TALKING POINTS

Update on the Loya Jirga Process
As of 28 April, we have had some 30 Loya Jirga district assemblies. As you will recall, the process started on 15 April in Mordian, Jowzjan province, in northern Afghanistan. So far, six women have been selected in the first round.

On 27 April, in Nejrab district in Kapisa province, delegates decided that they would choose their final representatives for the Loya Jirga on the spot. After the first round selection they proceeded to the second level of the process to vote on the names to decide who will represent them at the Loya Jirga.

The tentative schedule of district shura meetings anticipated to take place on 30 April are: Dand-wa-Patan (Paktia), Chamkani (Paktia), Meta Khan (Paktika), Rashidan (Ghazni), Kuhmard (Bamiyan), Behsud (Wardak), Yaqoobi (Khost), Subarai (Khost), and the Centre of Kandahar Province.

Fighting around the city of Gardez has disrupted the schedule of shura meetings in that area. There has also been fighting in the Qara Bagh district of Ghazni which has raised concerns for safety in that area. Today a meeting will be held in Qara Bagh, with the participation of the regional elders to discuss the disputes.

UNICEF's Public Information and Advocacy Campaign on Education for Returnees and Refugees
UNICEF has launched a public information and advocacy campaign on education for returnees and refugees, starting with today's opening of an information centre at Pul-i-Charkhi encashment centre in Kabul. The information centre will deliver messages on the need to register children - especially girls - at school, and provide information on returnees' reintegration into the Afghan education system.

The information centre will also provide practical information on procedures of school registration as well as on opportunities for teachers to find employment within the education system.

More information centres will be set up over the next two weeks in encashment centres in Jalalabad and Herat, and in refugee camps, check points and areas of resettlement within the next two to three months.

UN Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan Receives Japanese Donation
The Foreign Minister of Japan Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi, will be presenting the United Nations Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) with an US $18 million donation at an official ceremony at Kabul Airfield at 2.45pm, on Thursday 2 May 2002. Mr. Zalmai Rassoul, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism, The Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Nigel Fisher and Mr. Dan Kelly, Programme Manager of MAPA will attend.

Funds will be used for protective equipment for de-miners, vehicles, and communications. This contribution will replace equipment that was lost and looted, and will upgrade the standard of protection for deminers.

The mine clearance and mine awareness operations of the MAPA, as well as the mine clearance of Kabul International Airport, will also be funded.

Money will be allocated to victim assistance programmes that help mine landmine survivors to recover from injuries from landmines and other explosive devices through medical assistance, training and psychological rehabilitation.

Update on Locusts
In addition to the four main provinces infested by locusts (Baghlan, Samangan, Kunduz and Balkh), the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations have also received reports of late hatching (due to the high altitude) in Faryab Province and Badghis Province. In Faryab, an immediate Chemical Campaign was launched. Approximately 4,500 litres of pesticides were used in areas where mechanical control was impractical because of the terrain. Badghis is currently being assessed.

There are now 1,000 mini hand-held sprays (Ultra Low Volume Atomizers) covering 25 hectares per day and 5 motorized sprayers covering 250 hectares per day. The initial distribution of 5,000 litres has been distributed and used and a further 4,000 litres have been deployed to Samangan and Baghlan.

Crops will be treated until the end of the harvest, which will be in June; the campaign will therefore extend for a further 40 days. As yet there are no reports of flying locusts!

Update on the Flooding in Qala-I-Naw, Badghis Province
Three women, three men and two children have lost their lives in the recent flooding in Qala-I-Naw and the surrounding villages last week. Approximately 760 families have been affected and nearly 500 homes and 4,300 hectares of agricultural land destroyed.

Out of an expected affected population of 3,000 persons, a total of 1,745 have already received a benefit package of food, jerry-cans, water and blankets to last for two weeks. Even though water systems are severely damaged in many places, people are reported to have some access to safe water. People who have lost their houses are reported to be living with relatives or neighbours for the time being.

'Food for aid' projects are being implement in order to repair the main roads that have been destroyed.

Update on the Movement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Under the auspices of the Afghan Interim Administration, UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will begin the assisted return of IDPs from Kabul city on Tuesday, 30 April.

The first three movements this week will be to the centre of Bamyan province where families will receive a reintegration package from UNHCR. IOM is planning to assist 260 families this week. To ensure the IDPs are fit to travel these long distances, IOM will provide medical screening at each of the nine embarkation points in the city.

