The Special Representative strongly condemns yet another tragic and unacceptable act directed at the aid community in Afghanistan. This and other recent attacks in Kandahar urgently point towards the need to make more forces available to the provincial authorities in order to enable them to uphold the law and facilitate the expansion of reconstruction.

The SRSG expresses his deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the victims.

With this in mind, I will just give you a brief update on some of the latest funding figures. As of 27 April, $86.3 million have been committed by donors towards the in-country voter registration exercise. This includes $74.4 million already received and an additional $11.8 million in firm commitments. The funding shortfall is $4 million. There is a breakdown of voter registration funding available on the side table.

The funding for September's presidential and parliamentary election remains at some $68 million, which was pledged at the Berlin Conference last month. The total estimated cost for the election is $135 million.

As of yesterday, 1,873,378 Afghans have registered to vote. This includes 1,317,053 men and 556,325 women or 70 percent to 30 percent. These figures do not include yesterday's data from the Bamyan office, which was unable to submit figures in time for this briefing.

Two child soldiers were discovered in Kandahar during interviews by staff members of the DDR programme. These children have been referred to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which will decide the next course of action for the boys.

Two soldiers in Kandahar said they were addicted to drugs and asked for treatment before going through the DDR programme. Although there is currently no treatment option for them in Kandahar, their contact information was taken because DDR is planning expand its relationship with WADAN, a local NGO for drug rehabilitation that offers treatment to drug-addicted soldiers in Gardez.

More than 6,231 personnel have been disarmed and demobilized under the DDR pilot phase, which is in place in five regions, and more than 5,360 personnel have been reintegrated into civilian life. The total number of heavy and light weapons collected under the DDR pilot program is more than 4,830.

The heavy weapons survey is ongoing throughout Afghanistan. The teams have recorded the locations of about 4,000 heavy weapons so far. The next step will be cantoning 100 percent of the heavy weapons in the country in sites controlled by the Afghan National Army by the September elections.

In March we informed you that this training in the northeast was being run by Germany, the lead nation assisting with reform of the Afghan police. We have since learnt that this training also falls under the TIP, a United States funded initiative in which refresher courses for senior officers and basic training for new recruits is provided by US and Afghan Trainers. As we told you at the last briefing the training courses are two weeks for literate officers and four weeks for illiterate officers.

The objective of these intensive courses around the country is to train 20,000 police by the summer. Under the same initiative, 816 police officers have graduated in the southeast with another 1,000 about to undergo training. A further 1,000 are being trained in the north while 396 out of potential 3,000 have graduated in the south. The US training supports the overall efforts by Germany, which is the lead nation in the reform of the Afghan police.

The objective of the workshop is to develop a national plan of action to combat child trafficking, a problem that is seen to be on the rise but lacks clear documentation. Policy makers will be discussing the key areas of concern, including awareness raising, identification of children, and reunification and monitoring. A draft national plan of action will be agreed upon by the close of the workshop later today, a final copy of which should be available in the coming days.

Ms. Cataldi will undertake the mission to Afghanistan both as a Messenger of Peace and as spokesperson for UNMAS. While here, she will meet with Government and UN officials and she will also visit demining sites in and around Kabul and the provinces under the auspices of the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA).

Before departing Afghanistan, Ms. Cataldi may be available for press interviews. We will keep you informed if and when such an occasion arises.

Just for your background, the other UN Messengers of Peace are Muhammad Ali, Michael Douglas, Vijay Amritraj, Jane Goodall, Enrico Macias, Wynton Marsalis, Luciano Pavarotti, and Elie Wiesel.

Over 1,500 episodes of the radio drama have been broadcast since 1994 when New Home, New Life began to tell the story of life in three villages in central Afghanistan. Afghan Education Projects produces the radio drama for the BBC World Service Trust with a team of talented Afghan actors and scriptwriters who returned to Afghanistan 18 months ago from exile in Pakistan.

Throughout the years of conflict, New Home, New Life's lively characters and storylines held the attention of millions of Afghans scattered across the region bringing hope, entertainment and essential information to listeners.

Questions and Answers

Question: How is UNHCR guaranteeing the security of the people coming back from neighboring countries?

UNHCR: Your question is related to the third meeting of the Tripartite Commission with the Government of Iran, the Government of Afghanistan and UNHCR. Under the provisions of this agreement, UNHCR and the neighboring Governments are taking care of voluntary returns from Iran to Afghanistan. The first Tripartite Agreement with Iran was signed in April 2002. It dealt with ways and modalities of people who wished to return to Afghanistan after the situation in this country improved.

In that sense, the third meeting also discussed ways and modalities as well as how to enhance the repatriation of people from Iran to Afghanistan. But this only covers those who were registered by the Iranian Government in 2001 and 2003. This time they discussed a number of very concrete provisions and they agreed on how to act on behalf of those who want to repatriate voluntarily to Afghanistan. They agreed to increase the transportation capacities and they agreed to have more organized visits by Afghan officials to Iran. There was such a visit earlier this year when Bamyan officials went to three cities in Iran where the refugee population is the biggest, namely Tehran, Mashad and Karag. While there they informed Afghan refugees of the situation in the country, with specific reference to Bamyan province.

As for the returns that are not voluntary, this meeting was really dedicated to this aspect. All three sides again reaffirmed this voluntary aspect of the return. Very soon a field settlement committee will be formed to deal with all of the legal obstacles related to return. It was agreed that UNHCR could have access to all of those Afghans being deported through Milak crossing point.

Question: What measures have been put into place in Kandahar in light of the recent attacks?

Senior Media Relations Officer: Following the attack last week, there was a temporary suspension, which has now been lifted. There are limited operations in the southern region, limited in that missions can proceed on a case-by-case basis. Staff are traveling to and from office to home. I was briefed by our security people this morning that voter registration sites are functioning. Everything else is taking place but in a limited way.