Good morning to everybody. First the good news, the first benchmark of the Afghan Compact has been met.

The first benchmark was to establish a transparent mechanism for appointments of senior level government posts nationwide within six months of the effective date of the Compact. That would be the 21st of September.

Through a decree the President has, before he left [for North America], signed this mechanism, which was set out in the Afghanistan Compact, and it is vital for a transparent and accountable administration at the senior level of appointments.

The new appointment mechanism is meant to ensure that all senior appointments to the central Government and the judiciary, as well as for provincial Governors, deputy Ministers, Chiefs of Police are made on a merit based system that is transparent and ensures that ably qualified people assume these positions of responsibility.

I would like to stress that the appointment mechanism includes vetting procedures to ensure that people with questionable pasts or histories will be prevented from securing positions of responsibility.

The presidential decree says the consultative board shall consider the following criteria for evaluation of candidates: The principle of competency including education, experience and required skills for the post; good reputation, integrity and loyalty to the higher national values; respect for the provisions and the values of the religion of Islam; no discrimination against a person based on sex, language, religion, political thought, ethic race and social status; and no connection with illegal armed groups, drug trafficking, record of human rights violation and bribery.

The people of Afghanistan deserve nothing less.

Now to another subject. Afghanistan needs more international support. These are difficult times for Afghanistan. This is not the first time Afghanistan has faced such testing conditions.

However, the fear of failing is quite popular, but it is wrong. We are making real and sustained progress in Afghanistan in spite of the problems in the south.

If we want to succeed in Afghanistan the answer is clear: Afghanistan needs more sustained support from the international community and not less.

There is at the moment a strong debate in all the European and world capitals, among the donors, and I repeat, Afghanistan needs more support and not less.

NATO and ISAF have recently called for more troops, I support their call and member states now need to rise to the challenge.

We need more development and for that we need a more secure environment within we can work.

Afghanistan needs a sustained long-term commitment from the international community on all fronts, not just more troops.

We need more development support and more political support through diplomacy. This diplomacy support includes the support of a good neighbourhood relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is obvious that any solution for the south, which is sustainable, can only be a regional solution between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I have spoke to you on that subject before, but I repeat it - pointing fingers at each other does nothing to improve peace and stability in Afghanistan. We have seen some encouraging signs of increased co-operation between Afghanistan and it’s neighbours but more must be done.

Afghanistan and Pakistan must continue to focus on building mutual trust, understanding and co-operation for the sake of the whole region.

And we from the UN will do everything to facilitate this cooperation, which includes a security cooperation, which includes a development and includes a political cooperation.

Touching on other subjects. We get positive news from the military in their fight against the Taliban in the south. But we must not forget the humanitarian problems that fighting in the south causes.

There have been several reports on displaced persons, particularly in the area where the fighting is going on. The numbers are not well established, several thousands involved in all the regions where there is fighting.

The UN agencies such as UNICEF and WFP (World Food Programme) have already started pre-positioning humanitarian supplies in the affected provinces. Our WFP office in Kandahar has started providing essential food supplies to 400 affected families and plans are in place to provide for a further 5,000 displaced families.

UNICEF has also pre-positioned blankets, warm clothing, medical kits and other essential non-food items for up to 1,500 families.

The fighting in Afghanistan has caused a high number of casualties. I will give you only one figure. Suicide bombings have caused more than 154 deaths only in this year. I have no numbers of the civilian casualties affected by international and government forces. But again, I say, each and every civilian casualty is a tragedy. The people of Afghanistan have suffered enough.

It is imperative that everybody recognizes the importance of civilian safety and everything must be done to avoid civilian casualties. The safety of Afghan citizens, civilians must come first and foremost in everything that we do and it is so vital to all of us who are working towards peace and stability in Afghanistan.

I am happy to try and answer your questions on these subjects.

Questions and Answers

NY Times: On the fighting in the south, I know figures are difficult, is this just the fighting from Panjwai that you’re talking about… these thousands of families, and can we judge from your figures that we’re talking about 6,000 families, which then times 5 or 6 is around 35,000 people displaced?

