TALKING POINTS

Update on the Loya Jirga

We are deeply disturbed and profoundly regret that several people have been killed in recent weeks in Afghanistan. While there is no certainty that the motivation of these murders was political, in the minds of people these events are related to the current political process. In addition, yesterday the Independent Special Commission for the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga informed us of the arrest in Herat of two representatives selected during phase I of the Loya Jirga process. They are Mohammad Rafiqi Shaheer, the Head of the shura of professionals and Abdul Latif, representative selected in the Adraskan district. We are similarly concerned about the detention of Ghulam Farook who has been selected in phase I in the district of Shindan, all of these in Herat.

These developments come after a number of incidents of intimidation in several districts in the west. Of particular concern are the six people selected in phase I in the district of Karukh who received death threats from the chief of the district. These people have since decided not to participate in phase II. The Independent Commission and the United Nations have already expressed their concern to the authorities of Herat with regard to cases of intimidation that have occurred in that area. These concerns have also been brought to the attention of the Interim Administration here in Kabul. The rules of the Independent Commission allow it to proceed with the direct selection of representatives in those areas where conditions of freedom and fairness do not exist. The Commission is about to apply this provision in approximately twenty districts.

Institutional mechanisms, therefore do exist and should be applied to protect the integrity of the process. At the same time it is also the responsibility of the authorities and the political leaders of Afghanistan to ensure that the Loya Jirga process can conclude in conditions of fairness and transparency.

Judicial Workshop

Today at 11.00 a.m. a workshop will be held in the UNAMA Conference Room to discuss the proposed powers and functions of the recently selected 16 member Judicial Commission. The recommendations will then be presented to the Interim Administration for its preparation of a decree on the specific functions of the Commission.
The Interim Administration announced the name of 16 members selected on 21 May.
Attending today's workshop will be members of the Afghan justice sector including the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, the Faculty of Law, lawyers, as well as members of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA,) and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF). Representatives of the international donor community including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union will also be at the workshop.

UNHCR Update on Returnees

UNHCR is introducing a new system of cash grants to cover the travel costs of Afghan refugees returning home from Pakistan. It will reflect the variations in length and destinations of the journey back to Afghanistan. In addition, all cash grants will now be issued per person and not on a family basis. This is done to stop families from splitting up in order to receive additional funding and risk to be rejected for that reason. Depending on their destinations, they will receive either USD 10, USD 20 or USD 30 per person. If any of these returnees travel from Karachi via Torkham the travel grant is supplemented with an extra USD 8 per person (up to USD 40 per family).
Today's figure of Afghan returnees exceeds 760,000 people who have come back to Afghanistan since the Afghan Interim Administration and UNHCR started its assisted return programme on 1 March. Over 695,000 Afghans who have returned from Pakistan, 612,000 have crossed from the north-west frontier province and 83,000 from Baluchistan. Over 53,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Iran.

FAO - Veterinary Field Units

Over the last 20 years, and despite interruptions caused by security issues and looting, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has built up a dynamic and successful network of Veterinary Field Units covering 255 districts out of 300. This has provided employment opportunities and income to thousands of people, including women. It has also resulted in a resilient national disease monitoring and control capacity, with 4 centres established in Khost, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat.
FAO estimate that this year at least 4 million animals have been vaccinated against enterotoxaemia, and hundreds of thousands have been de-wormed. The agency has also successfully controlled Rinderpest in Afghanistan since the last outbreak in Khost province in 1995. The country is now eligible to apply for the status of provisional freedom from the virus. Former awareness and sound reporting structures have also enable the discovery and isolation of the Asia Type 1 foot and mouth disease virus, which was not known in Afghanistan.

Media Accreditation procedures

The requirements for journalists who will be requesting accreditation for the Loya Jirga are: a fully completed accreditation form; two types of photo identification (passport, drivers license, press identification etc); a letter of assignment on the official letterhead of the media organisation you will be representing. The publisher, assignment editor or bureau chief must sign this. The letter should provide your name, functional title and the period of coverage that you will be here for.

