Bamyan continues to see the highest turnout for female voters with 5,609 women registering so far. Overall there have been 14,241 individuals who have registered as voters in Bamyan.

The highest overall turnout in the country has been in Jalalabad where 24,267 people have registered to vote. Although the overall turnout is high, only 815 women in Jalalabad have registered so far.

Until just a few days ago, registration for voters was mainly open to district representatives who were electing Loya Jirga delegates. These sites were not open to the general public. It is our hope that as more sites open up beyond the locations where the Loya Jirga voting took place, there will be more women participating in the registration exercise.

Nevertheless, the Special Representative to the Secretary General, Lakhdar Brahimi, has asked the Chief Electoral Officer as well as UNAMA's Gender Advisor to discuss with their Afghan counterparts what measures could be taken to increase the participation of women in the electoral process. Today, the UNAMA Gender Advisor will meet with some of the female Loya Jirga delegates to ask what measures they would propose to increase the number of female voters. Twenty per cent of the 500 delegates at the Loya Jirga are women.

Now an update on funding for the voter registration process. The Italian Government has just approved a US $6 million contribution. This brings the total to US $48.1 million, or roughly 60 per cent of the estimated US $78 million required for the project.

The course offered will be a part of the academy's Transition Integration Program (TIP), which serves as a refresher course for senior staff officers in the area. The academy will also offer a six-week basic course for untrained police officers. This temporary location follows the Gardez training Academy, which is also a temporary office that opened in November to facilitate training. While construction of both academies will be completed in the next couple of months, training activities will continue. The Mazar academy is particularly important in light of the repeated calls in the past for the establishment of a neutral professional police force in the north as part of larger response to factional problems.

The training at both academies are led and funded by the United States, with support from the UK Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Reintegration meanwhile is still continuing in Gardez. Of 446 soldiers already processed, 172 have chosen agriculture, 165 vocational training, 44 de-mining, 31 Afghan National Army (ANA) & National Police, while small business has attracted 17.

In Kunduz only two soldiers still remain to be processed (out of 1008). Sixty percent of those already reintegrated have chosen agriculture followed by vocational training (18 per cent), de-mining (13 per cent) and ANA/Police (9 percent).

While there were fortunately no casualties, the OMAR vehicle was 90 per cent destroyed. The explosion damaged two other vehicles both UN ambulances on loan to the NGO. From the remains of the IED found under the vehicle, it appears to have been a bomb on a time fuse.

Also at 11:00 a.m. on the same day explosive materials packed in a plastic bag, in a crude attempt at an IED, were discovered in the Nangarhar TV building close to Pushtustan Square in Jalalabad city. Local government security along with UNMACA cooperated and managed to detonate the IED without any injuries or damage to the building.

The OMAR team is back at work.

The Government of Japan is extending the funds to UNICEF to assist the Ministry of Health in implementing the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in Afghanistan in 2004. The funds are to be used in purchasing vaccines and related equipment.

There is a UNICEF press release available with more details on this.

FAO has distributed 3,000 tonnes of quality wheat seed and 4,500 tonnes of fertilizer to households across the country. Over 500,000 people are expected to benefit from the improved harvests and income generated by the seeds.

Seeds and fertilizers were given to vulnerable families returning home to their land. Thousands were forced to flee their farms and abandon their land during the country's civil war.

FAO worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (MAAH) and other partners to distribute the seeds. The governments of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United States contributed to FAO's autumn campaign.

For more information, there is a press release available.

World Food Programme (WFP), Information Officer, Maarten Roest

The most insecure areas are generally also the most poverty stricken and food insecure. In circumstances where security prevents WFP staff from operating, in limited cases activities can continue thanks to the presence of governmental or non-governmental partners.

Some examples from the regions: In Ghazni and Paktika provinces, 39% of the planned food distributions could not be executed in November 2003, or 5,169 MT out of 13,131 MT of mixed food commodities. In November 2003, WFP was unable to reach 103,036 people in the East, or 52% of the targeted population, especially in districts bordering Pakistan.

Many of WFP's recovery and reconstruction projects have been suspended in the South. In November 2003, WFP could not reach 232,488, or 37% of the targeted beneficiaries.

Bibi Aisha Sediqa is one the schools where WFP, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, local partners and the local community, is carrying out its pilot school reconstruction project, which started last April.

In an effort to contribute to restoring Afghanistan's severely damaged school infrastructure, the pilot school reconstruction project supports the reconstruction of 56 classrooms in 14 schools, the installation of water and sanitation facilities and the provision of school furniture. Construction is ongoing at schools in Nangarhar (Chaprahar and Maeawara districts), Balkh (Dawalt Abad and Dehdadi districts), Kandahar (Daman District), Badakhshan, Baghlan and Herat provinces.

You will find the full text of my statement at the back of the room.

Questions and Answers

Question: There have been threats of violence in response to views expressed at the Loya Jirga. Is the UN concerned about this?

Spokesman: Of course, we deplore the incident that marred the plenary session of yesterday. As facilitators to this process, we have made contact with all the parties involved in an effort to help overcome this incident. In particular, we paid very close attention to security conditions of the young lady who spoke at the session.

Question: Although donors have been generous with the money they have given to Afghanistan, it seems that the money is not addressing all of the needs of the country. Why is this?

Spokesman: While the contributions to the international community are very generous, they are small compared to the needs. If you compare where we are now with where we were two years ago, a lot has been done. But if you compare what is still ahead, it is only a little.

However, all of the contributions from the international community must fit the priorities determined by the Government in the National Development Framework. It is due to the very determined action of this administration that all programmes that are funded by the international community must fit into the National Development Framework and that is something that is rare to see so quickly in a country coming out of so many years of war and violence.

