TALKING POINTS

International Day Against Drug Abuse

As we announced during last Sunday's briefing, the United Nations will celebrate the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Trafficking tomorrow. The theme of this years day is Drug Abuse and HIV/AIDS. The State High Commission for Dug Control of Afghanistan and the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP/ODCCP) are jointly organizing an event in the auditorium of Kabul University in commemoration of the day.

Our guest today is Bernard Frahi, ODCCP Country Office Representative for Afghanistan and he will give you more details about the event and will talk to you about the specific issue of Drugs and HIV/AIDS and of course answer any questions you might have on that issue.

There is also a press release that has been issued on the date that has been made available to you.

Update on Mazar

We have received question on the situation in Mazar and the impact of that on staff members. There were rumours about evacuations. There is not such a thing. We spoke with our officers who nothing of that sort. As you know the situation in the region is still tense. We had a statement a couple of weeks ago on that problem. As a result of the problems, some NGOs in the region felt that either they could not continue as they were or that they would have to consider a change in their programmes. There is more caution being taken regarding road missions but they have not been stopped or suspended. Many NGOs have removed female staff from undertaking field missions as a temporary measure.

The day before yesterday, our office in Mazar met with the local representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in the northern region to discuss the situation and its effect on the international aid community. Of course, the United Nations reiterated its position to be ready to work with the authorities and the MOFA representative indicated that it is necessary for the factional leaders in the north to get together and agree on joint or collective measures in order to ensure safety and security. Let us hope that they do that indeed and that these measure take effect and change the situation over there.

WFP - Visit of Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme - Alejandro Chicheri

The preparations of the visit of the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme are in place.

We will visit a Women's Bakery in district one. The Women's Bakeries project is one of our most important programmes that we run in Afghanistan. This program powerfully demonstrates WFP's commitment to women, the community at large, community empowerment, advocacy, and the creation of work opportunities for women.

We will then visit the Naswan S. Noor Mohammad Shah Maaena School. It is one of the three schools, which were part of the School Feeding Programme when it was launched on March 30. The programme begun with 2,150 students in that school and 2,600 students are currently being assisted under the programme with 220 grams fortified bread in a daily basis.
WFP School feeding programme aims to alleviate short-term hunger, encourage school performance, enrolment and attendance, particularly among girls. Although the initial plan was to provide a daily 400gm ration of bread to 250,000 primary school children, the target number climbed to 1 million as estimates of expected registration dramatically increased. The bread was also modified to better accommodate the palates of children, and the more manageable 220gm ration now includes oil. Chronic malnutrition in Afghanistan is a significant problem and well-documented by cases of stunting and micronutrient deficiency diseases; the wheat flour used in school feeding is fortified with micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A and B group vitamins. To date, nearly 150,000 children are benefiting from a meal in the school feeding programme.

To follow this visit, a bus will be available for press. It will depart on Wednesday, 26 June at 10.00 a.m. from the World Food Programme (WFP) Country Office in Afghanistan. (Opposite French Embassy in the same compound of UN Humanitarian Air service UNHAS Wazir Akbar Khan.)

The scheduled time for Mr. Morris' press conference tomorrow has been changed to 5.20 p.m. tomorrow, 26 June 2002.

Questions & Answers

Q: We heard that General Dostum has agreed to the extension of ISAF [inaudible]. Have you heard that?
Spokesman: No we don't have. But I think that a number of Afghan leaders have already spoken earlier about how they saw positively the extension of ISAF. I don't know specifically about General Dostum however others have spoken before.

Q: Have any UN people been evacuated from Mazar?
Spokesman: Not to my knowledge. There are no UN personnel being evacuated from anywhere in this country.

Q: Do you have any information on the appointment of the Vice Chairman for President Karzai?
Spokesman: I am not the spokesman for President Karzai.