The highest authorities in Afghanistan will be present along with Ambassadors who are supporting the DDR process and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi.

By the end of the day on Wednesday 900 men had been disarmed as part of the first pilot phase of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process.

The disarmament got underway in Kunduz on Monday (20 October). Since then around 300 combatants a day have been disarmed at the Mobile Disarmament Units run by Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Regional Verification Committee (RVC) has been working at the site to check the names and details of each combatant.

170 men, mostly in uniform, arrived yesterday late morning with their weapons at the MDU site in Kunduz. They waited while the RVC members called out their names and verified them, before taking their weapons to be checked by the MOD and ANBP staff. Each weapon must be safe, operational and eligible for the programme. If the weapon passes these checks, an identity sticker with a barcode is put on each weapon which is then taken for safe storage inside the MDU. Later the number will be engraved into the weapon.

In interviews the soldiers said they were glad to be returning to civilian life and many had known of nothing else than being a soldier. They said they were looking forward to their new life and all of those we talked to wanted peace for Afghanistan. As far as their own ambitions are concerned, one wanted to continue his education and become a teacher and another wanted to become a farmer.

There was a small collection of unusable weapons laid out inside the MDU - ones which had not passed the test. All the combatants who came with them later returned with a working weapon. The unusable weapons are being destroyed on site with the help of the non-governmental organization, the Halo Trust. Journalists saw a demonstration of the shredding machine which cuts a gun into pieces so it cannot be reassembled and used again.

The RVC members spoke about how they went to all the districts in Kunduz and talked to commanders and elders, as part of the process of drawing up the list of combatants and verifying it. Asked about the response from the people, one RVC member said all the people of Kunduz warmly welcome this programme.

Anne Thomas from our office was in Kunduz with a group of journalists yesterday to witness the disarmament process.

So far, registration has been moving very smoothly, yet yesterday in Ghazni, two rockets were fired at the CLJ registration camp between 9:00am and 9:15am, from a location east of the camp (about 5 km from the camp, at the edge of the city limits into Waghaz district). Both shells fell 500 metres short of the location. There were no reports of casualties or material damage, and the registration continued unhindered. The PRT and other security elements conducted a search operation towards the launch site. Two people who were near the launch site were arrested and are being questioned by the police.

The first day of registration took place in four districts of Kabul province yesterday with no incidents reported. In preparation for the women's election in Kabul on 2 November, the Constitutional Commission Secretariat has announced that all women's organizations wishing to register candidates must do so before 29 October. This process is taking places at the offices of ACBAR, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, from 9am to 4pm daily.

Elections for Ghor province are being held today in Herat. Elections in Ghor and Badakhshan were scheduled ahead of the other provinces to avoid interruption by winter weather in December. The remaining provinces will hold elections at the end of November/early December.

The Constitutional Commission Secretariat distributed a press release on 21 October. It includes a comprehensive update on the CLJ delegate elections. For those of you who have not seen it, we have copies on the table.

A contingent of this police force has been deployed at an initial five of fifteen checkpoints surrounding Mazar city. There are reports indicating that this initial force has faced harassment by armed men. An additional five checkpoints were to be manned as of 21 October, but this has been stalled due to lack of co-operation by the Chief of Police in Mazar.

We are able to confirm form our monitoring efforts that fighting in Maqsood, lower Dar-i-Suf, in Samangan province did take place on 18 October between Jumbesh and Jumiat. Also, a delegation from UNAMA, the PRT and the Security Commission traveled to Chimtal district to follow-up on reports of a troop build-up. The delegation has reported that the situation is calm. However, contrary to the 9 October ceasefire agreement, no concerted troop withdrawal to respective 7th and 8th Corps barracks has been observed.

UNAMA, the PRT and Security Commission will continue to press for full implementation of the 9 October ceasefire agreement. We will continue to update you on this process.

