Concerned about detained aid workers, Annan appeals to Taliban for speedy solution

Secretary-General Kofi Annan remained concerned at the continued detention of eight international and 16 national aid workers in Afghanistan and appealed to the Taliban authorities for a speedy solution, his spokesman said today.

The Secretary-General "regrets that, contrary to customary international law, consular access and legal representation for the detainees have been denied," said Manoel de Almeida e Silva at a press briefing in New York. "This gives a signal that could have severe consequences on critical humanitarian assistance at a time when Afghans are suffering the combined effects of war, extreme poverty, massive displacement and severe drought."

Meanwhile, plans are underway to conduct immunization campaigns in areas of relatively higher risk for wild polio virus circulation in Afghanistan, where earlier this year international experts declared the country on the verge of eradicating the crippling disease, the Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan announced today.

The campaign next week hopes to seize on the tremendous gains in the country's polio eradication efforts over the past couple of years. "To ensure that polio is eradicated from Afghanistan, it is imperative that the tempo of the efforts be further increased," the UN Coordinator said in a statement released in Islamabad, Pakistan. "Experience from polio-free regions demonstrated that the last reservoirs of wild poliovirus usually require the most concerted efforts."

Sub-national immunization days are planned from 21 to 23 August in Kandahar, Helmand, Engeel and Guzarah Districts of Herat. They will also be conducted in Kunduz, Kabul provinces, as well as four districts of Ghazni province, and three districts of Nangarhar province.

In other developments, another 2,300 Afghans repatriated from Pakistan this week, bringing to nearly 11,000 the number of persons who have returned to Afghanistan since the start six weeks ago of the voluntary repatriation programme conducted by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to a spokesman for the agency.

Since 3 July, a total of 37 convoys from Pakistan have ferried the returnees to their home villages. "The convoys leave from Pakistan about four times weekly to relatively stable destinations in southern, central and eastern Afghanistan," spokesman Kris Janowski told reporters in Geneva. All the convoys to Afghanistan are escorted by UNHCR staff.

UNHCR provides an aid package to repatriating Afghans consisting of a cash grant of 6,000 rupees (US$90), a plastic tarpaulin and 150 kilogrammes of wheat distributed by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). Six centres have been established inside Afghanistan to provide assistance to the returnees.