PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL’S PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE TO AFGHANISTAN

He was still hopeful the Taliban may be persuaded to accept the Secretary-General as an impartial mediator to the Afghan conflict, despite its attitude to United Nations sanctions, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Mr. Vendrell, who is also Head of the Special Mission to Afghanistan, said the Taliban had decided not to proceed with its previous commitment to open a dialogue with the United Front.  It felt that the United Nations had taken sides by imposing a unilateral embargo on the sale and transfer of weapons and on diplomatic representation.  In its view, the United Nations could not be seen as an aid to resolving the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

[Last December, the Security Council decided, in resolution 1333 (2000), to tighten the sanctions against the Taliban, which had been in place for more than a year.  New measures were imposed to prompt the hand-over of indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden.]

Although the Taliban had said at one point that it would close all United Nations political offices in Afghanistan, it had since shown flexibility,

Mr. Vendrell said.  United Nations political and civil affairs offices remained open.  Much would depend, however, on the final status of the Taliban's representative to the United Nations in New York in the coming days.

As for the lack of willingness to accept the Secretary-General as an impartial mediator, Mr. Vendrell hoped to persuade the Taliban that the Secretary-General was an impartial organ of the United Nations and that the sanctions had been adopted by the Member States represented in the Security Council.  The Taliban would have to bear in mind that the views of the international community were most often accurately reflected in the Council's decisions.

The overall situation in Afghanistan was dismal on a number of fronts,

Mr. Vendrell said.  The humanitarian situation was especially worrisome, with some half a million newly displaced persons and refugees in the last year.  The majority of refugees were fleeing not only because of fighting but also because of a serious drought.  "There is real danger of a famine later in the year", he said.

On the military front, the fighting continued, Mr. Vendrell said.  While the Taliban hoped to drive out the United Front, or the Northern Alliance, from Afghanistan perhaps by this summer, the Northern Alliance felt encouraged by the adoption of sanctions and hoped to reverse the losses it had incurred last year. 

There had also been serious human rights violations, Mr. Vendrell added.  Every report he had received indicated that a serious massacre occurred in Hazarajat around a month ago.  When they were driven out, the Taliban, perhaps believing that the population had cooperated with the Hazara forces, carried out an indiscriminate number of killings.

One positive development, however, had resulted from the ban on narcotics, Mr. Vendrell said.  The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) believed, at least on a preliminary basis, that the Taliban had been

serious in preventing the planting and cultivation of opium during the current season.  There were two possible ways of looking at the apparent implementation of the ban.  Some thought that the Taliban had decided that it was in its own interest -- in terms of image -- to prevent the cultivation of drugs.  Others thought, however, that the Taliban action was merely a "propaganda trick" and that enough opium was stored in Afghanistan to meet world demands for the next couple years.

"I think the only way to find out is to take the Taliban at their word and see if, with alternative crops, they continue along the path they have started", Mr. Vendrell said.

He was asked if the Taliban had said to him that it would close United Nations offices in Kabul if the United States State Department closed the Taliban office in New York.  While he had seen media reports saying that United Nations political offices in Kabul would be closed should the Taliban office in New York be closed, that had not been conveyed to him personally, Mr. Vendrell said.

Asked what the impact of closing the Taliban office in New York and the United Nations political and civil offices in Afghanistan would be, and whether he would oppose those moves, Mr. Vendrell said he hoped that it would be possible to keep a Taliban office open.  The Taliban office in Queens, New York, had two functions.  It issued visas and acted as a liaison office with the United Nations.  He thought that Security Council resolution 1333 (2000) made reference to the possibility of an office being kept open, especially because of the political work that the United Nations was doing in Afghanistan.  It was necessary to talk both with the recognized government of Afghanistan and with the Taliban authorities.  The closure of the political office in Kabul, which he hoped would not happen, would constitute another handicap to the work the United Nations was trying to carry out on the peace front. 

Responding to a question on the impact of sanctions on his work,

Mr. Vendrell said he had already referred to the impact of sanctions on the political work.  The Taliban had stated that the United Nations was biased because the Security Council had adopted sanctions against the Taliban and not against the other side.  For the moment, the good offices work of the Secretary-General had been partially interrupted. 

Asked what kind of international presence the United Nations currently had in Afghanistan and whether there were concerns about retaliation, he explained that the Taliban had complied with assurances to safeguard the security of United Nations personnel and premises.  While there had been a temporary reduction in the number of United Nations personnel in Afghanistan, the numbers had now gone back to normal.  At the moment, there was no reason to feel that the United Nations would be a target of retaliation. 

Responding to a question about whether the Taliban had indicated that it would turn over Mr. bin Laden, Mr. Vendrell said that he had not detected any major change in the Taliban position that had been repeatedly spelled out this year.  The speculation that Mr. bin Laden would be handed over in exchange for United Nations recognition had been subsequently denied by the Taliban Foreign Minister.

Asked to elaborate on a possible State Department decision to close the Taliban office, Mr. Vendrell said that Security Council resolution 1333 made some provision for the possible continuation of an office to the United Nations after discussions took place between the Host Government -- the United States -- and the

United Nations.  He hoped to discuss that issue in coming days both in New York and in Washington, D.C.

A correspondent asked if he believed that the length of sanctions had had a deleterious impact on the humanitarian scene in general and Mr. Vendrell responded that, while he was not an expert on humanitarian issues, he had not noticed such a negative impact.  The situation was as dreary and bad as it was because of drought and fighting. 

He was asked whether he had seen any impact from the sanctions on the ground, and whether a monitoring mechanism been set up to observe compliance.  It was far too early to tell what impact, if any, the military sanctions would have on fighting, he responded.  As for a monitoring mechanism, a committee of experts would have to be set up and would have to report to the Security Council on possible mechanisms.  At the moment, no monitoring mechanisms were in place.

Asked whether he had asked the Council to find a way to keep the Taliban office in New York open, Mr. Vendrell said that he had not.  He hoped that the Secretariat, the Secretary-General and the United States Government would discuss the matter.  He was planning to go to Washington tomorrow, at which time he hoped to take up the issue.

Asked to summarize the attitudes of central Asian governments, in light of the sanctions and developments on the ground, he said that four of five central Asian governments had stated quite clearly that they supported the adoption of the sanctions, and that they intended to abide by them.  The fifth had stated that it would abide by the sanctions, although it expressed reservation about the wisdom of adopting sanctions only against the Taliban.

Asked what the Taliban's responsibility for taking care of its own people was, and what kind of governing it was able to do, he answered “very little”.  The United Nations had become, in practice, the supplier of goods and services that would normally be supplied by a government.  "It's a bit of a vicious circle",

Mr. Vendrell continued.  The Taliban did not receive international development assistance because of their policies.  Some of their policies, they claimed, were due to lack of international recognition or engagement with them.

Asked if he was hopeful of resolving the issue in the near future,

Mr. Vendrell said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the issue could be resolved.  There were several reasons for his optimism in the medium-term.  The first was that the majority of the Afghan people were sick and tired of war, and that only a portion of the population was actually keeping the war going.

Moreover, it was illogical for neighboring countries to continue to fuel the conflict or do nothing to stop it, he added.  The legitimate interests of all neighboring countries could be accommodated by a unified Afghanistan under a government that was in step with the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan and respectful of the rights of all the ethnic groups.

Mr. Vendrell said that he had not been personally notified about the State Department's position on the New York Taliban office, in response to another question.  However he thought that there was still room for discussion.  What formula would be found would depend on talks.

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