Question: According to the Bonn Agreement, the UN is observing and supervising the agreement. There have been violations of the agreement and the UN has ignored this.

Spokesman: The United Nations does not have a role to supervise the implementation of the Bonn Agreement. The United Nations has a role to facilitate and support the Afghans to do it. The Bonn Agreement is an Afghan agreement signed by the Afghan factions. It is not an international agreement. The United Nations helped to broker it but all the merit for having achieved such an agreement belongs to the Afghans.

A number of activities and benchmarks are indicated in the Bonn Agreement and these were to be implemented as time went on. By and large, the calendar has been met. You had the Emergency Loya Jirga at the time that it was suppose to happen which meant that the Interim Administration became the Provisional Administration. The Constitutional Loya Jirga is taking place now and according to the Bonn Agreement a new constitution should be adopted by the end of 2003. So if the Loya Jirga succeeds in adopting one before the end of this month, this benchmark will be met.

The electoral process is undoubtedly facing some delays. The registration of voters started late. At the beginning, this was partially due to funding issues but as I reported earlier to day, funds are now coming in which is very positive. Currently the security conditions limit the speed at which we can register voters and this has an impact on the electoral process.

There are other very important activities taking place, such as the beginning of the DDR (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration) programme which is in its pilot phase in Kunduz, Gardez and Kabul and soon it will start in Mazar.

Aside from these specific areas listed in the Bonn Agreement, Afghans with the support of the international community including the United Nations have been able to nearly eradicate polio from this country. Not every country in the region will be able to achieve this as quickly as Afghanistan will. There are over 4 million children in school today and about 35 per cent of them are girls. There has been the largest wheat crop that Afghanistan has seen in the last 25 years. This is a result of the resilience of the Afghan farmer. It is also a result of a change in weather that the drought ended in certain areas but it is also a result of the work of the Ministry of Agriculture and FAO along with NGOs in the distribution of seeds along with taking care of irrigation channels.

The United Nations, which never left Afghanistan, acquired a new set of responsibilities when the Bonn Agreement was signed by the Afghan factions. We will continue to do this work in support of the Afghan people and in line with the National Development Framework.

Question: Regarding the statement by the female delegate (Malalai Jouya) at the CLJ, what have been UNAMA's measures to secure her safety.

Spokesman: I am afraid I will be unable to disclose to you the security measures taken, otherwise they would no longer be considered security measures. What I can tell you is that she has been given the opportunity to meet with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission along with UNAMA's human rights personnel. Arrangements were also made responding to her safety concerns so that she feels secure during the days that she is here in Kabul.

Question: Malalai expressed the voice of Afghan citizens yesterday. Do you think this expression of truth was a crime? Do you think that 24 million Afghans should be sentenced as infidels for expressing the truth?

Spokesman: [The following paragraph is not a direct transcript due to equipment failure]. Any accusation of crime needs to be judged and go through due process. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is working on a difficult task, the task of transitional justice. It is my hope that the AIHRC hears Afghans on this issue and will be in a position to come up with a mechanism to respond to these issues.

Question: The vital needs of Afghanistan have not been addressed. What can UNAMA do or does it need a commission comprised of UNAMA, NGOs and Afghans to address these needs?

Spokesman: [The following paragraph is not a direct transcript due to equipment failure]. Some of you may recall that in our last press briefing we told you about a paper in which SRSG Brahimi outlined the future needs of Afghanistan.

This is a question of funding. The Afghan Government has indicated that for Afghanistan to come out of these years of destruction in a sustainable manner, it needs about six billion dollars a year for five years. This estimate is made by the Afghan Government. Mr. Brahimi raises the idea that maybe it is time for people, Afghans in particular with international partners, to review what has been done so far and to seriously look into the funding situation.

I do not have a copy of the paper with me today but tomorrow, if you are around here, we can leave a copy with the Loya Jirga press office and they will get the copy to you.

Question: Are the police who are being trained in Mazar new recruits or are have they been with the police force previously?

Spokesman: This police training program is called the Transition Integration Program. This particular program aims at police officers that are already a part of the police force. The training has two aspects: training of those who have already received some sort of training and training of those who have never had any training.

Question: The Loya Jirga is supposedly costing $50,000 a day, which is a heavy financial burden. Do you know how much money is being spent per delegate? And who is funding the Loya Jirga?

Spokesman: The Loya Jirga is funded by money coming from international donors. Technically speaking, this money goes into a fund which is administered by the United Nations Development Programme for the sole purpose of the Loya Jirga. I think you are right, I heard that it is $50,000 a day for the cost of the meeting and I don't know how you can break down per individual as there are a lot of expenditures that are not related directly to one single delegate. It is a lot of money but if at the end of this process, Afghanistan has a constitution that responds to the aspirations of the majority of the people and that moves Afghanistan forward, I think it is worth it.

Question: How do you see the future of the Loya Jirga now that the delegates have broken into smaller groups?

Spokesman: In my country, there is a saying that the future belongs to God so I cannot make a prediction. What I can tell you is that while yesterday was a complicated day with the event of the morning that we all deplore, I was at the Loya Jirga this morning and it seemed to being going smoothly. All the delegates were in their groups. I did not hear about anyone coming to complain about anything but it is too early in the day. Lets see if by the end of the day there is anything.

We cannot lose sight that delegates will be discussing very important issues and they will have to work very hard to reach consensus. Afghans are coming from so many years of destruction and violence during which their institutions were eroded so it is quite a challenge to try to overcome all of this so quickly by defining their constitution. The Europeans have been discussing their constitution for so long and they could not reach agreement in a meeting that they held last week. I am very hopeful that in Kabul the Constitutional Loya Jirga will reach agreement on a constitution that responds to the aspirations of the majority of the people and that will move Afghanistan forward.