These deminers are invisible heroes who without any thought of self put their own lives at enough risk everyday. The cowardly act committed against them cannot and will not be tolerated. The SRSG calls on the authorities to investigate and bring to justice those who seek to destroy the hard earned peace, obstruct positive advances and callously wage war on decent and innocent people. The SRSG extends his deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased.

For those of you who do not have the facts, yesterday at about 9:30 a.m. two OMAR vehicles returning to Heart from Farah City both came under fire on the Farah Road District in Shiwan Village. One of the drivers managed to contact the OMAR sub-office in Heart on the radio to notify them that all four occupants of the cars had been injured before communication stopped. Ten to 15 minutes later, the Chief of Farah Police who had heard the shots arrived on the scene and informed OMAR Heart by radio that all four personnel were dead. The Chief of Police took the four deceased and two damaged vehicles back to Farah City. Three of the deceased were from Heart and one from Laghman. UNMACA is transporting their bodies to their respective homes today.

We also have a UNMACA statement with its reaction available for you.

The issue of women's participation continues to be the focus of attention across the country. As recently as last Monday, tribal leaders in Khost province met in a loya jirga during which they passed a 15-point resolution, one of which expressed their willingness to have women take part in the electoral process as long as local traditions were respected. In particular they cited the need for separate registration and voting centers for men and women, as well as the need to have women registered by other women, all of which is in line with the current registration procedures.

The support of the tribal leaders for the participation of women is seen as a positive development in a region that has had very low turn out for women. Gardez, the closest regional center to Khost, has the lowest percentage of women registrants in the country at 13 percent of the total. Similarly in Kandahar and Jalalabad, women registrants represent just 15 percent of the total turnout. UNAMA encourages community leaders in these areas to follow the example of the tribal jirga in Khost so that women are brought in the political process.

In other areas of the country, women registrants are breaking new records. Yesterday in Kabul, 6,073 women registered to vote - the highest turn out ever in a single day. And in Kunduz yesterday, there were more women who registered than men - 839 men compared with 893 women.

As part of its on-going efforts to engage women voters, UNAMA organized a gender focal points meeting on 11 February to go over the registration process. One of the key issues discussed was how to reach women in villages and communities who are not aware of the election process and its importance. UN agencies were encouraged to include civic education activities, as appropriate, in their ongoing work and to initiate activities in support of the provincial departments of women affairs. UN agencies were also encouraged to inform their national staff, in particular women, about the registration process.

The Security Commission of the North, which brings together the leadership of the key factions, will also investigate and arrest anyone involved in extortion.

So far in the four pilot projects locations, 3,678 men have now been demobilized while 2,127 have gone through the reintegration process. Trends indicate that as the numbers of demobilized men increases vocational training is overtaking agriculture as the most popular choice and has now been selected by 1,493 men as an alternative lifestyle. As you know when the men go through the interview for the reintegration process, they may opt for a variety of choices, including vocational training, agriculture, small business, joining the national army or police, and contract work.

Yesterday saw the first batch of 250 teachers completing the first of three nine-day training courses and the start of the second course by another batch of 250 teachers. Twenty-one per cent of the teachers in the programme are women. The trainees are instructed on: lesson planning and preparation; mine risk education; recognizing and dealing with violence and abuse among children in the classroom; and core language subjects (Dari and Pashto).

Prior to the beginning of these courses two teachers underwent a 21-day master training course. Following that these master trainers then trained another 20 trainers who are currently training the 750 teachers. Similar courses are taking place in Paktika, Khost, Logar, Kabul, Parwan, Kapisa, Wardak, Ghazni and Bamyan. This is all part of a national programme, which UNICEF informed you about that is training some 55,000 primary school teachers by the beginning of the next school year.

Because Afghanistan is now a party to most of the international human rights conventions, it is obligated to report periodically to the United Nations on progress towards implementation. During the period of conflict in Afghanistan, little or no reporting was done. With the Government now developing a programme to meet its international human rights obligations, it has sought assistance on procedures for reporting.

In this regard a delegation from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights traveled to Kabul to take part in the workshop. The agenda covers a wide range of topics, including an introduction to the main human rights instruments and best practices for report writing. Participants include focal points from the Ministries, the AIHRC and various international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

For those of you who are interesting in following this subject, the workshop is open to the media.

Questions and Answers

Question: On security and the attack on the deminers in Farah, was that anywhere near where the census workers were killed several months ago?

Spokesman: I don't think so. I am not speculating but I am trying to put the two pieces of information together. The census people were attacked at the border with Nimroz, on their way back from Nimroz. These people were attacked very near Farah city because, as I told you, the Chief of Police heard the shots so I am guessing that the two incidents were not nearby.

Question: On Badakhshan, has there been any confirmation as to whether it was a fight over the poppy tax?

Spokesman: I don't have that information. I cannot confirm one away or another. At the last briefing, we announced that we had been to the area and confirmed that tensions had stopped and there was calm in the area. We don't have any details on what motivated the fighting.

Question: When I was in Afghanistan last, Mr. Brahimi had just given a pessimistic statement on the prospect for the elections due to security. What is the assessment now for elections vis-à-vis security?

Spokesman: We still see security as the major challenge for voter registration and the elections. But we also - and when I say "we" I don't mean UNAMA only but the Afghan authorities and its international partners - take very seriously the decision of the Constitutional Loya Jirga, in one of its transitional provisions, that all efforts must be made for legislative and presidential elections to take place as close as possible. All the actors involved in this process have been working very, very hard at reviewing plans and situations in specific areas in order to determine what changes can be undertaken to bring the elections as close as possible to the original June date foreseen in the Bonn Agreement.

