TALKING POINTS

· Security Council - Resolution 1419 (2002)

Yesterday in New York the Security Council offered its full backing to the new Transitional Government of Afghanistan and stressed the importance of continued international support to complete the process outlined in the Bonn Agreement. The Council also welcomed the election of Hamid Karzai as Head of State.

As it unanimously adopted resolution 1419 (2002) the Council called upon all UN Member States to support the Transitional Authority and to provide long-term assistance for the current expenses of the Transitional Administration, as well as the socio-economic reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan as a whole. It further called upon donor countries that pledged financial aid at the Tokyo conference to fulfil their commitments promptly.

On the humanitarian situation, the Council called for "significantly greater and more rapid international assistance to the vast number of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons to facilitate their orderly return and effective reintegration into society in order to contribute to the stability of the entire country." All Afghan groups were called on to support full and unimpeded access by relief organizations to people in need and to ensure the safety and security of aid workers.

Pointing to specific tasks facing the new Government, the Council urged the Transitional Authority to build on recent efforts to eradicate the country's poppy crop and to promote the welfare and interests of Afghan women and children while providing education to both girls and boys.

· Update on Mazar

Three international staff members have been relocated from Maimana, Faryab province to Mazar city due to tension in the area as a result of the fighting in Sar-i-Pul and Sholgara. Operations in the area continue, though. Options were given to relocate to either Mazar, Kunduz or Pul-i-Khumri - there, areas in the north that remain stable and people can carry on with their work as those who remained in Maimana are doing.

Access to Maimana is through Sar-i-Pul, Jawzan Province, where there has been medium intensity factional fighting from Monday until yesterday afternoon. One settlement, south-east of Sar-i-pul, of some 150 families, has been reportedly burnt, while around 17 others have been looted. There are reports of population displacement, although we have no numbers as yet.

· IOM - IDP return assistance in north and west restarts

Since last Monday, over 11,500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have traveled home with International Office of Migration (IOM) convoys. In Western Afghanistan 5,178 IDPs returned to Ghor and Badghis provinces from the Herat IDP camps of Maslakh, Rawzabagh and Minarets. In the North, a further 6,430 left Mazar-e-Sharif to return to Balkh, Saripul, and Jawsjan provinces.

IOM plans to assist a combined total of some 1,500 people a day in these two regions to return to their homes through the end of July, subject to continued donor support and funding.

Families returning home from the IDP camps are provided with information about conditions in their district. On departure, they are given a reintegration package of essential items contributed by various agencies, comprising 100 kg of wheat per family, high energy biscuits, blankets, jerry cans, lanterns, plastic sheets, shelter tool kits, soap, seeds and agricultural tools.

· UNESCO - Goodwill Ambassadors

A United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO) Goodwill Ambassador, Mr. Patrick Amory is in Afghanistan this week.

Mr. Amory, a French journalist, is accompanying Ms. Niloufar Pizara, the lead acress of the acclaimed Iranian film, 'Kandahar', along with a photographer Mr. Romeo Balancourt.

Ms. Niloufar is from Kandahar for a follow-on documentary to the first film and she is to give her impressions of her native city as she returns for the first time in over twenty years.

The group returns to Kabul in the first week of July. If you would like more information you can contact Mr. Jim Morrison at UNESCO Kabul, on 0046 73004 4479.

Questions & Answers

Q: You just mentioned that there are rumours or unconfirmed reports of fighting in some provinces. In your recent statements you mention IDP repatriation is underway in the very same provinces where the fighting is going on.
Spokesman: No, I didn't say that fighting is throughout the province. I talked about a localised area and didn't use the expression unconfirmed reports or rumours. I said reports that reached us.

Q: Can you give us any indication about the different factions involved in the fighting?
Spokesman: I think in the north we are basically taking about Jamiat and Jumbesh but I would not be able to give you any further details on the military aspects of it.

