Yesterday (Saturday), at 10:30 a.m., an electoral vehicle hit an explosive devise in Grabawa, Khogani district, one-hour southwest of Jalalabad. The incident caused the fuel tank to burst. Five people, including a driver and four National Electoral Field Coordinators, managed to get out of the car before it was engulfed in flames. All five staff are reported to be fine with the driver suffering only minor injuries. There is an investigation underway by the Government and deminers have been to the area to determine whether the explosion was caused by a mine or a remote controlled IED (Improvised Explosive Devise).

Another milestone has been reached in the voter registration process. As of Thursday, 6 May, over two million Afghans had registered. The exact figure is 2,033,568 of which 1,417,749 are men and 615,819 are women. This maintains the 70 percent/30 percent gender split. For the past three days of reporting, the daily figure has been steady at around 35,000 registrants per day with women making up around 33 percent of the total.

On the issue of elections, I should alert you that this past week there was a workshop in Kabul for all UNAMA human rights officers to discuss their agenda for the coming months. One of their key activities will be the monitoring of political rights for the electoral process. They will be doing this along side the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

In this context, the Special Representative stresses that the process of political party registration needs to be accelerated. The electoral law will be adopted in the next few days; it will establish the rules for the participation of parties and independent candidates in the electoral process. Unfortunately, as of today, only five parties have been registered out of 36 applicants. It is therefore critical that the relevant ministries assist the Ministry of Justice so that all parties that meet the requirements of the political party law can start operating openly without further delay.

New public information campaigns are also underway in preparation for the main phase. This week, for example, two new public service announcements (PSAs) will begin airing on pubic and private radio stations nationwide. Through ex-soldiers already in the DDR programme, these PSAs will outline the variety of reintegration options available under the DDR programme and explain the necessity of disarmament for Afghanistan's security and future.

The heavy weapons survey has been completed throughout the country where there are key military formations with the exception of Heart, Shibergan and the Panjshir. So far more than 4,000 heavy weapons have been located, with more than 2,000 of these heavy weapons listed as operational and repairable, of course the balance is unusable. Cantonment sites will be located in eight locations under the control of the Ministry of Defence: Bamyan, Gardez, Heart, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, and Mazar-e-Sharif. Inoperable heavy weaponry will be destroyed.

Reintegration activities are continuing in Kandahar - the fifth and final location for the DDR pilot programmes which began late last year. More than 340 of the 850 ex-soldiers who have been demobilized in Kandahar have entered reintegration activities. Nationwide some 5,516 of the soldiers have been reintegrated into civilian life through options under the Afghanistan New Beginning's Programme. Vocational training and job placement is the most popular choice by former soldiers and includes theoretical and practical training followed by job placement. Agriculture continues to be the second most popular choice with micro credit being offered to beneficiaries along with literacy classes.

The objective of these intensive courses around the country is to train 20,000 police by the summer. Under the same initiative, 1,000 are being trained in the north, a potential 3,000 in the south. Some 800 policemen have been trained in the east and 535 in the northeast. These police will be absorbed into new professional provincial police structures and provided with weapons and uniforms. The US training supports the overall efforts by Germany, which is the lead nation in the reform of the Afghan police.

The campus radio station broadcasts on 106.7 FM and is based in the University's Faculty of Journalism. It will serve as a training tool for journalism students and as a voice for the University in its efforts to engage the local community.

For more information, there is a UNESCO press release available on the side table.

UNHCR Spokesperson - Vesna Petkovic

The repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan approached the 2 million mark last week, while the returns from Iran surpassed 700,000 for the period from April 2002, when the facilitated repatriation operation began.

Of the 2 million returns from Pakistan, UNHCR assisted over 1.9 million persons while from Iran the UN Agency assisted more than 415,000 individuals. UNHCR together with IOM and other agencies also helped over 440,000 displaced Afghans go back to their homes.

Many Afghans living in neighboring or other countries also started coming back: more than 10,000 came back from Tajikistan, India, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan alone.

Trying to assist Afghan refugees make an informed decision about their return, UNHCR will continue to organize facilitated group returns from Pakistan in coordination with the Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, removing obstacles for Afghan groups wishing to go back to their home area.

