Press Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva
Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for
Afghanistan
Thursday, 15 September 2002, 10am, UNAMA

Talking Points

· Emergency Seed Programme
Thanks to a US$5 million nationwide emergency seed distribution programme, from mid September to November, some 80,000 vulnerable Afghan farming families will receive 4,000 metric tones of wheat seeds and matching fertilizers.

The seeds are improved varieties, which have been purchased from local Afghan seed growers to enhance their production capacities. The beneficiaries will be Afghan farming communities who will sow and sell their harvests for cash or kind. The seeds will be distributed in 50 kilo grams kits to farmers in both irrigated and rain-fed farming areas.

As this is not a free distribution, community shuras are being encouraged to establish mechanisms that will ensure that that the original value of the seeds is recovered and ploughed back into the community.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will implement and manage the programme in collaboration with the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, some 26 local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in coordination with other major players including the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International
Committee of the Red Cross and Euro aid (EU).

The Governments of Italy, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland and well as the National Area Based Development Programme of UNDP, fund the project.

· Landmine Monitor Report 2002

The Fourth Annual Landmine Monitor Report will be presented at the Meeting of States Party to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva tomorrow. The Report was set up to monitor the implementation of and compliance with convention and includes coverage of Afghanistan, one of the world's most mined countries. [The report is available on www.icbl.org]

In 2001 mine action cleared nearly 15.6 million square meters of mined area and 81.2 million square meters of former battlefields. Nearly 730,000 civilians received mine risk education.
A total of 16,147 antipersonnel mines, 1,154 anti vehicle mines and 328,398 UXOs were destroyed. As you may be aware, President Karzai deposited Afghanistan's instruments of accession to the Mine Ban Treaty at the United Nations on September 11, following the cabinet's approval on 29 July 2002 during Afghanistan's first international conference on antipersonnel mines
in Kabul.

Afghanistan has now pledged to produce a report to the Secretary-General within 180 days, and annually thereafter. It has also committed to destroying stockpiled mines within four years, and destroying mines in the ground within 10 years. It is also required to take appropriate domestic
measures to facilitate this.

· High Level Meeting

Now for the record but also for keeping you up to date of what going on in New York while worlds' leaders are there to participate in the general assembly you may know that on Friday two days ago there was a high-level ad hoc meeting on Afghanistan was held at UN Headquarters on Friday, 13 September. The meeting, convened by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, brought
together 21 Member States represented mostly at the level of Foreign Minister and Head of State.

In his opening remarks, the Secretary-General stressed the need for the restoration of security throughout the country and for the early fulfillment of the pledges of financial help made in Tokyo. President Karzai made a presentation in which he outlined his vision for the state and its institutions. He also described achievements of the Afghan Administration, emphasized the need for reconstruction and called on the international community to accelerate disbursement of funds.

At the end of the meeting, a 10 paragraph-communiqué was issued in which participants expressed their full support for President Karzai and the Transitional Authority, and reaffirmed their continued support for the implementation of the Bonn Agreement. They called for the rapid disbursement of the funds pledged in Tokyo and for maximum support for the Afghan reconstruction process.

We have copies of the communiqué, which will give you full details of its contents and tell you about all areas covered by the meeting delegates. We also have copies of the list of participants.

· UNHCR Update on Refugee Returns

Since the assisted repatriation programme started in March 2002, almost 1.7 million Afghans have returned home. 1.5 million have returned from Pakistan and 200,000 from Iran.

The UNHCR has signed an agreement of cooperation and capacity building with the National Lawyer's Association of Afghanistan in Kabul on 12 September 2002, to help the civic society help their own people in solving their problems. The work of the association will mainly focus on defending the rights of the returnees and IDPs to reclaim their land, property and houses
if they are occupied by others.

UNICEF
(Edward Carwardine)

We have something a little bit different for you today. You may be surprised to know that a few months after the Brazil took the honors in Japan, the World cup is still going on here in Afghanistan. After 16 weeks of competitions including 48 first round matches and 15 second round matches, the final of the Kabul world cup will take place this Wednesday, 18 September, at the Microrayan football pitch starting at 4:00 o clock. Some 816 Renaldos, Beckhams, Kahns and Vieris have been taking part in this competition and all have enjoyed receiving training from members of Afghan
national football team.

The players have been drawn from districts all over the city as part of efforts to try and bring young people together in a spirit of friendly competition. The first 16 teams who have gone through and qualified have all been given football stripes and sport shoes as prizes in the partnership between UNICEF and the Irish NGO Goal.

This partnership has tried to reintroduce football to Kabul. As many of you will know that sports was quite severely restricted during the Taliban era and through the current competition, friendly relations have been seen developing between schools in the various districts that have been taking
part.

In addition to playing football, the young participants all aged between 7 and 21 years old have been encouraged to develop team building skills to learn the importance of self discipline and respect for their opponents in a healthy and very active environment. If you are interested in coming to watch the match which is usually very colorful and very energetic , the final starts at 4:00 pm UNICEF will be happy to take interested media down to the match , if you come to our office in Shahr-e Now at about 3:15 on Wednesday afternoon.

Q&A

Q. How do you characterize people returning and finding their homes occupied by other Afghans.

A. I will have to refer you to UNHCR. We will be glad to put you in contact with them over the phone as soon as this briefing is over.

Q. [Inaudible] On Demining

A. Nearly 16.6 millions square meters of mine areas and 81.2 millions square meters of former battler fields were cleared and on that I should mentions that Afghanistan has quite a striking number, they have about 150 to 300 injured or killed every month here in Afghanistan as a result of
mines. This variation of 150 of 300 is the result of cases that are reported and not reported and the estimates of people who receive medical treatment even though cases may not have been reported formally

Best Regards,

Office of Communication and Public Information
UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan
Kabul