The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday addressed the launch of the public consultation on the constitution. There he spoke about the explosion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) bus.

He asked me to convey to you that he is shocked at the news of the bomb attack against an ISAF bus yesterday here in Kabul. He wishes prompt recovery for the German military and Afghans injured and expresses his most heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

Germany, the current co-leader of ISAF, has had very, very close, fruitful and uninterrupted cooperation with Afghanistan for well over one hundred years. Over this period there has never been any problem between Germany and Afghanistan.

Today Germany is again one of the closest supporters, one of the most committed supporters of the reconstruction of peace and prosperity in Afghanistan. People who attacked the ISAF bus transporting German military cannot be friends of Afghanistan. If they are Afghans, they cannot be patriotic Afghans.

All of us in the international community who are committed to supporting Afghanistan will continue to do so and the Special Representative is absolutely convinced that Afghanistan with the support of their friends will overcome these anti-Afghan forces that are still out there intent on destroying the peace process.

In honour of those who lost their lives in yesterday's attack, UN flags in all UN offices throughout Afghanistan have been at half-mast since yesterday.

Yesterday, June 7, the Public Consultation on the Constitution-making process was launched here in Kabul.

In his speech at the event, Mr. Brahimi, said: "The people of Afghanistan should avail themselves of the opportunity to say what sort of government they want, what they expect of their leaders and also what they expect of themselves and of their fellow citizens."

We have the full text of Mr. Brahimi's speech available for you.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, the United States, the lead nation for the establishment of the new Afghan army, and UNAMA were in Kunduz on Friday (6 June) to brief elders and community leaders on the progress in establishing the Afghan National Army (ANA) and persuade them to encourage young people to join the army.

This is the third meeting of its kind in the provinces - previous visits included Bamyan and Kandahar.

These visits come during the final stage of preparations for another important part of security sector reform - the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process which is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

The Ministry of Defence is the lead institution in the process of disarmament and demobilization. In order to make it possible for the Ministry to provide this leadership, the Ministry has undertaken, in compliance with the Presidential Decree of 1 December 2002 on the Afghan National Army, to implement a number of reforms that will give it a more national character.

These reforms are: to make changes to the senior echelons of the Ministry of Defence so they are politically, regionally and ethnically balanced; to ensure the key senior posts of the Central Corps of the ANA are filled with professional officers with a national outlook and not a factional one; and to establish a national soldier recruitment system that is open to all eligible Afghans and that a merit-based system is used for selecting officers for the ANA.

This reform programme needs to be implemented urgently as these measures will improve the credibility of the Ministry of Defence as an institution dedicated to protecting the security interests of the whole nation, regardless of regional or ethnic background or political affiliation and therefore ensure there is broad acceptance and cooperation for the DDR process.

Today 1500 Afghan returnee families from Pakistan will inaugurate their new homes in Jalalabad city.

The houses were built by the beneficiary families themselves, while the building materials and engineering expertise were provided by the project. Although, the project covered a large number of widows there was always an able bodied son, brother or relative to help to build the house. During the construction period food also was provided to the families in need.

The preparation for the construction of houses started in January this year. First the project was introduced to the communities through meetings with the Shuras to decide the priorities and select the beneficiaries. The priority was given to widows, the disabled and very poor large families. The Project Management Committee for each settlement includes the Head of Shura, a representative of the Municipality and a Technical Advisor from the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat).

This is part a 5.5 million US dollar "Urban Recovery and Employment Programme" funded by the Japanese government through UN-Habitat.

Another 1400 houses have been completed in Kandahar early this month and the construction of the city water system in Mazar will be completed by the end of June.

The target is to build a total of 3000 houses in Kandahar, 2800 houses in Jalalabad, 1000 houses and the main water system in Mazar city for the returnees, widows, IDPs and demobilized soldiers by the end of this year.

The World Bank has asked us to announce that they are holding a press conference this afternoon at 2pm to discuss a grant to the Ministry of Public Health.

The press conference will be held in the library of the Ministry of Public Health at 2pm.