The difficulties are still there. Security is a chief one but you also have institutional ones such as the question of determining district boundaries, which is an essential aspect if you are going to have a legislative election. You have the issue of identification of Afghan personnel to work in this process. As you heard in one of our notes today, registering women is a major challenge. It is a major challenge because traditional practices, cultural norms and the fact that women have not played an important role so far in the political developments of this country. One of the ways of addressing this is to have separate registration sites for women, for example. To do this you have to have female staff dedicated to female registrants. It is a major challenge to identify the very large number of women who are required with the minimum qualifications to undergo training and undertake these functions.

These are just some examples of the aspects that we are looking into. It is our hope that within a matter of a short period of time, the Joint Electoral Management Body, which is responsible for overseeing this process, will be able to announce a final plan to see what can be done to move to the elections as close as possible to the June date. The JEMB for those who are not aware has 11 members, six of them are Afghans who make up the Afghan Interim Electoral Commission, and the remaining five are international experts on electoral matters.

Question: By what time are we likely to have an electoral law in place and who will be writing it? UNAMA or the JEMB?

Spokesman: The JEMB will be working on it. Of course we will be available to provide all the necessary support to them as they work on it. It is the President and his Cabinet who finally approves any legislation until there is a national assembly. The JEMB is working on it. I don't have a date to give you but it will be very soon, I hope.

Question: Does the UN still have international staff in Kandahar, Helmund and Zabul?

Spokesman: They never left their offices. UNHCR did pull out their international staff after Bettina was killed but the UN presence continued. To give you an idea of numbers I believe in Kandahar now we have close to thirty international staff from UNAMA and other UN agencies.

Question: Is the UN planning for any postponement to the June dates for the elections?

Spokesman: No, our planning assumption continues to be June but we are also realistic in that we know what the challenges are. We will not be able to make any announcement until the final plan is concluded and I hope this will be in the very short term.

Question: As far as the elections, you say that security is the main challenge but the Coalition through General Barno is saying that they are dealing with the security and that it is the UN that does not have a logical framework for the elections. Does it mean that the UN will be criticized if the elections are not held on time?

Spokesman: I am not in the position to interpret General Barno's words. I know the facts as I tell then to you and I can also tell you that the Coalition is very involved in the discussion of our plans, particularly on the security side. I would prefer to leave it at that.

Question: Do you have any suspects in custody in relation to the shooting of the mineworkers?

Spokesman: Of course the investigation is in the hands of the local authorities. We have not received word of anyone being arrested.

Question: Has the attack effected your movements in Kandahar and Farah?

Spokesman: No, there have been no restrictions following this attack so far.

Question: Do you have any staff in Farah? Is it a no-go area?

Spokesman: No, but unfortunately I don't have it in my memory if any UN agency has an office there. I know UNAMA does not have but it is certainly an area where there is work going on as the deminers were working there. I would have to check if there is any UN agency that has an office in Farah.

[After the briefing the Spokesman learned that the following agencies are active in Farah: UN Habitat (National Solidarity Programme); the World Health Organization and UNICEF (on-going health campaigns); FAO (recovery programme for the sandstorm affected areas); and UNMACA (mine clearance, led by OMAR).]

Question: Does the killing of these deminers affect the process of the registration for the elections?

Spokesman: The registration of voters, according to the plans at this time, is to be happening in only eight cities. Farah city is not one of these eight cities. The eight cities are: Kabul, Kandahar, Gardez, Mazar, Bamyan, Jalalabad, Kunduz and Heart. In a second phase, the voter registration sites will expand throughout the country. How they will expand and in what kind of calendar are among the aspects being reviewed in the discussions that I mentioned earlier.

Question: On DDR, how serious is the intimidation of soldiers in Mazar? And secondly, most of the demobilized soldiers are interested in agriculture and when they get home they start cultivating poppy. Are they being told of the harms of doing this?

Spokesman: First of all, just a clarification of words. I don't know how you define intimidation but what the soldiers have suffered is extortion. The money that they received as part of their demobilization package was taken away from them by their former commanders. It is not a large-scale problem but you are right, it did happen in Kunduz and we see it happening in Mazar now. Not in large numbers but it is still a matter of great concern. Part of the process of demobilizing the soldiers includes a civic education program of all aspects, including the peace efforts of the country and the difficulties and the challenge in the country. I do not know that most of these soldiers get in engaged in poppy cultivation when they choose agriculture, as you said, but I hope that is not correct. I never heard of that.

Question: A few weeks ago, some Kabul papers criticized the voter registration saying that the political parties were still not registered. How are you going to meet that gap to satisfy those people?

Spokesman: We are not in a perfect situation. There is a race here of institutionalization and reality. We have a reality, which is to have to register people in order for them to be able to vote which is what people want, along with many other things. The top of their list is disarmament. You also have the institutionalization process.

A key aspect of this, at this moment, is the establishment of political parties. The law on political parties was enacted on the basis of a decree from the President some months ago. There are some requirements that need to be met in order for a party to register. The Ministry of Justice is the competent body of the Government to process these applications. We agree that is has got to move faster. Recently the Special Representative met with the Minister of Justice in order to review with him which measures could be taken in order to help them to expedite the process of registration of political parties. So a number of things are happening, from providing equipment to the training of personnel. The Ministry did assign a significant number of people, I think 40 people, to deal… [The remaining couple sentences of answer unavailable due to technical failure.]