmed that there are 50 dead; two from Khojakheder, three from Koh-I-Zolaaw, five from Jalgah, and 40 from Dawabi which was completely devasted. Eighty percent of those deaths are children. Twelve to twenty-five people have been reported missing.

The Swedish Committee Clinic in Nahrin has treated 100 patients and 20 have been referred to the hospital in Pul-I-Kumri. We are estimating approximately that 150 persons have suffered injuries.

Five hundred tents donated from IOM and ACTED are being distributed on site. Seven hundred families have received assistance in Dawabi, and 500 in Khojakheder. Yesterday, families living in the two accessible villages started receiving their previously planned three-month WFP food rations, including wheat and supplementary food items. In addition, most families in both villages received a three-month ration of food under WFP's regular relief distributions, carried out by ACTED in February. W FP is feeding 80 percent of the entire district's population under its regular programme. Food and non-food aid is sufficient in the area given that these areas were covered in the assistance provided following the earthquake of 25 March.

Update on PolioVaccination
More than 60,000 volunteers are in the final stages of preparations to vaccinate six million children nationwide against polio from 16-18 April. Afghanistan is at a critical moment in the fight to rid Afghanistan of this crippling disease. If the next four rounds of vaccinations can take place without any hindrance, the goal of stopping the spread of the wild polio virus will be reached by the end of the year. This will be a tremendous accomplishment for Afghanistan and largely due to the determination of the Afghan people who have been mobilised since 1994 to carry out vaccinations despite fighting and instability throughout the country.

This round of vaccinations is being preceded by an intense social mobilisation campaign featuring a recorded message from Chairman Hamid Karzai to the Afghan population. The message is being transmitted several times a day on radio throughout Afghanistan and calls on all Afghans to ensure their children aged 0 to 5 are at home to receive the vaccinations. In order to eradicate polio it is necessary that all children under five are reached.

UN High Commission for Refugees - Visit to Afghanistan
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, who arrived in Iran yesterday in the course of a weeklong trip to the region, is in Herat today to look into the repatriation operations. On Saturday he met with the President and Ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He is scheduled to arrive in Kabul in the afternoon of Monday, 15 March. Upon his arrival, he plans to visit Pul-I-Charkhi encashment / distribution centre to meet with UNHCR field staff and returnees from Pakistan.

During his stay in Kabul, he will meet with the Chairman of the Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai and other senior government officials as well as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi and his senior staff.

The High Commissioner will hold a press conference at the UNHCR Office in Kabul on Tuesday, 16 April at 6.00pm.

Update on Returnees
Last night IOM assisted 18 Afghans to return voluntarily from Cambodia to Afghanistan under the Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) Programme. The group were met on arrival in Kabul by IOM staff who have helped to arrange their onward travel to towns and villages throughout Afghanistan.

The 18 were part of a group of 241 Afghan and Pakistani irregular migrants detained by the Cambodian authorities in Sihanoukville last July while trying to board an Indonesian ship en route to Australia.

Questions and Answers

Q: Do you have an update on the number of returnees?
A: 230,000 Afghans in Pakistan returned home under the joint repatriation programme of UNHCR. Another 1,100 Afghans in Iran have returned home in the first few days of organised repatriation from Iran started on 9 March.

Q: Is there any reason why 80 percent of the deaths [in the earthquake] were children?
A: No not really, probably because they are more vulnerable. Maybe the assessment can tell us.
Anders Fange: It was probably because the earthquake happened in the morning, about 8.30, so everyone is indoors [inaudible].

Q: Do you have any idea how many have been evacuated?
A: I do not think there has been an evacuation, assistance is being given on site so there has been no need to evacuate.

Q: Do you think you have a good handle on the situation up there?
A: We had the relief assistance in place already and that was very lucky so subsequently we were not caught unawares. We were able to go in and were not lacking medical supplies and medical teams. Everything was operational within a few hours and this helped lessen the number of people affected by the earthquake.

Q: So you do not expect the death toll to rise significantly:
A: Well there are some people who are missing so it will probably stablilise around 50-60
or 70.

Q: When will Ruud Lubbers meet Chairman Hamid Karzai?
A: Sometime when he is here but there is no exact time so please refer to UNHCR.

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Briefing on the Emergency Loya Jirga Process
Mr. Anders Fange, Director, Field Coordination Division, UNAMA

The full name is the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga, hereafter referred to as the 'Commission'. The Commission was established one month after the establishment of the Interim Administration in line with the timetable drawn up in the Bonn Agreement. It consists of 21 members from different sectors of Afghan society, but also with a core of experts on institutional law, customary law, working in the commission to draw up the rules and procedures.

