PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF PAKISTAN

Pakistan had not gone back on its commitments regarding humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees, and criticisms about the situation should be directed at those who imposed sanctions against Afghanistan under Security Council resolution 1333 of December 2000, Shamshad Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

He said criticism of Pakistan was “unjust”, particularly when the country was saddled with millions of refugees.  Pakistan was sheltering one of the largest refugee concentrations anywhere in the world.  Pakistan was also being asked to accommodate thousands of new refugees without adequate support and without the fulfilment of the agreement reached between the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations.

Criticism for that situation must be directed at those who triggered it by imposing United Nations sanctions under Security Council resolution 1333.  “Those who imposed the sanctions are now shedding crocodile tears”, he said.  “Let those who are making the most noise ferry the poor suffering Afghans from Afghanistan to their own countries, which have plenty of resources.  This is, perhaps, the easiest solution.”

He said he had called the press conference to clarify some of the things said about his country at yesterday’s briefing by the United Nations Spokesman for the Secretary-General and also to respond to “baseless allegations” made by a spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva.

He said a Reuters report had quoted the UNHCR official as stating that some 1 million Afghans had been affected by famine, while others were fleeing a protracted civil war between the country’s ruling Taliban and their opponents in the North.

He observed that the Reuters report had quoted the UNHCR spokesman as also saying that Afghan children were dying unnecessarily.  “I think nobody could agree more”, he said.  “The death of a child anywhere, under any circumstances, caused by sanctions or by snipers is undesirable.  And any time an innocent child loses its life unnecessarily, we believe that that is the moment of the demise of humanity.”

He added that the UNHCR spokesman had also stated, according to Reuters, that footpaths in one of two refugee camps in Pakistan had been turned into cesspools with flies spreading among the flimsy shelters and the smell of human excrement pervading the camp.  “This, indeed, is a bleak scenario”, he said.  “This script should have been part of the preamble to the United Nations Security Council resolution 1333 when they failed to anticipate the adverse impact of the most ill-advised action they had taken on the innocent 25 million people of Afghanistan.”

The Secretary-General’s Spokesman had said Pakistan had gone back on an understanding reached between the Secretary-General and the Government of Pakistan, he continued.  “Pakistan has not gone back on the understanding”, he said.  “Pakistan remains firm and is committed to honouring its commitments.  It is the UNHCR and the international agencies which are not doing their part.”

It was true that an understanding was reached between the Secretary-General and Pakistan’s Government during his visit to the country last February, he said.  Under the agreement, the United Nations was to mobilize relief inside Afghanistan.  A two-prong approach was to be followed as part of the understanding:  one point was relief operation inside Afghanistan; the other was provision of relief to Afghan refugees inside Pakistan.  It was understood that those actions were to be carried out simultaneously.

As part of that understanding, Pakistan agreed to cooperate with the United Nations in allowing assistance for freshly arrived Afghan refugees in Pakistan, he added.  It had also committed itself to extending assistance to United Nations agencies in setting up the relief camps on the Afghanistan side of the border with Pakistan.

Pakistan had also stated that the United Nations and other international humanitarian agencies must provide relief on an emergency basis inside Afghanistan, in particular closer to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, he said.  It was also to ensure that there was no more exodus of refugees from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

He said the arrival of a large number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan had created an alarming situation, and Pakistani authorities had asked the UNHCR to stop registration of refugees to curtail the influx.  He said no attention had been paid to those refugees inside Afghanistan, but attention had been concentrated on the 170,000 refugees who arrived following the imposition of sanctions by the Security Council.

Without the provision of relief for those inside Afghanistan, the registration of refugees would only induce Afghans to move into Pakistan.  “This is unacceptable and contrary to the understanding reached during the Secretary-General’s visit”, he said.  It had been explained that Pakistan had no intention of pushing back those who had already entered the country.  It was not in a position to accommodate an additional influx of Afghans, as its capacity to receive more refugees was simply exhausted.

He said the Jalozai camp, to which references were made by the UNHCR spokesman, was open to that agency, as well as to other humanitarian aid workers, bilateral donors and national and international non-governmental organizations. New camps should be set up inside Afghanistan, so that internally displaced people could be settled there.  Pakistan had also pointed out the paucity of resources at the disposal of the UNHCR and other United Nations agencies.  Pakistan had been caring for more than 2 million Afghan refugees without any help from the international community.  The inadequacy of funds was reflected in the UNHCR’s budget, which had only a little over $2 million at its disposal for its existing programmes in Pakistan.

He observed that both the United Nations Secretary-General and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, conceded the total

inadequacy of the available funds and the international response to address the hardship of the Afghan refugees.  Pakistan had constantly been in touch with the Secretary-General and Mr. Oshima, and with the UNHCR, drawing attention to the urgency of humanitarian relief for the Afghan refugees and the internally displaced, he stated.

He said the argument that the exodus of Afghans was on account of ongoing conflict and drought conditions was not substantiated by facts.  The conflict had been going on for more than two decades.  The drought conditions, an exceptional one, existed long before December last year.  The influx of refugees and the gravity of the humanitarian crisis had increased only as a result of the Security Council sanctions in December 2000.  Since that period, more than 170,000 Afghan refugees had entered Pakistan, while over 800,000 had been internally displaced, he said.

He said Pakistan was also being asked to accommodate thousands of new refugees without adequate support and without the fulfilment of the agreement reached between the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations.

He said if those responsible for the sanctions did not accept Afghan refugees in their countries, they should at least provide Pakistan with sufficient assistance to look after Afghan refugees already in the country and also adequate relief to those inside Afghanistan.  Pakistan hoped that the world community, particularly organizations like the UNHCR, would provide relief for the millions of needy Afghans, rather than politicizing the issue.

Pakistan remained convinced that peace in Afghanistan would be achieved only through a non-discriminatory approach and a policy of engagement, rather than punitive measures.  “One-sided arms embargoes will not solve the problem, but serve to fuel the continuation of the conflict”, he said.  He added that Security Council resolution 1333 had -– apart from aggravating the humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan -– only served to prolong the ongoing conflict. 

Pakistan hoped that the countries that were instrumental in imposing the sanctions on Afghanistan would now realize the inadvisability of their action and would reconsider their position.

He told a correspondent that there could be no grounds or justification for the Security Council to consider sanctions against Pakistan.  Pakistan was one country which had always contributed to the efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan.  As a law-abiding Member State of the United Nations, it was in full compliance with Security Council resolution 1333, and even an earlier one.  It did not agree with the intent and contents of those resolutions.  It was ensuring their implementation.  Thus, there was no reason for any action to be contemplated against his country.

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