UNHCR is concerned about the situation around the southern border with Pakistan, following the dramatic security operation last week. The dumping of some 20 bodies of alleged extremists at the Chaman waiting area amid the Afghan refugee settlement has heightened the sense of insecurity among the refugees. The elders at Chaman have expressed fears of returning to Afghanistan, saying it is not safe.

This comes at a time when UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan have finally reached an agreement to move people from Chaman waiting area. The precarious settlement of 18,600 Afghans has been a security concern for all parties for sometime. Thanks to Pakistani authorities who agreed to provide the option of relocation further inside Pakistan, UNHCR teams in Kandahar and Quetta are now preparing for the voluntary move with a matter of urgency.

Pakistani authorities and UNHCR Quetta have held two meetings with refugee elders at Chaman since the end of May, including last Thursday, to inform them that they would have to either return to their home villages, return up to Zhare Dasht or relocate to Mohammad Kheil camp, west of Quetta. Those who still choose to remain at Chaman will be considered illegal migrants and will no longer be eligible for assistance.

UNCHR Afghanistan, for its part, will of course assist those who are wiling to return back to their villages, with an enhanced, assistance package, but will also attempt to create incentives to move to Zhare Dasht, where the situation is stable. Should people decide to move to Zhare Dasht, they will received $3 per person in addition to transportation assistance, food package (wheat, flour, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt), family package (blanket, sleeping mat, jerry can, bucket, lantern, soap, hygiene items, stove and kerosene) and shelter package to help them construct their houses (wheel barrow, tool kit, plastic sheet, bamboo and plastic pipe). In addition, there are job opportunities in Zhare Dasht, where we are running a 'peanut factory' providing income for about 8,000 internally displaced people living there (3,000 shelling peanuts, 1,000 constructing peanut oil processing plant, 4,000 women spinning wool).

The pre-registration of those willing to move will begin this coming week and the actual movements are schedule to be completed by mid-July.

On a more positive note, 145 families (625 people) have moved voluntarily last week from Dilarem transit site to Zhare Dasht. With this movement, UNHCR has now closed our field unit in Dilarem.

Questions and Answers

Question: The repatriation, you call it voluntary, but there is limited assistance in those areas, is it really voluntary repatriation, and do you explain the situation to them?

UNHCR: The returns that we're assisting are definitely voluntary. Of course over the last week I've been asked a lot of questions, even from refugees themselves in the UK for example, what are the real conditions, is it safe or not. I think we really have a very difficult patchwork situation inside the country and overall I do think that things have improved quite a bit in the past year. Many places are absolutely safe for Afghans to come home to but what we're seeing right now is very difficult places emerging especially in the southern areas. When it comes to the Chaman people, yes we are trying to create incentives to come back into Afghanistan mainly because it really has been a difficult situation since 2001 for these people both in Chaman and in Spin Boldak area. In Chaman there used to be about 40,000 people at one point, in an area which is basically in no man's land. Aid communities couldn't really have decent access to these people so basically the only choice was for us to try to move these people. So right now I think it's not so much to persuade these people to go back to danger zones because if they do think they're not safe back home, then they don't have to [go], they could either go to Zhare Dasht or now we have the option to move inside Pakistan. Ultimately these are individual choices, we're trying to provide them with enough realistic options as possible.

Question: In the light of yesterday's incident is the UN taking any additional security measures? Are any additional threats perceived? How will it affect your operations in the city of Kabul?

Spokesman: We already have pretty strict security measures which are under constant review in light of developments. Of course what happened yesterday is another element for our colleagues who deal with security to take into consideration. No new measures have been determined since yesterday. We have a regular meeting on Mondays on these matters so it will be discussed tomorrow. As I said we have pretty strict measures already, and we have to be and we recommend the same to you, to be more vigilant, to observe security measures that are intended to reduce risks and understanding that this act of yesterday in all likelihood is not a one-off event. It is an environment that has its risks that's why we're all here in order to help the Afghans get into a new phase for this country. We'll continue to review security on a case-by-case basis, committed to our mandate to work here. We will not panic but we will be cautious.