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UN agency sets up unit to assess environmental impact of conflicts

UN agency sets up unit to assess environmental impact of conflicts

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Building on the success of its recent environmental assessments in the Balkans region, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced the launch of a new Post-Conflict Assessment Unit.

The 11-member Geneva-based Unit will be available to conduct assessments in any of the world's many post-conflict zones, UNEP said.

The agency's assessments of the environmental consequences of the Balkans crisis were based on field missions by expert teams to affected sites followed by laboratory analyses. The resulting reports identified heavily polluted "hot spots," offered the first-ever analysis of depleted uranium in a real conflict situation, determined the environmental impacts of refugee influxes, and proposed solutions for environmental clean-up.

Inaugurating the new Unit, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said it would "extend the work pioneered in the Balkans to embrace other areas of the world where the natural and human environment has been damaged as a consequence of conflict."

The agency said areas of immediate concern could include Afghanistan, which has experienced over 20 years of conflict. "UNEP stands ready to carry its part of the UN's responsibility for Afghanistan by assisting in the country's rehabilitation and reconstruction," said Mr. Toepfer.