Today's event will bring together a panel of guests who will discuss the Rule of Law and the Role of the UN in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai will be making remarks, as will the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi. Other speakers include: Wadir Safi, a Professor of Law at the University; Mahbuba Haquqmal, the Assistant Minister of Woman's Affairs; Sima Samar, the Director of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission; and Dr. Baha, Head of the Judicial Reform Commission.

Many people are expected to attend, including students, members of civil society, lecturers from the University of Kabul, and Government and UN officials. Representatives of the media are welcome.

Plenary sessions and working groups will be held through the seminar with active involvement by the Minister of Finance, Ashraf Ghani, and the Minster of the Interior, Ali Ahmad Jalali.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Lakhdar Brahimi, attended yesterday's opening of the seminar and made a statement.

In reference to improving the security across the country, Mr. Brahimi said: "This country has a central government that is recognized all over the country. The problem is that the central government does not have the means to exercise that power. Things are getting better. But at the same time we have to also accept and see that there are spoilers, there are people who have more interest in the existence of the problem than in the solution."

He went on to say: "I don't have to tell you but the support of the international community is 100 per cent behind you in trying to consolidate peace and stability. And in trying to show the spoilers that they have no future in Afghanistan."

The seminar is being sponsored by the Government of the Netherlands.

The Government of Japan has just announced the start of the fourth phase of the Initiative. The focus of interventions to be funded under this phase will be employment creation, government capacity building and community empowerment. Previous phases have focused on returnees, emergency relief and education.

Preparations are underway for phase IV by bringing together participants from the Embassy of Japan, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, and the United Nations inter-agency Joint Support Unit. Project proposals will be submitted in the coming month and new funds will be released in January 2004.

The Commissioners, Zahida Ansary, Eng Qudbuddin and Suleyman Yari, are attending the annual conference of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO). They will also meet international electoral experts and the Electoral Commission of the UK in order to learn more about electoral processes and share experiences with them.

As part of the on-going capacity-building work three international electoral experts are currently in Kabul to design a programme for the Commission.

The radio station based in Mohammad Agha district of Logar will broadcast community-based programmes for 16 hours a day.

This is the 5th radio station supported by the non-governmental organization, Internews. Five more are planned for the next few months in Khost, Balkh district of Balkh province, Aybak in Samangan, Qarabagh district of Kabul province and Baraki-Barak district of Logar.

Internews is training journalists, providing the equipment and helping them to set up these radio stations mostly in areas where there is no existing radio station. It is funded by USAID.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, Abdul Hamid Mubariz and the President of Internews, David Hoffman, will formally launch the radio station today.

So the next briefing will be on Thursday 30 October.

Questions and answers

Question: When will the disarmament be concluded in Kunduz?

Spokesman: It will probably be concluded today. This is the pilot phase disarmament and in the pilot phase it is only 1,000 combatants per location and probably we are going to disarm 1,000 [in Kunduz] by the end of the day today.

Question: What about the rest of the people?

Spokesman: When we finish the pilot phase in 6 locations which are Kunduz, Bamyan, Gardez, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul, then we will begin disarmament across the country. In each location of the pilot phase the plan is to disarm 1,000, so in Kunduz we should finish today. After that, maybe as early as Saturday or Sunday, they will begin what we call the demobilization and reintegration which is when each combatant who has been disarmed will talk to the Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme people. When they will say what kind of background they have, what kind of work they would like to have, if they need training, if they need studies. Their profile is determined then job opportunities will be identified for them and that begins the reintegration phase and that should start by mid November. I don't have a date yet but probably around the second week of November.

Question: How long will it take to disarm the whole of Afghanistan? What is your guess?

Spokesman: I don't know, my job is not to guess here. We have a pilot phase for these six locations, we will study the pilot phase results and then begin the rest of the country. There are some people who think disarmament may take around one year but we will have to see what the pilot phase will teach us.

Question: After the pilot phase has concluded, you will examine how to take your next steps?

Spokesman: Exactly.