WFP - Alejandro Chicheri

Emergency Rapid Needs Assessments to end

Three days ago, Rapid Emergency Food Needs Assessments were completed in Bamyan (Central Afghanistan). The helicopter will be moved to Herat during this week to assist four to five days of rapid assessments in Farah Province which are expected to finish next Thursday. The REFNA missions assisted by helicopter will finish by the end of May. A final report containing the overall results of the Rapid Emergency Food Need Assessments will be released by mid June.

Since Early February, teams of WFP experts and NGOs have been moving into rural areas to assess the food needs and the health conditions of communities, investigate starvation reports, streamline the food aid operations, investigate non-food emergency needs, monitor food distribution and verify reports by NGOs on earlier food dispatches.
The helicopters have enabled these rapid assessment missions to be carried out with less staff, to more places in a shorter time. Using a helicopter, it is envisaged that a single assessment mission would not take more than three hours.

The information provided by these assessments have allowed WFP to adjust food aid allocations, determine the type of food aid needed, assess the progress made by the NGOs distributing the food, and determine appropriate activities to be supported by food aid.
Following the earthquakes in Samangan Province these helicopters also provided WFP and other agencies with a valuable tool to move in food, and emergency supplies, and to evacuate injured persons to hospital facilities.

UNESCO - Press conference announcement

There will be a press conference at 13:00 hrs on Wednesday, 29 May at the Ballroom of the Hotel Intercontinental, Kabul to mark the conclusion of the UNESCO/Ministry of Information and Culture "International Seminar on Conserving the Cultural Heritage of Afghanistan".

Questions and Answers

Q: You say you have two phase I representatives arrested in Herat and detained in a district of Herat is that correct?
Spokesman: All three of them are in Herat province but not all in Herat city.

Q: Is there a qualitative difference between the fact that you use the word arrest for the first two and detained on the other one?
Spokesman: No there is no qualitative difference.

Q: What exactly will the commission do? Can you give more details about invoking that clause you were talking about that enables them to get involved in this election process?
Spokesman: The procedures established by the Commissioners determine that whenever there are not conditions for a district Shura to take place and that is determined by the Commissioners, not necessarily in Kabul, they split themselves throughout the country. The team that is in that particular area decide, based on what is happening in that particular district, to suspend the Shura and it may take place at another time. This has happened in a few situations. They may try again if the conditions. The criteria foresee that they can have it elsewhere and finally the last resort is for the Commission to appoint the delegates and that is what we think will be happening in close to twenty or so districts, maybe a bit less. But we don't have any final numbers on that.

Q: Would that be done by the Commission in Herat or by the central Commission?
Spokesman: No, by the Commission in the locations.

Q: Is there a limit for the number of accreditations that will be allowed for the Loya Jirga?
Spokesman: You can submit as many as you want as long as they qualify.

Q: And will those people be allowed inside the tents - what are these accreditations for?
Spokesman: I will answer that at the end of the briefing as we have already gone through that extensively in previous briefings.

Q: Why were these three people detained in Herat? Were they detained because of their presumed participation in threats and intimidation or were they arrested and detained because the central authority does not want them to come to Kabul? Which side of the fence are these people on?
Spokesman: Firstly, we were not sure they were going to be the final delegates - it was still phase I. Frankly, I think you would have to ask the authorities who detained them why they are doing so.

Q: Presumably, the Commission has asked why they have been detained?
Spokesman: We have made presentations for these people that they should not be in such a situation.