Q: Could you confirm the reports that you have asked your UN female colleagues to leave Mazar?
Spokesman: No, we did not ask for that. That was misreported from the last briefing. It was, unfortunately, one of your colleagues from one of the wires who misreported. I asked for a correction to be issued and a correction was issued. I believe that the newspaper [mentioned by journalists] did not read the correction. That is not true so all of you, please, correct your records. Those of you who were here at the last briefing you have the tapes. I never said that female staff were being evacuated from the north. What I said is that on road missions, female staff were not going on road missions at that point. However, my understanding today is that that recommendation has been lifted so not even that is happening anymore. They can go on road missions just like their male colleagues. Those of you who are reporting, particularly to the Afghan public through Afghan media in Dari and Pashtu, if you can help clarify and reduce the level of rumours, help us with that one.

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Transcript of a Press Briefing by Mr. Filippo Grandi,
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative for Afghanistan
Thursday 27 June 2002, 10.15 am, UNAMA

I don't think you need to know much more and of course I appreciate that everybody is dealing with returnees these days from the Security Council to the art world [comment made in reference to earlier briefing by UNAMA Spokesman]. Since we heard that the famous actress is also returning to Afghanistan, it seems to be quite the central issue. But this is precisely what I wanted to share with you. You hear, I think here, briefing after briefing, a series of figures and numbers from Yusuf and my colleagues. This is very important to show you the progress of returns and other phenomena of displacement here. Maybe I would like to add a few remarks today and then take your questions.

When we came back to Afghanistan, we meaning the international representatives of UN agencies and other agencies after the military campaign last year in November, we estimated that there were about five million Afghans living away from their homes of which maybe 1.2 - 1.3 million were internally displaced and the rest living in exile mostly in Pakistan and Iran but also in other countries. So probably more than five million Afghans lived away after more than twenty years of violence and war. One good thing that we can say is that this figure is now probably down to about three and a half million.

We estimate that about half a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned to their homes since then. Half of them spontaneously and half assisted by UNHCR, IOM and other agencies. We know that 1.1 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan under the assisted programme of UNHCR plus there are maybe 200,000 who have returned spontaneously. Now these figures are, of course, apart from the assisted return figures which are fairly precise, the others are estimates so don't take them too literally but what I want to convey is a sense of the magnitude of this movement of return. This also means, however, that three and a half million Afghans are still living away from their homes. We think 700,000 - 800,000 perhaps as internally displaced people especially in the south where the situation remains difficult, and the rest in other countries, mainly again in Pakistan and Iran. Much as there has been a large movement of return, there also continues to be a very big problem of refuge and internal displacement of Afghans. The situation is a bit in transition if you wish and we have to look at it in that way.

In terms of the return movement, or let us look at it maybe in the different groups and categories. As far as the Afghans from abroad are concerned, most of them have returned from Pakistan - a very large majority. Out of 1.1 million, we have almost reached that figure give or take a few thousand, almost a million has returned from Pakistan. The returns from Iran have been much slower, about 80,000 so far. We envisage a slight increase in the next few months but we don't envisage a big massive flow unless the situation changes in Iran, unless there is more pressure by the Iranian authorities on Afghans to return.

In Pakistan the return continues to be very large although me may have seen a light decrease in the last few weeks, but still it is very large. Yesterday, more than 10,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan just to give you an example. There is a lot of pressure on Afghans to return from Pakistan. I am not suggesting that this is government policy in Pakistan. The government is happy to see Afghans return but I think the pressure is at the slightly lower level. It is local authorities, local police authorities, and even local communities putting pressure in a difficult political and economic situation in Pakistan for people to return. This pressure is mounting and is very serious and it is something I want to mention because we are concerned about it and we are making demarche with the Pakistani authorities. We have spoken to Mr. Brahimi about it as well in the past few days to ask them to intercede with local authorities, with local communities to diminish this pressure. We don't think this is a positive development. Many people want to return after so many years in exile. If you ask many people that are in encashment centres in Jalalabad or in Kabul or in Kandahar, people will tell you the situation has changed in Afghanistan. We see this as an opportunity to rebuild their lives inside the country.

