The restriction that we had announced to you on movement of UN personnel in that area that was to be on until Monday evening, has been extended for a few more days in order to allow time for adequate security mechanisms to be put in place by the local authorities. These measures include deployment of additional police, establishment of more police stations, identification of high risk areas, for instance areas of potential ambushes and road blocks. We expect to review these measures between today and tomorrow and based on that a decision will be made on the restriction of movement that was imposed in that area.

By becoming a party to this important human rights instrument the Afghan Government has demonstrated a commitment to bringing about equality for women and men in the country. Improving the rights of Afghan women, however, will require more than just the tabling of laws. It will above all require concrete actions that will result in Afghan women participating equally in public life.

This ratification is a significant first step forward for the country. The United Nations fully supports Afghanistan's continued commitment to the improvement in the status of women's lives and therefore welcomes this important development.

You will recall on 19 March the first of seven planned satellite offices was inaugurated in Herat followed by the opening of two more in Bamyan and Mazar-e-Sharif on 30 March. Following the Jalalabad launch other offices will be in Kandahar, Gardez and Fayzabad. The Jalalabad opening ceremony will be presided over by the Commission Chair, Dr. Seema Samar. Other Commission members, representatives from the Afghan Transitional Administration, local Government, UNAMA, donor countries and embassies will also attend this launch.

The nationwide presence and activity of the AIHRC will enable it to respond more effectively to its mandate and to the immense expectations of Afghans.

At this point we cannot offer you press seats, as we did during our visit to Heart. We will only have a small eight-seater plane. But if you are interested, give your name to David Singh and we will contact you if any space opens up for the press. Another alternative is to travel by road as the journey by car takes less than 3 hours.

Reports have been received that floods in Jawzjan Province have affected 310 families and joint teams will begin an assessment of this. As we reported last Thursday in Balkh Province joint assessment teams are continuing to investigate flood damage in Mazar city as well as in villages around Mazar and various districts. An assessment team is also going to Samangan province today to find out how badly villages have been affected by the floods. In Faryab province reports of flooding will also be checked.

We have a more detailed note at the side of the room with the names of the organizations involved in the assessments as well as the names of the specific districts in the provinces, which are being visited.

Given that Kunduz and Takhar are the most mine-affected provinces in the Northeast and that the movement of mines as a result of the floods might increase with the advent of spring and the accompanying rains, the Halo Trust (demining NGO) has begun to investigate the potentially hazardous situation. The United Nations Mine Action Centre of Afghanistan (UNMACA) is looking into the situation and if necessary will deploy a team to the northeast area of the country.

More than 1000 daily labourers are involved in the cleaning works as part of this canal, which has the capacity to irrigate more than 150 square kilometers of agricultural land and more than 22,00 families in the area will benefit from it.

Rehabilitation of this section of the canal is also of great importance for the governmental seed multiplication and vegetable production farm in the area. Production at the farm has ceased during the last two decades. Current deep wells offer a limited water supply to the agricultural farm.

The cleaning works of the canal started in January and is estimated to be completed by the end of this month. The total budget of the project is 153,000 US dollars. The project is part of the cash for work scheme under the Recovery and Employment Afghanistan Programme (REAP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Zahirshahi canal is fed with water from the Bala dam. This dam provides water to five districts, including Kandahar city. As we told you back in February, thanks to this year's rains, the dam has water for the first time in four years.

Currently, the Ministry and UNOPS are training the workers for Spring road works and flood control, as well as setting up avalanche barriers and pre positioning of vehicles and equipment for emergency situations.

Problems are still being experienced on the roads due to flooding. An example is the road from Lal district to Kerman district in Ghor province, which is blocked due to severe flooding and deep mud. Work crews have been organized and deployed there.

About 3,000 workers in Badakhshan, Bamyan, Ghor and Heart provinces are involved in cash for work projects for the road works since the snow clearance started.

It is worth mentioning that in previous years, snow has kept roads closed for three months out of the four months winter in Afghanistan. This year, due to the organized road clearing programmes, roads were only closed a total of 3 weeks out of the four months winter.

Consultative Group on Returnees and IDPs
A first plenary session of the Consultative Group on Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons were held yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chaired by Minister Enayatullah Nazari. The Consultative Groups are a new structure established this year to support the Afghan Government's 14 National Development Programmes.

For the Returnees and IDP Group, the lead is the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, but also the Ministry of Reconstruction and Rural Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development are members. UNHCR is the focal point among the international agencies, with UNAMA, UNDP, UNICEF, IOM and ICRC as members.

In the meeting, the three ministries presented to the donor governments the "National Return, Displacement and Reintegration Strategy for the Year 1382 (2003)", which outlines the return and displacement related tasks as well as the policy, institutional and operational requirements for a sustainable reintegration. Through this strategy, the three Ministers reaffirmed their joint commitment to address reintegration needs of returning Afghans.

