Ladies and gentlemen, let me say how pleased the Security Council was to be here in Herat today. It is the second day of our trip to Afghanistan and we had the opportunity to speak to the Deputy Governor who gave us a very detailed and comprehensive information on the political, social and economic situation here in Herat. We had a chance to discuss what the international community can do to further the reconstruction, politically and economically, of Afghanistan and how the international community can contribute to help Afghanistan to implement the Bonn Process, in particular with a view to getting the new constitution that I think has been presented today and will have to be legitimized by the Constitutional Loya Jirga and also with regard to the general elections that are supposed to take place next year. We also had an opportunity to talk to representatives in Herat of civil society. We talked to human rights groups and got a picture of how the building of civil society which is a prerequisite for an endurable stability in every society and in every state, is making progress here in Herat and in the rest of Afghanistan. We talked very intensely with all participants on the security problem and we also got a briefing by the commander who has just been assigned by the central government here to Herat. So all in all, I can say that we got a very good and personal impression in the field of the problems that this country is facing on its way to democracy and prosperity. I can certainly speak on behalf of all my colleagues on the Security Council that this was a valuable experience for everybody and I’m very glad that the Deputy Governor has taken the time this morning to brief us very extensively. He has given us a lot of very good information, he has been very friendly to the delegation and we appreciate very much that he has taken the time to come out here to say goodbye to us when we are going back to Kabul. Thank you very much Deputy Governor.

Question: [inaudible]

Ambassador Pleuger: We talked with the shura and the human rights groups about the situation here in Herat and what they can do to build a civil society and what they can do for the observation of human rights because this is an inevitable part of democracy if you want to have stability in the long run. We also discussed in particular the human rights of women. Women especially under the Taliban regime have been discriminated against. The question here is not only to mend this and to observe human rights of women, not to discriminate against them and give them an equal chance. It is also a very important question for the future of this country because more or less half of the population of this country are women. These women are a very valuable human resource and it is in the interests of every country and every society to develop this human resource and I think we have made this very, very clear in our discussions and we got a very positive response from the human rights people.

Question: on the situation of women in Herat.

Ambassador Pleuger: We were given a picture of what the situation is here and we were very impressed by the ladies we talked to, by their energy and by their vision. On the other hand the way they described the situation we also came to the conclusion that the situation has improved but they have still a long way before them.

Question (in Dari): We’ve heard about your meetings today and one of these meetings was with the advisory shura to support the central government. We live here in Herat and we had no idea about the existence of such a shura. What was the overall purpose of meeting with this shura?

Ambassador Pleuger: We have met this shura to talk with the members that were coming to us about the political situation and we wanted to hear from them what their view of the political future is. We discussed the constitution and what should be in it, we discussed questions of security in the country and we also discussed the fact that the central government needs the cooperation of the provinces and that interfactional strife and violence should be ended in order to enable the country to have the elections next year in a peaceful and successful manner.

Question (in Dari): on expansion of ISAF

Ambassador Pleuger: As you know, NATO has taken the lead in ISAF and is already present in the country. What has happened recently was that the Security Council has expanded the mandate of ISAF to cover more of the country beyond Kabul and its environs. The reason was that we felt that in preparation for next year’s elections we would like to increase the numbers of PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) and as you know Germany has been prepared to take over a new mission in the north in Kunduz in what we call an ISAF island. We will send a number of soldiers between 200-250 soldiers there in order to create the necessary security in the area to not only make it possible that NGOs and the United Nations can work there in peace, but also to create the conditions for example for the preparation process for the elections such as the registration of voters and so on. So we needed NATO consent for this to execute the mandate given by the Security Council and NATO has agreed to this. So the first 50 or so soldiers have gone already to Kunduz and full operational ability will be reached I think by January or early next year anyway.

Question (in Dari): First of all could you let us know the overall purpose of your visit to Herat and secondly could you let us know the feedback from your visit and the third question is in some of the provinces where there is complete stability and peace like in Herat do you think there is a need for the presence of ISAF forces there?

Ambassador Pleuger: We came to Afghanistan for the purpose of first of all giving some messages. One message to the Afghan people was that the Security Council and the international community stands behind the government implementing the Bonn Agreement and we feel that the implementation in time of the Bonn Agreement will further democracy and prosperity in Afghanistan. The second point was that we wanted to give the signal to the Karzai government that the Security Council stands behind its efforts to implement Bonn and to create the necessary conditions especially for adopting a new constitution and for implementing also the resolution. The third purpose was to give a clear signal also to the provinces. We can visit only two - we are going only to Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif - but we wanted to say look it is important that the provinces and in particular a stable and rich province like Herat are cooperating closely with the central government in achieving these goals and for that purpose we feel the message would be factional strife and violence have to be stopped. We have to create a social and political situation in the country that is peaceful and allows a successful implementation of elections and we also wanted to make clear that a province like Herat which is relatively well to do is an important cooperator with the central government also as far as the transfer of the necessary financial assets is concerned. We are leaving Herat after a number of very important, very frank and very fruitful discussions and we will take this back to New York to the Security Council and on Tuesday next week we will report to the council as a whole and have a discussion on the results of this visit to Afghanistan, to Kabul, to Herat and to Mazar-e-Sharif.

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