The IDPs is a different situation because in some parts of the country as Manoel has just described, it is a fairly dynamic situation. In Herat, thanks mostly to IOM's effort, many people have returned from the camps to their provinces of origin, same in the north. The situation is not easy, they are not always returning to an easy situation but by and large we are fairly satisfied that this is a voluntary return and that people are honestly trying to rebuild their lives in the provinces of origin.

In Kabul we have seen a lot of people leave the city and go back to the Shomali Plains for example, largely spontaneously. Same for the Panjshir Valley. That was one of our first operations were we helped people return to other areas of the central region. We helped a lot of people in Bamyan return to their districts of origin. So, sometimes this movement or return is very short distances but this is what it was all about during the war. Sometimes it was short distance displacement which is now being progressively resolved. Where I think the situation remains a very big concern is the south. In the south you have IDPs who have fled drought and other IDPs who have fled harassment, violence and persecution especially against Pashtun minorities in the north. We have seen this phenomenon decreasing in the past few months. I think the peak of this harassment was really between 2001 and 2002 at the beginning of the year. A lot of pressure has been put on local commanders including by the Afghan authorities, actually I would say especially by the Afghan authorities but also by UNAMA and the UN agencies to try and reduce this. These episodes continue and, of course, fighting of the type that has just been reported does not help because that doesn't encourage people to go back. But, by and large, we have seen an improvement and we have even seen some Pashtun returning to the north, although I don't have figures and it is still a very small return. In the south in particular and in the east also in part, we see still a large number of IDPs from the northern provinces who simply, flatly refuse to return. I was there last week, I spoke to a lot of them and they told me that we are not ready to go back, it will take a long time before we think that our communities are ready to take us back or we are ready to go back to our communities. So, that is a serious problem. Between drought, persistent drought in the south and persistent protection problems in the north, we think that the IDP situation in the south, which is huge, we are talking about half a million people - almost, will not be resolved this year and we will have to cope with that situation as a humanitarian situation in the next few months.

There is another important aspect that I want to mention quickly. It is not enough to talk about return. It is not enough to help people go back to their houses. You then have to help them stay where they go back to. This is a very big problem because, UNHCR, the agency I represent and its immediate partners such as IOM, NGOs and WFP, can really only help people return and can help them in the first few weeks or months of their stay at their homes. We do shelter programmes. Our target, the UNHCR target is to build 50,000 houses or rather rebuild 50,000 houses in 2002. We now have contracted about 30,000 houses, NGOs to rebuild 30,000. And then other NGOs working with us will construct a number of other shelters. But this is only a small portion of what needs to be done. For people to stay back home, they need to have access to services - health, education, water and so forth. We do only a very limited amount of these activities. For people to go back, they have to have access to jobs, particularly in rural areas but also in urban areas. There are some initiatives but they are still very small and this needs to be increased and improved. We are really eagerly waiting - eagerly waiting - for large agencies such as the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank to come in and start big infrastructure projects such as roads, hospitals and schools that will give a lot jobs to returnees and to people in the communities that are receiving them. Of course, there is a problem in the cities where the pressure is very high. A lot of the returnees from Pakistan are people coming from urban areas, going back to Kabul where they come from. The pressure on Kabul is increasing. I have seen a lot of reports and I am not sure I share the most dramatic analysis, but certainly it is a situation that has the potential to become fairly difficult in the next few years.

Let me maybe talk a bit about the resource problem about which a lot has been said and I have read a lot about it. The resource situation, the funding situation is difficult for most humanitarian agencies. I think you have heard in other briefings about IOM's problems and I am glad to hear that some funds are now coming in because their activities are very important to resolve the internal displacement problem in particular. I think you have heard from the Executive Director of WFP about their own problems which are very serious. Just to give you an example, we started this programme by giving every returnee family 150 kg of wheat. This is very important for many of them whether they go back to rural or urban areas because this is the only food they have access to to begin their lives again. Now we have had to agree with WFP that we will decrease this ration to 100 kg because, simply, they will not be able to find the resources for more. In reality, this food is not even there. So, in reality, we are only giving them 50 kg at the moment hoping that WFP will be able to produce enough food later on in the year to compensate for the other 50 kg. It is a very serious situation and this is only one of WFP's problems in terms of funding.