Prior to the establishment of the rules and procedures for the Convening of the Loya Jirga, members of the Commission have visited 11 provinces, including Khost, Helmand and Badakshan, for consultations with local communities. Also in keeping with the timetable, the Commission adopted the rules and procedures on 31 March 2002 which provide for 72 percent or 1051 members of the Loya Jirga, to be chosen in indirect elections throughout the country. The remaining 28 percent of the participants will be chosen by nomination and selection, and these seats will provide for representation by those groups highlighted in the Bonn Agreement.

These indirect elections will be held in two stages, with stage one starting tomorrow, 15 April, and this will continue until 20 May. In every district in Afghanistan, numbering 381, there will be a gathering in the centre of the district. This district gathering will elect 20-60 representatives, an electorate shura. Stage two will begin around 20 May. The electorate shura, through a secret ballot will decide who amongst themselves will participate in the Loya Jirga in Kabul.

The Commission for the Loya Jirga is organising and facilitating the whole process, and UNAMA is observing and assisting the Commission in doing this. The Commission has made special provisions for the participation of women in the Loya Jirga; women are entitled to present themselves as candidates for the open seats, to be elected through the district. As relatively few women would feel confident doing this, the Commission has reserved 160 seats for women, equivalent to 11 percent of the seats. This would put Afghanistan ahead of all Muslim countries.

For the purpose of conducting these elections, the Commission has organised its work into eight regions; Northwest - Mazar-i-Sharif, West - Herat, Southwest - Kandahar, Central - split into Ghazni and Bamyian due to the ethnic split between Hazara and Pashtun, Southeast - Gardez, East - Jalalabad, Northeast - Kunduz and the Capital - Kabul.

As there are no legally approved district boundaries, the Commission has selected those which are functional. The Commission has identified 80 district organisers for the eight regions. The Commission has also identified 16 regional organisers, all of whom will be trained by the Commission.

Regarding the site of the Loya Jirga in Kabul on 10-16 June, the German Government have offered to assist, both financially and logistically to prepare the venue which will be the Polytechnic compound. The German State Assistance Organisation (GTZ) together with ISAF, are presently preparing the Polytechnic with regards to security.

Questions and Answers:

Q: Question on the arrival of the former King.
A: [I am not aware of his exact arrival date] What we know is the former King will open the Loya Jirga according to the Bonn Agreement, then he is supposed to be here.

Q: As the Loya Jirga process begins tomorrow, what actually is happening?
A: There will be a district assembly coming together, I am not exactly certain. The message has gone out to villages that they should send representatives. This is traditional and the way districts solve problems that arise. In bigger districts you will get assemblies of 1,000 people or more. In the smaller districts, perhaps you will get a meeting of 400-500 people. They will then be briefed on the Loya Jirga process by these teams that I have talked about, and following speeches, will select amongst themselves 20-60 representatives, who will then constitute the electoral council or shura.

Q: That is only happening in one district?
A: Yes it begins tomorrow and is the start of the process.

Q: Question on whether it is a voting process or a consensus.
A: It is a consensus. Traditionally in Afghanistan it is not a voting system. It is a consensus process, people agree. Usually they know it pretty well, it is nothing new for them to do these things. It is a district assembly, do not confuse that with the actual Loya Jirga in Kabul.

Q; [Inaudible] Question on those who want to disrupt the Loya Jirga process.
A: Afghanistan is a country which has had 23-24 years of war. There are a lot of people with guns out there. We know there are people who do not like the idea of the Loya Jirga. Of course there will be disturbances, there will be efforts by certain groups to disrupt the Loya Jirga process, there will be efforts to bribe people, there will be efforts to intimidate people. There will be international observers in place on the great majority [of regions]. Due to the logistical reasons, we are not sure if we will be able to reach all the regions with international observers. We also believe that we will be able to reach at least 90 percent of them.

Q: [Inaudible]
A: The international observes and the regional Commission team, they will be coming out, because you will have days of preparation. The way it works is that these teams, of two people in each, these are the organisers, they go out by car and visit these district. They have a volunteer in each district, who is a sort of focal point. They talk to the authorities, they talk to the elders and then they agree to hold the meeting. On the day of the actual meeting a helicopter will fly out with the Commission members and international observers

Q: [inaudible]
A: I believe that tomorrow is the day of the District Assembly in Mordian, Jawzjan Province. That is the start-up. This is the first of 381 districts. There are different start-up dates for the different regions, but the process moves simultaneously in all the regions.