SRSG: I have not given you any figures on the number of displaced persons because I know that there are different figures in the air. The Government has given figures. UNHCR couldn’t confirm these figures, so I haven’t given you any. I’ve spoken about several thousand. I’ve given you only the figures of preparations of some of the UN agencies. I know that the Government has given figures for Uruzgan, Helmand and Kandahar, but I cannot confirm them. The problem, particularly in Panjwai, to get correct figures is that quite a number of the displaced persons went to family members not very far and already returned during the fighting. So we haven’t been able to establish correct figures.

Reuters: You said that Afghanistan needs help from the international community. I just wondered if you could speculate on the implications if the help doesn’t come.

SRSG: I appreciate your wording of speculating, and I certainly will not. One element was discussed today, why does ISAF at the same time ask for more troops and say that they have been very successful? But this is very easy to explain because they ask for reserves for the case when they’re not so successful. In addition, they have asked NATO, and the Secretary-General of NATO has asked for that to get more flexibility with all the troops and get rid of the caveats of the different troops; some who don’t want to go to the south, others don’t want to do this and others don’t want to do that. If I’m informed right, there are around 60 or 70 different caveats of the troops and it’s understandable that a commander has trouble working with all that with efficiency.

The second area is development. At the very moment that security is re-established, development must restart because otherwise it will be very difficult to keep the gains sustainable because the Taliban are not offering any development. The international community and the Government are aware that these southern provinces are very poor and development has to come. So we have to advocate that development comes soon and comes vigorously.

Just one speculation, and it’s not a speculation, everyone must know in Afghanistan that wherever the Taliban goes, development is over. If you look at the economic performance of the Taliban Government, everyone knows that this was a disaster; production went down, all indicators went down and people must know that

IRIN News: The number of IDPs is very high in Uruzgan province. Will WFP and UNICEF deliver assistance to Uruzgan since security is very bad?

SRSG: I’m sorry I can’t answer that because I’m not aware. It would be good to ask these agencies whether they’ve made provisions.

Daily Mirror: We only have ISAF’s word that they’ve been successful in the south. Can you comment on that?

SRSG: It’s a very recent statement of NATO and I cannot give you any additional news. You must understand that the military make their assessment and the success stated by the military was a military success, and we will closely monitor it from our office in Kandahar. But don’t misunderstand me; I don’t put in doubt their judgment. It’s not my job to make judgments on military successes.

Radio Liberty: As you know the former finance minister of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani … for the UN Secretary-General position. What do you think, will he be successful in his decision or not?

SRSG: I wish him success. You will understand that the United Nations is not an organization where the staff elects the boss. And I will follow the general line of the Organization, which is not to comment on this selection process. One thing I can assure you, any Secretary-General of the United Nations will stay highly engaged with Afghanistan and with this Mission, because that is the engagement of the whole Organization and not just one person.

Good Morning Afghanistan Radio: (translated from Dari) His question has to do with one of your comments about encouraging signs of cooperation between neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. What do you mean by that? Are you referring to the recent trip of Pervez Musharraf to Afghanistan, and if so, there haven’t been any major changes in the situation of Afghanistan. And there have been speculation that the source of terrorism is in the border area of Pakistan.

SRSG: First of all, the encouraging signs I got from Musharraf’s visit here, which I think was a very positive visit in a spirit of cooperation and both Presidents showed that there is a possibility to improve the cooperation between the two countries. The other encouraging element of the cooperation was the Tri-partite Commission’s meeting on military issues and the foreign ministers’ meetings on political issues. A third encouraging element was that the three Presidents – the American, the Afghan and the Pakistani – are meeting in Washington. That is positive because the solutions for the problems in Pakistan and Afghanistan must be regional solutions. And the USA is a major stakeholder here in Afghanistan, not only in the military but in the civilian support and a major stakeholder in Pakistan, in the military support. So this is encouraging. The war of words is discouraging. I thought initially that with the visit of President Musharraf here recently that this war of words had ended, but unfortunately that is not true. I would not encourage that that continue.

Ariana TV: (translated from Dari) His question has two parts. The first part is about the achievement of the visit of Pervez Musharraf to Afghanistan, as there have been meetings through the Tri-partite Commission in the past regarding security, and there have been talks with the UN regarding this issue. And the second question has to do with the Civil Service Commission. This Commission has always been working on compromise and bribery, and knowing a person was more important than anything else.