UNHCR also has problems. Our programme which is now at the peak of its spending trends as many of you have heard from me already, we are spending a lot of money now to help people go back and we are spending a lot of money building shelter materials and other immediately needed items. At this stage we still have about 30 percent of our budget which is not funded and this, by the way, includes our programmes in Iran and Pakistan to help those refugees that are still there and which I mentioned in the beginning. We are short, to make it very clear, of 70 million USD and we need this 70 million USD in the next two to three months to be able to continue helping people return and also helping those who can not return.

Just let me conclude by saying a few words about what happens if resources do not come to us. You can speculate a lot and many people say Afghans are very resilient. I think Chairman Karzai in his speeches at the Loya Jirga refer frequently to the return of refugees as a very positive phenomenon of the new Afghanistan and I fully share that. I would also like to add, let us help phenomenon to remain a positive one otherwise it will become an emergency. I don't think it is an emergency now but it can become one. What are the problems than can occur? An example, we may have to cut transport assistance. If we don't get the money quickly, the first thing that I will have to cut is the cash that we give people to help them return. Fine, you may say that is not absolutely needed - I am not sure - I think it is needed. But it is also a way for us to maintain control and form of management on the returnee flow. If people come without registering and they will do so if they don't get anything for that. It will be a totally uncontrolled flow which is very difficult to plan for and to assist.

Another important phenomenon that will happen inevitably, especially if we don't pump assistance in the urban areas, that is urbanisation. We see a lot of people going back to cities but I think they are largely people coming from cities at the moment. But, very soon if assistance, and I am not talking about humanitarian assistance, I am talking about recovery assistance, the assistance of other agencies. If that assistance does not come in quickly, people will start drifting to where they see security and opportunities and that is in the cities. We will probably also see insecurity problems. People in poverty are more subjected, are more vulnerable to the temptation, if I may say, to take up arms and fight and we have to avoid that very much. These developments in the north are very worrying. This is the first time since November that we had to take out staff from somewhere. I don' think we have done it yet and this is very worrying but it means that, perhaps, and I don't want to sound pessimistic and I agree with Manoel, most areas in the north are still accessible and you can still do work there, but we are a bit afraid that this phenomenon of violence will spread and lack of assistance and increasing population is a recipe for insecurity.

Then there is winter coming. It seems very far away as it is so warm outside, but it is around the corner. If we cannot, for example, complete our rural housing programme, many people will spend the winter under a plastic sheet. I am afraid it will be a reality for many but let us try to minimise this and perhaps concentrate more shelter assistance in the areas that will become cold quickly. By November, as you know, it is very cold in many parts of Afghanistan and even before.

Last but not least, if we don't give assistance, what will happen, I think that there will be maybe refluxes of people and what we have hoped would be, could be, can still be is the solution to one of the most large and dramatic problem of displacement in the world could become the cause of further displacement of people moving to look for assistance. I don't want to finish with a pessimistic note. I think these are the risks that we face if substantial assistance does not come quickly. I am confident, I have seen a few contributions coming after the Loya Jirga. This may be a good sign. Let us push for it and I am really going to ask for the help of all of you to flag this situation so that contributions may be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Thank you very much.

Questions & Answers

Q: Could you just elaborate a little bit, you were talking about the pressure on the Afghani coming back from Pakistan to Afghanistan by local authorities and communities. What kind of pressure were you talking about? Any violent incidents or things like that?
GRANDI: Not so much violence, I think it is more subtle although brutal in many ways. For example, I will give you an example. You know life for refugees in Pakistan has always been difficult and the international community has given very little money so there is a grudge that has progressively increased in the local communities saying that these people come here, take away limited jobs, limited opportunities. Whether it is true or not is another matter but this is the perception. So for example, there is pressure on people say that you have to go away. Neighbours even telling neighbours that you are not welcome here anymore, you have to leave otherwise something bad will happen to you. It is more threats than actual violence although there have been isolated episodes of violence.

