UN humanitarian official 'cautiously optimistic' about relief effort in Afghanistan

A senior United Nations humanitarian official today expressed cautious optimism about the Organization's ability to distribute relief supplies in Afghanistan, where rapidly evolving conditions seem to favour the aid effort while insecurity remains a pressing concern.

International staff have slowly been returning to Afghanistan for the first time in recent months, according to Kevin Kennedy, Chief of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He told reporters in New York that on Thursday, the UN had reinforced its presence in Faizabad with eight international staff drawn from all of the Organization's major operational agencies "and we would hope to do the same in other locations in Afghanistan over the next few days."

At the same time, he cautioned that the safety of international staff was still a paramount concern. "We're very mindful of the security situation and are monitoring it very, very closely," he said, adding that if the security situation stabilized, the relief effort would widen.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, indications of the expanded relief effort could be seen in the work of UN aid agencies operating on the ground. In Kabul, four female Afghan staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported to work today for the first time since the Taliban had taken control of the Afghan capital in 1996. The UNHCR staff had been barred from their office by the Taliban but, until 1999, had continued to work in the field. Since then, however, the Taliban had forbidden the female relief personnel from doing any work at all.

UNHCR also announced plans to re-establish its international presence throughout Afghanistan, with field offices to open in Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif.

In a related development, two UN human rights experts today called on the warring parties in Afghanistan to ensure immediate, safe and unhindered access by humanitarian organizations to the internally displaced and other vulnerable populations in the country.

Responding to alarming reports of the abysmal conditions facing displaced persons and other vulnerable groups within Afghanistan, the Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, Francis M. Deng, and the UN Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement, Kofi Asomani, called for greater protection and assistance to vulnerable populations in Afghanistan.

"We draw urgent attention to the deplorable conditions facing more than 1 million persons displaced within Afghanistan who are in immediate need of assistance and protection," the officials said in a joint statement released in Geneva. "The changed military and political situation on the ground provides a critical window of opportunity to reach those in need with life saving humanitarian assistance."

Citing reports of a general breakdown of law and order in Afghanistan, they called on all parties to the conflict to provide greater protection to the displaced and civilian population and to respect their rights as guaranteed by international humanitarian law and human rights law. "Acts of reprisal and persecution should under no circumstances be tolerated and perpetrators of such acts must be held accountable by the international community," they said.