Q: Three weeks ago there was a discussion here with regards to threats and intimidations in Herat, in Mazar directed at UN staff. At that time, delegations went to Mazar to meet with Dostum to talk about security. Are there any plans now to send a delegation to Herat to try to get to the bottom of this and are there any kinds of assurances from the authorities there that these kinds of intimidations will stop?
Spokesman: We have already raised [these issues] locally and centrally. We have already been to Herat. We have already talked to the authorities in Kabul. [inaudible]

Q: [inaudible] on representation to authorities.
Spokesman: No, his Deputy Special Representative of Political Affairs, Jean Arnault has been there. In Kabul these presentations have been made to the Chairman and Ministry of Interior and Defence.

Q: [inaudible]
Spokesman: In the city of Herat.

Q: You mentioned that some people were killed during the Loya Jirga, what is your feeling on that?
Spokesman: There were, as far as we know, some eight people, but I want to repeat and to stress that there is no firm indication that the murders were politically motivated. I think it is very very important to make it very clear to you, as important in our view is the fact that in the minds of people that is what is happening. The perception is that. I am not saying that it is politically motivated, please I want to again stress that, but in the minds of people and that is what is important for this process, it is important for this country and that is why it is such a serious matter in our view is that people think that there is a political linkage to these deaths.

Q: Where they all delegates or how were they related to the process?
Spokesman: None of them were phase II people. We had only two who were selected in phase I. But I repeat, we do not have evidence that there was a political motivation in these killings.

Q cont: [inaudible]
Spokesman: They were only two of these other six we know that they had not been selected in phase I, but we knew in their areas of origin in this consensus process, the communities hold the discussions at home before they go to the Shuras and in those discussions they had been identified as potential candidates for phase I but there had not been a formal selection appointment of them.

Q: Do you have precise dates for this?
Spokesman: We don't have precise dates but this is all roughly form the second week of May onwards.

Q: Would you explain the difference on your assessment in the perception of the people thinking it was politically motivated?
Spokesman: Let me clarify that. I want to repeat it once again. I don't have an assessment. What I said is that we do not have firm evidence or even indication that there was a political motivation in these killings. We know when people talk about it. People talk about it associating it to the [political] process.

Q: Can you give us in which areas these people were killed?
Spokesman: One in Kabul, four in Kandahar and three in Ghor.

Q: [inaudible] on media access to the Loya Jirga
Spokesman: There will be no access to journalists to the site where the delegates will be meeting and where the delegates will be housed. The delegates will be housed, they will eat and they will meet at the Polytechnic University. That complex has been partly destroyed during these years of civil conflict. A small area of it has been renovated and repaired for the Loya Jirga. In addition to the renovation to the buildings some tents have been erected, in particular a very big tent for where the plenary sessions will be held. Regarding the press, as I said, there will be no access to that area, that is following the design of the Bonn Talks where the delegates were at one location and the press were 25 minutes away. This time however, things will be slightly better, I hope, because though you will have no physical access to the plenary halls or the small group meetings, we are very confident that we will be able to have a link of audio and video to a press center where those of you who are reporters will be able to see on monitors what is going on. Some of you who are broadcasters, if you wish to either broadcast live or if you wish to record and then edit whenever you want, we will have a distribution panel and you just have to plug in. I must alert you that those of you [who want] to watch the proceedings in the press center, bring your interpreters because the sessions will all be in Dari and in Pashtu. There will be no English interpretation of the meetings. It is quite possible, we don't have final confirmation but all the indications are that for the opening and closing ceremonies [inaudible] [there could be a press pool].

Q: [inaudible]
Spokesman: What we have always said is [the Bonn Talks] were not perfect in terms of representation. But it was as representative as possible then. This process, now the Loya Jirga, there is no comparison if you want to take that line. It is entirely different in the sense that you have had an engagement of the population. Thousands of people have participated. Thousands have elected their electoral colleges at the district level [inaudible].

The only date that we have as a firm reference is what is in the Bonn Agreement. The Bonn Agreement says that the transition of the administration which replaces the current one should take office by 22 June, so if the Loya Jirga is delayed for one, two or three days we are within what the Bonn Agreement determines. But we still hope, but so far everything is still within the plans, on schedule so let us hope that it still continues like that.