Then there is another more serious type of pressure and that is people being arrested, put in jail asked for money to get out of jail. This has always happened and, if I may say, this happens in many many countries hosting refugees including in Europe or in western countries. This has now increased in Pakistan and also the money that people have to pay to get out of jail has gone up. So you see it is not maybe such a direct pressure, people being evicted, but it is much more subtle.

We have also seen an increase in deportations. This is not always, of course, refugees, people who are in Pakistan for reasons that cause refugee flows but it represents a trend. We have always seen a constant trend of deportations from Iran. That has not really become worse but from Pakistan which was lower in terms of deportation, we see now a deterioration of the situation.

Q: I attended a press conference, a briefing that you gave in February when you were initially announcing your estimates on return of refugees and IDPs. At that time you said that for budgeting purposes that you had made an estimate of 1.2 million returnees including IDPs and you explained that you didn't want to over estimate because then the donor countries would become angry by an over estimation that was not fulfilled. Now we see that initial conservative estimates that you had made, which you explained the reasons for has been fulfilled. I am curious, how much of the problem that you have for funding now contributes to this issue with the initial assessments?
GRANDI: This is a complicated answer. First of all, the initial estimate. Let us talk about refugees and leave IDPs aside as I think that there is not much change there. We had estimated that we had to assist about 400,000 IDPs and that has more or less remained the same. But in terms of refugees, we had proposed a working figure of 800,000 returnees from Pakistan and Iran. We also said if you remember at that briefing, which I also remember, we said, come mid year, we will go back to donors with an updated figure because at this stage, we said then, it is difficult to really estimate the trends. So, we always warned donors that we would go back to them with a revised figure around mid-year which could have been lower or higher. It was difficult to predict at that time. Things have moved very fast between November and then and so it was difficult to predict. Now I think that the one reason why we proposed this figure which I personally, if you remember, thought was a little bit on the low side and the government thought also that it was on the low side, was also to present a reasonable budget. To move 800,000 people costs a lot of money and if we had presented a higher figure the money would have been even higher. So, we wanted to present a reasonable funding figure or budgetary figure. Fine, mid-year has come, it is coming in a couple of days. Actually we went ahead earlier than mid-year because we saw the trends going so fast. A couple of weeks ago we said, that figure was low, we are going to have double that figure. Our new working figure is 1.6 million and we have already reached 1.1. That is for the whole year. Again, it is a working figure. These trends are difficult so we have to establish planning figures. Our new one is 1.6. However, I have to tell you something. We have not yet reached the funding for the previous figure. We still need 70 million for the planning figure that we had originally budgeted for. So, what we have done now, sadly, regrettably, is we have cut many activities that we planned to do. We have identified a lot of savings and we are re-proposing to the donors the same budget for double the number of returnees. So, we have cut. We are not going to build schools. We will ask other agencies to do that. I am just giving you a couple of examples. We are not going to open a couple of offices that we wanted to open so we will have a smaller presence than we hoped for. We are not going to do all the shelters that we hoped for. We wanted to do many more houses, we won't be able to do that. But we have to be realistic. If the money has been so slow, we have to reduce our targets and I regret that immensely and remain within the same budgetary figure which we haven't reached yet for a number of returnees that we plan now would be double the originally planned number. I hope you have followed this reasoning. It is a mixture of adapting to a fast moving situation and to the reality of a funding environment which is much more difficult than we originally hoped for. But, I want to stress, I regret that very much.

Q: Two questions for clarification. First, 1.6 million this year. You are talking about an Afghan returning total?
GRANDI: 1.6 million? Yes, total. We say 1.2 million from Pakistan and we keep the 400,000 figure from Iran. Whether we reach that or not we will see, but the Iranian government would prefer us to keep the same planning figure because traditionally the Iran returns pick up later in the year. That's what we saw in 1992. So we based ourselves a little bit on past lessons. But then there can be compensation between the two so you see it is very flexible.