In order to help Afghans living in Iran and wishing to return resolve some outstanding legal disputes, UNHCR and BAFIA started seven Dispute Settlement Committees throughout the country last week.

In an effort to provide thousands of internally displaced persons and refugees with the first hand information on conditions in their places and following the series of successful go-and-see visits to Northern provinces, (Faryab and Jowzjan) UNHCR is organizing the next one to the Sari Pul soon.

Like in previous cases, representatives of IDPs and refugees will be able to get a realistic impression about the life in their home region, but at the same time get an opportunity to convey the concerns of their local residents who fled almost three years ago to the regional leaders and local commanders.

The UNHCR regional budget for repatriation of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan is $122.5 million for 2004. So far UNHCR has received close to $50 million, which is over 41 percent of the needs with the shortfall of about 59 percent.

UNHCR almost entirely depends on the voluntary contributions of governments and organisations. Last year 15 donor countries contributed more than one million dollars each. (Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States).

Questions and Answers

Question: I haven't been here for a while, so excuse me if my questions have been answered recently. The data sheet says that there are 63 sites open but I thought that the plan was for thousands. Can you clarify that? Also, on the registration of political parties, can you clarify why this is a delay? And was the incident of yesterday targeting the vehicle or was it by chance?

Spokesman: I will start with the last question. We do not know whether this vehicle from yesterday was targeted. It could have been just a mine that was there and the vehicle hit it or it could have been a targeted attack by remote control device. An investigation is on going and we do not know the result yet. What is important is that both the very tragic and dramatic incident of last week when the Global employees were killed and this last one of yesterday have so far not had any impact on the planning for voter registration. The plans and activities continue as scheduled. Not one registration site was closed because of these events. Of course we take security very seriously. As you know, we have talked about security from the early stages as a very important aspect for everything in this country, and in particular voter registration. This why the Ministry of the Interior is fully involved with this process along with ISAF and the Coalition to ensure the necessary requirements for security.

As for the number of sites, there are 275 sites open nationwide as of 6 May. The 63 figure that you see on the data sheet is the average number of sites open per day since the start of the voter registration process on 1 December. The plan continues to be to have over 4,000 sites open for Phase II. What I don't think you will see is all four thousand sites open at the same time. We will have over 4,000 sites during Phase II. The current 275 sites are being staffed by 565 teams, which represents over 2,500 people working.

Question: Can you explain to us why the heavy weapons survey has not been possible in Heart, Shibergan and the Panjshir?

Spokesman: I did not say that they had not been possible. I said that they are delayed there. I think it is a question of access.

Question: Can you expand on that?

Spokesman: No, I do not have more details to give you on that. I know that it is a question of access but I don't have more details. I would suggest that you contact either the Ministry of Defence or our colleagues at ANBP.

Question: Can you tell us briefly about the Special Representatives talks with Ismail Khan? Did Ismail Khan have a reaction to the statement by the SRSG on DDR and the fact that Heart has not submitted a list for disarmament?

Spokesman: The meeting was a tête-à-tête. I don't have more details to give you other than the very broad read out of what they discussed. I realize that I am not giving you any details but we do not usually give you details of meetings that are not public. It was a private meeting much like other meetings that the SRSG holds.

Question: The meeting in Heart and now the trip to Mazar by Vendrell. Are these high-profile trips in connection with DDR?

Spokesman: I did not know that Mr. Vendrell was in Mazar.

Question: Following the assassination of the electoral workers in Nuristan, the registration sites in that province have still not opened although it was announced that they would open on 9 May. Also, at the last briefing, you told us about the removal of illegal checkpoints in Jalalabad but this has still not happened as of yesterday.

Spokesman: On the Nuristan incident, I already said in the last briefing and I am sorry did not repeat it today that registration in Nuristan would be delayed. Until we know who did the killing and what the motivation was, we have to take a cautious approach in that area. You are right that it had been announced that registration would begin in Nuristan on 9 May but as I said in the last briefing, this would be delayed.

On Jalalabad, the security task force informed us that it was not possible to begin the removal of the checkpoints yesterday. However, they will do so in the very near future.

Question: Do you have an update on what happened with the incident in Nuristan?

Spokesman: We do not have any new information to share with you.