Press Encounter by Jean Arnault, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan - Jalalabad

27 June

It is not only the United Nations that is here today but also a number of other important institutions - the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), the JEMB Secretariat, the Office of the President and the Ministry of the Interior.

We are here to express to the Governor [of Nangarhar] and through him to the population of Nangarhar our sense of solidarity after the tragic incident of yesterday. We also came to pay our respects to the families of the two dead Afghan women who were helping with the voter registration exercise. Their example has been an inspiration to us foreigners who are trying to assist in this electoral process. Therefore we also came to say to the Governor and to the high authority of this province that we in the United Nations are committed to the continuation of the [voter] registration process; we are committed to continuing to make every effort so that the electoral process will be successful in this province and in the country as a whole.

Question: Inaudible.

The last word would be to encourage the authorities and also perhaps most of all the communities to continue to do everything they can to help this electoral process. They will ultimately be the beneficiaries of it.

Question: What will be the implication of this [yesterday's incident] on the election in Nangarhar?

SRSG: As I said it has been a shock for us that two women [who died] and the many more who were wounded could be attacked in this fashion. We feel that this is an act that will be denounced and condemned by everyone - Afghans and internationals.

The outrage that is felt, all of us should show it now. We believe that everyone will agree to continue the process irrespective of what happens and make sure that we can have a good election in this country as soon as possible.

Question: So this process will not be postponed or stopped now in Nangarhar?

SRSG: Absolutely not.

Question: Would you be providing the families [affected by the incident] with any assistance?

SRSG: Indeed these families and the victims were in a contractual relationship and they will benefit from the provisions that come with their status as contractual employees.

Question: If more than one million people are registered in Nangarhar would the people here get more of a quota?

SRSG: This is of course an important question. We have made a provision based on planned figures. But ultimately our target is to register every single Afghan who wants to register and we will not stop registration until we, the Governor as well as the community leaders feel that the job has been well done.

Question: The voter registration process is scheduled to end in June. If all registration is not achieved will it continue?

SRSG: We have here representatives of the electoral authority, Dr. Farooq Wardak and Chairman Zakim Shah, who are respectively Head of the Secretariat [of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB)] and Head of the Afghan Electoral Commission. All of them agree that while the effort, the brunt and the gist of this effort, hopefully will be finalized by June, if it is necessary to continue then there will be continuation particularly in those districts that were under-registered in the last couple of months.

I do not want to give the impression that people should simply relax . All the equipment and all the people who are working in the [JEMB] Secretariat need to be assigned as soon as possible to those areas of the east that have not had complete registration. So all those citizens of Nangarhar who have not registered should really do it sooner rather than later so that our Afghan colleagues and members of the [JEMB] Secretariat can as soon as possible start registering more people out there where there has been too little registration so far.

Question: Now that the international community has given its attention to three issues -- the elections, the disarmament process and the fight against drugs -- do you think it's appropriate to focus on all three at the same time?

SRSG: We would actually be very relieved if we could focus on one thing at a time. But unfortunately such is the situation in Afghanistan that all issues are linked. In particular we cannot separate elections from disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR). The country as a whole committed itself a couple of months ago in Berlin to achieve an election and also at the same time to a wide process of disarmament. We continue to believe that both have to happen and we will continue to do everything we can so that both indeed happen at the same time.

Thank you very much.