Q: Just for clarification. So, the money is coming in slowly. What exactly is the source of these funds? Do they have to come from individual donor nations?
GRANDI: Yes. UNHCR, as you probably know, like WFP, is an agency funded through voluntary contributions of governments and so we don't have assessed contributions, obligatory contributions like the UN secretariat for example. So, we have to depend on the goodwill of governments to fund us. Let me also say here, put it on record that some governments have been exceptionally generous such as the US. We have recently got a very generous contribution from Japan and are expecting more. The Nordic countries of Europe have been very generous, the Netherlands exceptionally generous. We still hope for some more assistance from the European Commission and other European countries. We think and we hope that they will come forward with additional contributions.

But can I just add one point? It is not just UNHCR's funding which is a problem now. It is also the funding of our immediate partners, IOM, WFP and also that which goes directly to the NGOs also involved in reintegration activities. You see, you have to look at this much more globally than just UNHCR. We are the first step but then if all the rest does not come, including ultimately recovery projects, the whole thing is not sustainable.

Q: So, why is it not coming in?
GRANDI: I leave this interpretation to the experts. We thought that, of course, the governments wanted to be reassured by the positive evolution of the political process and I think the outcome of the Loya Jirga may have reassured some donors. This is why in the last few days we have seen some additional contributions, both to us, IOM and some NGOs. So, that is positive but that trend has to continue. It is still very small and let us hope that now they will gain courage to put more resources. Of course, you see any episode of violence and of fighting discourages donors because they are afraid that their resources will be wasted. We hope that security is another very very important factor in this whole equation.

Q: Could you briefly make a remark on what the latest UN Security Council resolution says on the situation?
GRANDI: I would say that in light of my last reply to the last question, it is very positive because it represents an endorsement of the success or let us say the encouragement for this political process to continue and to ensure stability to Afghanistan, done by the Security Council, so it has a great value I would say from that perspective in confirming the trust of the international community in this process. I would say that it is also very comforting to us as an agency and to all those who work with us on returns that the Security Council has identified return as the key issue.

By the way, I have not mentioned but it is very important, I should have. UNAMA Pillar II the relief, recovery and reconstruction pillar has decided to focus on areas of return and on areas of food insecurity about which I will let WFP speak more, be its priority areas for intervention. In the situation of scarcity of resources, we have to focus. So, what the Security Council said somehow supports our choices and also in that sense, I think it is extremely welcome.

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Transcript of Impromptu Remarks by
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi at the Ceremony where he was Issued an Afghan Diplomatic Passport
Thursday, 27 June 2002, 5 p.m., Kabul Afghanistan

This is an honor I value much more than I can say. This is an honor that I really do not deserve. The United Nations perhaps deserves to be recognized as an organization that has been on the side of the people of Afghanistan for a long time and is the determined to remain on the side of the people of Afghanistan until all the problems of Afghanisan, inshallah, are resolved. I do not deserve this privilege but I will try to be worthy of it. I do realize that this does not represent only the recognition from the present leadership and the people of Afghanistan. I recognize that this passport does not only represent a recognition from the Administration, the government and the people of Afghanistan. It represents also for me a very very long history of a people that have shown throughout history dignity, courage and determination.

[From this point onwards President Karzai translates.]

It also represents sacrifices by people who fought to uphold that dignity of the people of Afghanistan.

[I will continue to translate. It is an honor, go ahead.]

But I have a problem your Excellency. I do not know it the United Nations allows nationals to be the representative of the Secretary-General. So, I run the risk of losing my job.

[In that case, be our guest.]

But as I want to keep my job, I hope the press will not tell anybody that I have this passport. But on the other hand as I am now an Afghan national, for the next Loya Jirga I am going to be a candidate to be a member of the Loya Jirga.

[Your Excellency, you will beat me.]

No, I think as I don't belong to any ethnic group and to any wolaswali [district], I am going to be a candidate in every wolaswali. And I think that like that I am going to win somewhere.

[Sure you will win.]

Thank you very much your Excellency.