TALKING POINTS

· Visit of the SRSG to Bamyan

I am going to start with a note on [Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar] Mr. Brahimi's visit to Bamyan. As you know he has this program of visits to all provinces. It was Bamyan's turn yesterday. It also coincided with the presence in Bamyan of Vice-President Abdul Khalili. They met at length, he also met the governor, the Military Corps Commander, some regular Bamyan citizens and of course with the UN family in the area.

Bamyan, as all of us know, is a very poor region. It has all kinds of difficulties, it is in the hunger-belt. The Afghan administration is very thin in that region, so is the international presence. The international presence is very much concentrated in Bamyan city, which is something that we hope will change. We all have to be further into the districts, but again it is a very difficult area to work in, access is very difficult. The returnees, be they former internally displaced, or former refugees, face the problem of the lack of shelter, which is of course, an issues known to our colleagues from UNHCR, that illustrates some of the difficulties of the problems inthat region.

On a lighter note of that visit, Mr. Brahimi was accompanied by Professor Ikuo Hirayama. Professor Hirayama is a very famous Japanese traditional painter. He has been interested in this region and has visited it many times before. For those of you who are interested in the Silk Road, he has painted all of it, as well as the buddhas of Bamyan. Of course this time he was making sketches of the very sad sight of where the buddhas used to be.

· Update on Locusts

Afghan plant protection staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and with the support of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are currently implementing a survey of the areas in which locusts are laying their egg-pods. When the results are known, contingency plans and preparedness programmes will be drawn up for a 2003 control Campaign, which will attempt to avoid the development of another major outbreak.

A campaign launched in March this year to control a locust outbreak in northern Afghanistan has succeeded in keeping crop damage to a minimum. The FAO estimates crop losses in the three most seriously affected provinces - Baghlan, Samangan and Kunduz - at about 7 percent. The United Nations agency has, however, urged that control operations need to start early next spring to avoid another locust emergency.

A properly prepared campaign can reduce further the damage to crop next year.For more details we have a detailed press release on the table at the side of the room.

· Accident in Kapisa Province

Yesterday we were informed of an accident that occurred at 11:00 a.m. last Tuesday 6 August on the road from Sarasaid to Nijrab in Kapisa province near to Kabul in the north.

According to reports a truck, which had been converted into a large bus ran off the road into a ravine and overturned 20 metres from a mined area. We have no figures on the numbers of dead or injured.

Because the accident occurred near to a minefield the United Nations Mine Action Center of Afghanistan (MACA) immediately dispatched three de-mining teams and six ambulances. Anti-personnel mines or unexploded ordnance did not cause any of the injuries or deaths.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. yesterday he was removed and it was also discovered that there were more injured and dead persons under the bus.

· UNHCR Update - Maki Shinohara

Repatriation
UNHCR is scaling down this month the processing of voluntary repatriation in Pakistan. Two Voluntary Repatriation Centers near Peshawar were closed (Aza Kheil, east of Peshawar, and Burhan Scheduling Center between Islmabad and Peshawar). Refugees residing in Punjab, including Rawalpindi, have been instructed to go to Tahkta Baig to request return assistance.

The opening days have been reduced to four days per week at the largest VRC, Tahkta Baig near Peshawar on the road to the Khyber Pass and another in Balochistan. Four others - in Balochistan, Islamabad and two in Karachi -- are now operating five days a week.

The decision to scale down VRCs in Pakistan was taken to match the declining level of returns since May. We believe that we have passed the peak of returns from Pakistan and we are shifting our efforts more in assisting the reintegration of nearly 1.5 million returnees inside Afghanistan, so that they can stay through the first winter back home.

To cope with the massive return this year, UNHCR has had to pull back some assistance to the returnees. Starting 15 August, we will have to stop distributing blankets, jerry cans and buckets. Returnees will continue to receive transport assistance, WFP wheat flours, plastic sheeting, soap and hygiene items, upon arrival in Aghanistan.

Aside from ensuring aid to the returnees, we also need to maintain emergency stocks in case a situation develops from now through winter that triggers a sudden movement of people. The trigger could be an internal conflict, escalating tension between Pakistan and India or harsh climate that may force some families to relocate. We will consolidate this month the remaining aid supplies (including the blankets and jerry cans) to make up emergency stockpiles for a quarter of a million people; 50% will be stored in Kabul and the remainder at our sub-office locations throughout the country. We will also maintain smaller stocks in the surrounding countries.

Zhare Dasht
Last week, UNHCR took some 80 representatives of Afghan refugees stranded at the Chaman border area in Pakistan to see a new relocation site being set up west of Kandahar. Upon return from this go-and-see visit, representatives of about 500 families displaced from Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan said they wanted to move immediately to Zhare Dasht. They said they have concluded that they cannot go home in the north in the near future, and hope to receive better assistance in Zhare Dasht.

Other refugee representatives said they still hoped for stability in the north, where people report harassment against ethnic Pashtuns. But they still considering the option to move to Zhare Dasht if the situation does not improve in the near future.

We hope to begin the voluntary move of refugees from Chaman and Spin Boldak in the coming weeks. There are over 30,000 displaced people in Spin Boldak and another 25,000 in Chaman in appalling conditions. While transporting those who opt to relocate, UNHCR will continue to assist those who wish to return to their villages.

The relocation of these families from the border areas was requested by both governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The conditions in Spin Boldak and Chaman waiting area are difficult and humanitarian situation appalling. Many aid agencies have retreated from the area and access had been limited in the past months to those agencies that remained.

If there are no questions, then I thank you for coming