PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR AFGHANISTAN, Mr. LAKHDAR BRAHIMI

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the press conference held on 1 November in Islamabad by the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi (including parts of Question and Answer session).

Good evening. I will say a few words as an introduction. I think the text is going to be distributed to you later. What I would like to say is simply that I've spent a few days in Islamabad, and I will soon be going first to Tehran and then to other countries in this part of the world around Afghanistan to talk first to as many Afghans as we can. Then I will go back to New York for the start of the debate at the General Assembly, and I'm sure I will be returning to the region very soon. My visit has taken place at a time that the international community has renewed interest in the crisis in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, at the same time, and for reasons we all are painfully aware of, Afghanistan is also undergoing another crisis, another tragedy. The Secretary-General is personally leading the UN effort in Afghanistan, and he insists --as do all the Afghans we have met-- that the solution that we are trying to work for needs to be sustainable over the long term and should truly reflect the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan. We have had some very intensive discussions with Afghan representatives, civil society members, and women's groups.In the same vein, I will do the same thing in Tehran and other capitals later on.

I would like to insist on one or two things. One, from the humanitarian side -- and my colleagues have been talking to me almost every day about this. What I would like to say is that the men and women, especially our Afghan staff, are doing a heroic job trying to deliver aid to the millions of people in Afghanistan who need it in extremely difficult conditions and they do it with dedication, courage and, dignity. And if I may say so, this story is not really told by the press, by the television, by the media, either in the region here or in the world at large, and I think it deserves to be told. Likewise I would like to pay tribute to my colleagues, the international staff, who are also working, as you see them doing every day, in extremely difficult conditions and with the same dedication.

In this connection, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is our priority and that is where we are trying to work against terrible odds and also against time, as winter is drawing very near. In this context, the shortage of food and other relief supplies in the northern and western provinces--Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Ghor and Badghis is of particular concern to us. The situation is very bad in these regions. Deliveries to these areas have been very seriously disrupted since 11 September. Before that, it was estimated that 400,000 people in villages had only enough food for three months. There were also about 500,000 people-- internally displaced persons--scattered throughout the Northern region, who are largely dependent for their survival on food aid together with shelter, clean water, blankets and warm clothes, health facilities, as well as heating and cooking fuel provided by the assistance community. It must be assumed that these 900,000 people will be in a very precarious position in the future. Unless they can receive a minimum ration of 50 kilogrammes of wheat flour per family per month and other life saving assistance, they will be at extreme risk of hunger, malnutrition, life-threatening illnesses in their weakened condition, and perhaps even for some starvation.

The other part we perhaps have to ask questions about is the new added mandate that was given to the United Nations in Afghanistan. That is the necessity to prepare for the transition from humanitarian assistance to reconstruction and development. We have been talking about this for a long time, but now, the international community has committed itself to substantial resources to be diverted to this work. A time will come, we hope very soon, when Afghans will reconstruct their country with the assistance and advice of the United Nations. It will be a task of mammoth proportions, requiring this financial effort and the support of all those countries, which have failed Afghanistan for all these years. They have promised not to repeat the mistakes of the past. That is very encouraging. (Loud statement from a journalist) Thank you very much. First question please. [LAUGHTER]

(Question on the likelihood of a UN administration for Afghanistan)
The UN has not received a mandate to form a government. The UN is continuing to work with the people of Afghanistan to help them in three areas: humanitarian aid. The UN is trying to help feed, clothe and cure millions of Afghans. Two: the United Nations has been trying for more than ten years to help the people of Afghanistan end their civil wars. Third: The new thing which has been given to the United Nations, and we welcome that new mandate, is that there is a commitment from the international community to help Afghanistan reconstruct itself when the time comes, and we are prepared to do that. (Question on the chances of UN success in forming a government) Again, we are not constructing a government. We were not in the past, and we are not now. What makes us more optimistic now than in the past is the fact that there is a very strong international political will that was not there in the past. The international community, the biggest countries in the world, recognise publicly that they failed Afghanistan in the past, that they left the Afghan people to themselves and they are saying -and I think we should give the benefit of the doubt -that they want to now help the people of Afghanistan.

Two, I think the Afghan people also, after this horrible tragedy, and under the bombs that are falling on their heads while they have not been guilty of anything, they seem to realise that they need to make a greater effort to solve their problems and the United Nations would like to help. Will we succeed? We hope so. We'll do our very best, but it depends on the people of Afghanistan; it depends on the commitment of the international community -in particular the countries that are closer to Afghanistan and their neighbours in particular. So, this is what we are trying to do and we will certainly try our very best to do it.

(Question on the air strikes and discussions with the Taliban)
The Secretary-General was asked a similar question just a couple of days ago, and he said something to the effect that what we hope is that the military campaign stops as soon as possible, that this war stops as soon as possible. I think everybody recognises that the people of Afghanistan have not been guilty of anything. The country, unfortunately, has been used in ways that have harmed others, that have threatened others, and we have this situation. So I can only repeat what the Secretary-General said, and that is we hope this situation ends. We will be talking to all Afghans that, we think, can help in this particular situation. The Taliban, we have talked to them for years. I think they know that, if they had listened to us, perhaps lots of things could have been avoided. The Taliban wanted to speak to us; they have seen Mr. Ruud Lubbers; our people are in touch with them on the humanitarian issues at all levels; and in the future we will see if there is any benefit and also if they are interested in talking to us.

(Question on how much the UN feels a sense of urgency)
This question has been asked from day one. I think we will go as fast as is humanly possible. Again, I think the people of Afghanistan have responsibilities. We will go just as fast as they can themselves, as they will and can go. I'm afraid I can't give you a time frame when our efforts will bear fruits.

(Question on the impartiality of the UN in handling Afghan affairs and on the usefulness on the "Zahir Shah" formula").
Everybody knows that what the United Nations has been doing in Afghanistan. We have been doing that for ten years. We have thousands of Afghans who have been working for the United Nations. Everybody in Afghanistan knows what the United Nations has been doing, and --as far as the Afghan factions-- again the Afghans know very well, that the United Nations has been extremely impartial, that we have been trying to engage all parties in a solution to the civil war in Afghanistan. Now the Security Council has taken a number of decisions. These decisions are law for all who work for the United Nations. And, on terrorism, there have been some specific decisions that have been taken. And I think these decisions have been taken to the Taliban one by one. They have been discussed with the Taliban before they were taken, before each one, at each step during these last four or five years. The Taliban has been informed, they have been advised and we have been in touch with them all the time. At this particular juncture, with the situation as it is, we think that politically, unfortunately, there is no interest or benefit for anybody in talking to the Taliban officials. On the contrary, talking to them might give the wrong signals to all sides. They know we have never been against them as an Afghan group and we are not going to be against them in the future. About the Zahir Shah formula, or as it is called the Rome Process, there are a number of processes and what we hope we will help doing is-to use a phrase that has been used by some of our interlocutors here-to see if we can bring all the strings that are laying out there, if we can bring them together, and work out one single process for Afghanistan. This is what we are striving to do though this discussion with Afghans and with their neighbours.

(Question about the US)
I think you all know what the United Nations is. The United States is our most important, most influential member. They definitely carry influence not so much with us, but with everybody. I think we better leave it at that. * *** *