Airport Day Care Centre to be Opened - 30th April 2002
The opening of the Kabul International Aiport day-care center was be at 10:00am today. The opening of the day care center will be attended by the Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism Dr. Zalmai Rassoul. IOM staff have personally contributed to provide each child with a bag containing note books, pencils, sharpeners, crayons and erasers.

At the beginning of March the Airport Authorities, concerned that some female staff were not able to return to their positions due to the child-care facilities being destroyed, approached IOM and requested assistance. The project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), caters for 25 children.

Update on the Return of Refugees and IDPs - Sarah Russell
More than 400,000 Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan two months after UNHCR and the Afghan Interim Administration, in collaboration with Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan, launched an assistance programme for returnees.

Returns from Pakistan have topped 370,000 since 1 March, when the programme began. Over three weeks since a similar scheme was started in Iran, 20,000 Afghans have gone home from Iran. The rest of the returnees came from Tajikistan.

There are 40,000 people waiting in the Chaman / Spin Boldak area. Yesterday, they received a 15-day food distribution. UNHCR is working with authorities on both sides of the border on a number of ways to reduce the number of people waiting there. UNHCR has canvassed opinion to see if people want to go back to their homes in Afghanistan, and are providing a returnee package of shelter and non-food items. UNHCR has also canvassed people in the Spin Boldak camps to ascertain how many want to return home. At the moment, 20 percent have indicated a wish to return and movement should start in the near future. Meanwhile, some people cannot or do not want to return home, so UNHCR are looking at relocation in new sites in Kandahar. An assessment mission is going there on 2 may.

Afghans going home from Iran are transported by the Iranian authorities to the Afghan border and from there by IOM up to their home provinces in Afghanistan. Most of the arrivals are heading for Kabul and Nangarhar provinces.

UNHCR, the Ministry of Repatriation and IOM have helped more than 15,000 IDPs go back from the old Soviet Compound in Kabul to the Shomali Plain in central Afghanistan. Earlier this year, UNHCR helped return 8,000 IDPs in Panjshir valley to Shomali. Yesterday, UNHCR began moving IDPs from other areas in Kabul to Bamiyan, six hours overland from Kabul. In Nangarhar, UNHCR has moved more than 3,000 IDPs from Sar Shahi camp back to their villages mostly within the province.

World Health Organisation Update on National Reproductive Health Meeting in Kabul - 29 April 2002 - Lori Hieber Girardet
The Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan has held a National Reproductive Health Meeting in Kabul on 29 April to strengthen coordination amongst UN agencies, NGOs and the public health officials involved in reproductive health in Afghanistan.

The number of pregnancy related deaths in Afghanistan is amongst the highest in the world, with an estimated 17,000 women dying annually. Many of these deaths are preventable. Lack of education on basic health issues related to safe pregnancy and inaccessibility to health care continue to contribute to the exceedingly high female mortality rate in Afghanistan.

Improving the health of pregnant women, and all women of reproductive age is a high priority in the reconstruction of Afghanistan's health care system. Many women are unable to identity the major complications of pregnancy, thereby delaying visits to health care facilities until it is too late to save the life of either the mother or the infant. Increased nationwide health education is a major component of WHO's efforts to decrease the number of pregnancy related deaths amongst Afghan women.

World food Programme Update on Orphanages in Kabul - Jennifer Abrahamson
WFP is happy to announce that food assistance to more than 1,200 children living in two Kabul orphanages is resuming this week.

WFP has been feeding children in the two centers, Allaudin Orphanage located near the ex-Soviet compound in District six, and Tahyai Maskan Orphanage, located in District four, on and off since 1995. Programs were temporarily suspended last summer during the former Taliban rule. Also, in December of last year, the families of New York City Fire Fighters donated food items to the orphanages that supported the children for several months.

The resumption of WFP food aid to these children is critical as boys and girls living and studying in the centers would otherwise be left destitute with little or no way to survive.

Many children's parents have died due to conflict or disease, but not all have been orphaned. These children's parents simply can't afford to feed them due to chronic poverty and acute losses sustained during these past several years of drought. In addition to providing their children with a safe home, food and an education, the orphanages help avoid the early entry and sale of children into the Kabul labour market.

WFP is providing wheat flour, sugar, oil and beans to both orphanages.

[Due to technical difficulties, the Question and Answer session could not be transcribed]