Minister Nazari said in his opening remarks that given the 2 million returned last year, the country may face difficulties this year unless progresses are made in creating employment opportunities and expanding administration capacity. Concrete operational linkages must be built between humanitarian and development programs and the donor funding should support this.

Minister of Rural Development Hanif Atmar declared that protection, return and reintegration of refugees, returnees and internally displaced people are one of the most important responsibilities of the Government. For the Ministry of Rural Development, returnees are the priority group in its project formulation, so that returning Afghans can become an asset to the county and not a liability.

UNHCR's Chief of Mission in Afghanistan Filippo Grandi welcomed the national strategy and congratulated the three ministries for their joint efforts to address the issues of returnees and internally displaced Afghans. Based on the solid policy framework, the challenge now is to work on the actual implementation, based on a Plan of Action to be devised by the Government.

Participants recognized also the need to develop strategies for IDPs and Urban returns. Minister Nazari said that resolving the problems of the IDPs this year is a high priority for President Karzai this year. Minister of Housing and Urban Development Engineer Pashtun added that a project is about to be launched to build urban settlements for those in need in Kabul city.

UNHCR is fully committed to provide support to the Government's efforts to solve displacement issues, including the internally displaced. The Agency for its part, is currently working on viable options for providing solutions to IDPs, especially in western, southern and central Afghanistan, which we hope to finalize shortly.

Grandi will be travelling to the south this weekend, to address the IDP issues in the south, but also to give support to our team in Kandahar, who have been operating under difficult conditions, but had also to lose an ICRC colleague in a dreadful event last week.

IDP return
On a weekly basis now, we are assisting the voluntary return of internally displaced people throughout the country. Today, up to 1,400 displaced people are leaving Maslakh and Shaidahi camps in Herat to return to their homes in different parts of the Herat province. They had been displaced mainly because of drought. The return is organized by IOM and they returning families also receive family kits donated by UNICEF (soap, plate, buckets, kitchenwares and other household items) and tool kits given by FAO (seed, hoe, sickle, spade and shovel) so that they could immediately begin working upon return to their farmland.

Refugee Returns
For the month of March, we assisted 5,400 refugees returning mainly from Pakistan (2,740) and Iran (2,620). This is significantly below last year's figure of 116,000. Still, we expect the numbers to slowly but steadily rise in the coming weeks as we begin assisting this month the voluntary return of urban refugees in Pakistan.

The total number of refugees returning to Afghanistan this year stands at 14,000.

Questions and Answer:

Question: The movements for the International NGOs and the UN system has been restricted for anther 72 hours in the south, as you mentioned in your statement. Do you think this can cause a humanitarian crisis if this delay goes on?

Spokesman: What I said earlier in this briefing today, the original period was 72 hours until end of the day Monday. We have extended it pending measures that need to be taken, primarily by local authorities. And that has to do with increased patrolling and identification of areas of higher risks. We do hope that that will be done and will allow us to relax the current restrictions. It is also important to realize that the local authorities, local police do not have all the resources that is required for an extended kind of action. So, it is important also that the international community comes forward to support the provision of resources that would enable some other measures to be implemented.

Question: There was a report that Pakistan is closing down a refugee camp close to Peshawar. Are you aware of it and does it have any impact on the repatriation programme?

Maki Shinohara: Yes, I believe you are talking about the Kachagari camp. This has been a long standing problem. This camp is very near to the city and it is a fairly large camp. Since last year the government has expressed that they do want to basically see the people return, or actually dissolve this camp. What we are doing right now, especially in the camp situations, is to identify those people who are willing to go home right now. At the start of this repatriation assistance early in March, we have been assisting voluntarily returns from this camp. I do understand that it is not just for the returns, but the government has been giving an option for these refugees to move to another site. In a days to come or the months to come, UNHCR is trying to assist those who are willing to voluntarily return home mainly to Jalalabad areas and make sure that who may not be able to go home at this time due to protection cases or landless issues, we are trying to look into the ways or solving these individual problems.

Question: Are you providing them with a site?

Maki Shinohara: It's not UNHCR providing them with a place. It's the government basically them the site on their return

Question: Over 100,000 returnees are living in ruins, destroyed houses and caves in Bamyan. Are you doing anything for them?

Maki Shinohara: We are aware of the problem of landless people, especially in Bamyan. What I believe is up to 40 per cent of people are actually landless there. For those cave dwellers and so forth, local authorities are seriously looking into alternative possibilities for them to be in a more stable situation. UNHCR is not directly involved in it, but we are certainly supporting the efforts to come up with the solution for these people. But on the return issue we have been receiving an indication that there has been Tajiks displaced in Bamyan area. We have been receiving positive indications that many of the Tajiks are now willing to go back to Bamyan. I hope to give you more on this as the situation develops.