SRSG: To the first point, you cannot expect from a visit concrete achievements right away. You cannot say immediately that security has improved. Nevertheless, the security situation in the south is so much influenced by cross-border elements that cooperation is necessary and has to be made on all levels. Musharraf here has for the first time acknowledged these cross-border elements and that is already an important step. The United Nations will do everything to get as many contacts and layers of cooperation in place as necessary in the political and development areas. I give you one example of where cooperation is needed, that is in the area of polio eradication, because diseases don’t stop at borders.

To your second question, the appointments mechanism established for senior civil servants like governors, deputy ministers and provincial police chiefs is not the same as the Civil Service Commission. This mechanism has been created to have transparency and honesty in the process and I think it will make an important contribution to that. I don’t share your judgment on the Civil Service Commission. I know that there are elements to improve, but to have a Civil Service Commission and to have a mechanism for civil service appointments is progress. The Civil Service Commission is meant to enable the Government to make appointments based on merit and not on any personal basis. I don’t say there’s nothing to improve, but it’s a beginning.

RTA: (translated from Dari) You also mentioned the cross-border elements in Afghanistan and also said that for the first time that Pervez Musharraf confirmed that. Now, as the fact is revealed, how much pressure can you exert on this to prevent such cross-border elements in Afghanistan?

SRSG: The UN is not in a position to exert any pressure. I don’t think pressure is the right point. If you have to deal with two sovereign States, if you start pressurizing each other, you won’t succeed. We have to enable cooperation, and that’s what we intend to do. I know very well that the assessment of the insurgency in the south of Afghanistan and the cross-border elements are very different between the two States. Nevertheless, it is obvious that stability in Afghanistan and stability in Pakistan are closely linked. And the insurgency has to be fought on both sides. I think Afghanistan and Pakistan can go very far cooperating and can’t go anywhere by pressure.

RTA: (translated from Dari) You also mentioned about the cross-border elements in Afghanistan and also said that for the first time, Pervez Musharraf confirmed this fact. How much pressure can you assert to prevent such cross-borders elements from entering Afghanistan?

SRSG: The UN is not an organisation to make any pressure. And I don’t think that pressure is the right point because if you have to deal with two sovereign states and you start pressurising each other you will not succeed. We have to enable co-operation and that’s what we intend to do. I know very well that the assessment of the insurgency in the south of Afghanistan and the cross-border elements in detail are very different between the two states. Nevertheless, it is obvious that the stability in Afghanistan and the stability in Pakistan are closely linked. And the insurgency has to be fought on both sides. I think Afghanistan and Pakistan can go very far co-operating and can’t go anywhere by pressure.

Question: Which is more important to the UN - the delivering of pre-positioned aid or the defeat of the Taliban?

SRSG: I think we don’t give priorities. For the solution of the crisis in the south there are four elements needed. One is obvious – a security and military and a police element. The second is good governance and outreach of the Government, with good administration and Governmental structures. The third is development, headed by the Government, the Ministries and supported by the international community. And the fourth is diplomacy because the neighbouring county is involved. Again, diplomacy of the Afghans and the international community, so in all four elements, you have a national Afghan leadership and international support. I cannot tell you which of the elements is the most important, I think that in each moment, all of these are necessary and important.

Question: Mr. Koenigs, you mentioned two positive factors which (inaudible) the fear of failure. One is the setting up of this Board and one is the military successes. On the appointment of this board and in the absence of due judicial process, which proves linkages to drug trafficking and human rights abuse, how effective will this Board be? Will the decisions apply retrospectively to the appointments already made? And on the issue of military successes, there are very frequent reports in different parts of the country that the administration are forced to abdicate because the Taliban are taking over. So in that light, what is the reason for your optimism?