Q: So tomorrow the Council members will be selected, not the Loya Jirga.
A: On 20 May the second stage will open up. Lets say that in the Mordian district they select 45 people, as a figure, we do not know, but lets say 45 people. On the 20 May these people will assemble together with all the others groups or shuras from the other districts. In the case of Jawzjan they will assembly in Mazar on a site that will be prepared with tents, medical facilities, the whole lot. [Inaudible] Then they will have their meeting in a specially assigned tent. They will of course interact with the other groups, but their main task, in that second stage, will be to elect, by secret ballot, two representatives to go to the Loya Jirga.

Q: Who pays the Commission members?
A: The United Nations pays them. They were selected through a process. The Bonn Agreement says that the participating groups should come in with lists for the Loya Jirga Commission. As well as civil society groups, other groups were welcome with names. All together we received 500-600 names. The first stage, like everything with the Loya Jirga, we were under time pressure. In hindsight, it would have been better with a year, than half a year. Anyway we have half a year.

Q: [Inaudible]
A: The sorting process was pretty rough but then we came down with a list of approximately 200 people, and we started checking on backgrounds, sending out these names to Afghan networks and asking them to put points; three stars for a very strong candidate, two stars for a good candidate and one star for only a candidate. Then this came down 125, then down to 60, then finally we had a list of 30-40 and finally 21 [inaudible].

Q: Question on the number of representatives from each district.
A: There is a list with how many representatives there are for each district, how many they are allowed to send.

Q: Do you regret you only have half a year instead of one year to preparation?
A: Of course [inaudible]

[Due to technical difficulties a few questions and answers missed]

Q: [Inaudible] Question on whether the UN, through the Commission, can veto the candidates.
A: Number one, the UN will not veto anybody. The Commission is independent from the UN. We are giving them advice and then it is up to themselves whether they want to take that advice or not. There is an affidavit which has to be signed by each and every member who is elected to the Loya Jirga, and it clearly says that they certify they have not been involved in terrorism, violation of human rights and drug business etc. Of course, if you ask me for my personal opinion, I think some people who have been involved in matters like this, they will probably [inaudible] Loya Jirga, but the important thing is if there are any real well-known abuses the Commission has the possibility to tell these people they are not allowed, if they are well-known abusers or drug lords or whatever. Also in the election process we believe that it will be possible to satisfy, to a certain extent, that the people themselves or in the district assemblies and in the district shuras, will sort out the people who do not have a good reputation.

[Inaudible]

Q: Question on security during the elections for the Loya Jirga.
A: We have security officers which are employed by the Commission, Afghan security officers that will be also for the international observers. There will be security measures taken, and of course the regional UN security officers will be involved in it.

Q: What about ISAF?
A: ISAF [inaudible] has a mandate for Kabul. ISAF is cooperating with GTZ, mandated by UNAMA to prepare the site. The UN has regional security officers who are constantly updated and informed about he conditions in their areas and they will, of course, give advice to the observers. Also on the security matter, travelling as an international, you are coming to a village in a district, stay overnight and then you talk to the villages about going to the next district. If the villagers are telling you there are bad guys over there, either you send an Afghan to negotiate, or you wait or you do not go at all.

Q: Question on type of security provided.
A: Security is often mistaken to be bodyguards who are surrounding you with guns, security is a lot of other things, and mainly it is information on what is going on out there.

Q: Please clarify if there will not be bodyguards.
A: We are discussing the possibility to get an armed security force for the second phase of the process; the regional centre where the district shura will assemble. We have not yet reached any conclusions.

Q: Where are the international observers from?
A: Well they are from all over the globe and what we have been trying to do is to get old Afghan hands, so we are getting people who have been working in academia, or with assistants, journalists. They should be able to speak one of the main languages in Afghanistan, so we are getting quite a number of these people, and then we will have to fill up with people who are experienced in post-conflict situations, so we are trying to get in experienced people.

Q: [Inaudible]
A: We have not quite reached. What we are doing is kind of half-measure. We are actually sending out people who work with the UN in Mazar-i-Sharif and they are going out to observe. We are expecting to get the first international observers in this week.

Q: Question on international observers.
A: We are talking at any given time, three international observers.

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