PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

Carolyn McAskie, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, updated correspondents on the United Nations humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan this afternoon at Headquarters.

Ms. McAskie said that Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, was following up an earlier trip to Pakistan and Iran with visits to other countries bordering Afghanistan -- Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan

—- to discuss the humanitarian response to the crisis.  The talks included assistance to them in dealing with the overflow of the crisis into their countries and ways for the United Nations to use their territory for access to Afghans.

So far, there had been a positive response, she said.  The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was organizing United Nations country teams already there to work with local authorities to set up offices on the border to assist in the passage of material.  For example, the World Food Programme (WFP) wanted to increase its capacity to pass food through the Turkmenistan border. Also, there had been a border opening in Uzbekistan.

The OCHA was closely monitoring the population movements.  There had been some border crossings into Pakistan.  Since 11 September about 40,000 people had crossed over and there was a border opening by the Pakistani authorities that allowed the last 10,000 through.  Also, there were reports that there may be another 180,000 internally displaced, in addition to

1.1 million internally displaced already known.

To a correspondent who asked about feeding of the large number of Afghans amassing on the Pakistani border, she said the Pakistani authorities had opened their border this weekend to allow several thousand people to enter through the Shaman crossing on the road between Kandahar and Quetta.  The Pakistani authorities realized that, as soon as they opened up to let one group through, word spread and there would be another group there soon.  The concern was to work very closely with the Pakistani authorities to ensure a reception capability so that people could pass into the camps.  The UNHCR was very well prepared in the Quetta area and the WFP had enough food to feed large numbers now.  However, she added, she knew of no cross-border feeding to people actually on the other side of the border.  The humanitarian agencies were only getting about 50 per cent of the needs into the country at this stage. 

She referred to the constant problems with the loss of equipment vehicles, and even foodstocks, stolen by the Taliban.  There were two very large foodstocks taken over in Kabul and Kandahar, but most of it was returned after an edict was issued saying that Taliban authorities on the sites must not raid the United Nations and international offices, and instructing all local authorities to ensure return of all looted assets.  "They're asking, as in the North, to concentrate all the assets in single compounds with single communication and a single set of security arrangements.  To us this is a positive sign, because it means that throughout all of this we can continue through our local capacity to supply as much as possible in the way of assistance to local personnel", she said.

The WFP continued to supply convoys and had more than 12,000 metric tonnes of food stored inside Afghanistan and 35,000 metric tonnes stored in neighbouring countries.  Also, the WFP was working now on raising money for additional food and it expected to have the necessary food for the winter stockpiled in the region.

She said there was a report that there were 52,000 people around Herat without proper shelter for the winter, so there was a need to get shelter equipment there.  There was a route to Herat through Iran, and in fact the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had stockpiled a lot of equipment to help people get through the winter, in the five neighbouring countries.

A correspondent said there was concern that operators of terrorism or members of the Northern Alliance could be coming in along with refugees.  Was there a mechanism for that kind of screening?  Ms. McAskie said that problem was unique to this crisis and there was no reliable mechanism to address it. People were interviewed as they crossed and people being allowed in right now were those with visas.  But it was a very long border that ran through tribal areas, adding to the complications.

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