SRSG: The Board is an advisory board to the President because the authority of appointment lies with the President. The Board has to make assessments and has to operate with the President, create a database and has to gather a lot of information. It’s a mechanism which is not uncommon and is meant to improve the quality of appointments and is an idea which was developed together with the international community and the Afghan Government, precisely, the Office of the President. I hope it will be effective, how it works you can see in the fact sheet we have circulated. It is not retrospective. I think I tried to make it clear that we got positive messages from the military in one area which we think is good. I think we are facing difficult times now and in the near future in the South, so my optimism is not a blind optimism. But I think the stakes for the Government of Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan and NATO is so high that they cannot fail. NATO has to prove and will prove that they are a serious instrument of peacekeeping and the international community is aware that they cannot afford to have a safe haven for terrorists anywhere in the world.

IRIN: The UN and the international community are involved in the wars in the Middle East and there will be thousands of troops in the Lebanon. It’s not just issues there, there are issues in Iraq. Don’t you think that such issues impact on the role of the UN here in Afghanistan? And the second question is, how do you see about the new pact the Pakistan Government has done with Taliban militants in Waziristan. How does the UN see this?

SRSG: First, referring to the Middle East and the near East, these conflicts have withdrawn attention from Afghanistan and maybe even the possibility to send troops and forces to Afghanistan. For some of the NATO member states they feel overstretched with requirement for troops because it’s not only the ones you mentioned, but it’s also hopefully Darfur. Nevertheless, if you look at the concrete numbers, how much military effort is put into peacekeeping of the international military expenditure and how much is put in other ventures, then, you will see that the peacekeeping part is minimal. I got a figure of 0.5 percent, maybe that is too low, but it is certainly below ten percent. That was the impact of the troop contributing nations, which is not the UN, you the asked for the impact of the UN. The UN has an obligation to protect human right all over the world and so having more or less missions in the world, doesn’t affect this mission here.

You asked me for an evaluation of the pact of Waziristan, which is very premature to make, but I’ll give you some indications. The positive is that a war has been replaced by an agreement. A war which apparently the central Government of Pakistan could not win against the tribal forces. The danger of this is, that such an agreement could be at the expense of others. I’ve been discussing this agreement even before this was signed with the Minister of the Interior in Islamabad and we have raised our concerns and it must be prevented that this agreement neglects possible cross-border elements. The Government of Pakistan declared that one element of this deal is that there should be no cross-border fighting. And our worry certainly is that they don’t set free fighters inside the country for making intrusions outside the country. So the whole international community, including NATO and ISAF are watching and monitoring how this works out.

TOLO TV: (translated from Dari) Referring to the latest statements by Pervez Musharraf, who confirmed that cross-border attacks are taking place on that side of the border and also not to say that we were able to make a timeline for these elements to get out of Pakistan by the Pakistani Government. And also they are waiting for the results of the tri-partite commission meeting to decide on that and also do you think that Pakistan would be able to get these Taliban and al-Qaeda out of their own soil. Does that Pakistani Government want to kick them off their soil? The number of troops the Pakistani Government say they have deployed across the border like 200,000 or 80,000 is just to show off and show that they are doing something. When do you think Pakistan will be able to get these people out of their soil?

SRSG: First of all, progress on this front will be slow because the climate between Pakistan and Afghanistan has so far not developed into possibilities of say, military co-operations. The UN does not doubt the good intentions of the Pakistan Government to bring stability to the north of Pakistan and to Afghanistan. It has to be seen that the Pakistani Government has not only sent 80- 90,000 troops into the border region, but also has lost quite a number of lives of their soldiers. I think the Pakistan Government knows as well as the Afghanistan Government that the international community including these two countries cannot afford to have a safe haven for terrorists on any of the territories of the world and least of all in this border area. Will they be able, when will they be able, will we be able that is difficult to judge. The earlier we have security co-operation, the earlier we have results. What sometimes is forgotten is 11 September 2001 has set facts to which not only the international community, but also Pakistan, has to react, had to react and has reacted to.

Reuters: Do you think German troops should be going down south?

SRSG: I don’t make German politics. And so I will not interfere with the sovereign decisions of my home country. I’ve given you an indication, which is the common opinion of the UN. The caveats of the different troop contributing nations are not helpful. But, I will add a remark I have made in the BBC Hardtalk interview which is being aired today, that one has to recognise that when the troops came into Afghanistan it was not at all clear where would be safest and where would be dangerous places. And at that time, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in the north were pretty dangerous places and it looks as if some have chosen the safe places and others the difficult places. It was not like that.

Thank you very much.

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