UNAMA: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Aleem Siddique from UNAMA Spokesperson’s Office. Welcome to our press conference this morning. We are very pleased to be joined today by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno and by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Kai Eide. Our speakers will make brief some remarks after which we will be happy to take your questions.

Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to be back in Afghanistan once again. I have made many trips to this great country and this time again I am meeting several Afghan officials, ministers; I am meeting the President later this morning. I am also going beyond Kabul; I was in Kunar and in Bamyan this time.

When I think about where we are compared to six years ago, certainly I see lots of hope, I see some changes and I also see big challenges.

Hope of course, when you see that children can go back to school again, when there is access to healthcare for 85 per cent of population, when you see that there is an open democratic discussion where people can express their views -- and I have had many views expressed to me. That should not be taken for granted; it is a big progress compared to where Afghanistan was eight years ago, that is a major change.

At the same time – and I won’t mince my words -- it is clear there is a great sense of urgency. Six years ago there were enormous expectations, or even in 2005 when the Parliament first convened, and I remember being there. Enormous expectations --have they all been met? -- Obviously not. Expectations of the Afghan Government with respect to the international community; expectations of the Afghans with respect to their own Government; expectations of the international community with respect to their Afghan partners.

The international forces came here to protect the people and they have made every effort to do that. Unfortunately there are still too many people who die in a very cruel manner and we have seen suicide bombings which are against every tradition of Islam and every tradition of Afghanistan. Sometimes military operations of the international forces have gone wrong and unfortunately civilians have lost their lives, and that has created a distance also between the Afghans and the international community.

International aid – all the Afghan people have heard of the billions of dollars coming into Afghanistan. Many billions have also been spent, but we have not always seen the concrete translation of that on the ground. Has it been well coordinated? -- Frankly, not always. Have the priorities always been right; have the poorest provinces received their fair share? — Not necessarily.

We know there is a lot to be done. I am glad to arrive in Afghanistan a few weeks after the appointment of Special Representative of the Secretary-General Kai Eide. Today we are renewing the partnership between Afghanistan and the international community a few weeks before the Paris conference.

In the international community -- and the leadership of Kai Eide is an illustration of that -- there is a new sense of momentum, of an effort that has to succeed.

So the United Nations more than ever is with the Afghan people.

But as Afghanistan prepares for elections which will be an opportunity for every Afghan to express his or her views on the future of the country, the United Nations will be a demanding friend of Afghanistan. It is essential, it is vital that the institutions of State be strengthened, so that they enjoy the trust of the people.

And in the coming months we will be working on that with the Afghan Government, with the Afghan institutions, with the Afghan people. It is important that everybody has a sense of accountability: the accountability of the international community, the accountability of the Government to its people, the accountability of everybody for the welfare of the country.

So we will be a demanding friend, but let there be no mistake we will be there, as friends, close to the Afghan people, continuing our joint effort on that difficult road for a prosperous and stable Afghanistan.

Thank you.

SRSG Kai Eide

Thank you very much. To follow up on what Mr. Guéhenno said: We are now three weeks away from the Paris Conference. What do we seek from that Conference? We seek partnership of a higher quality that we have had until now -- a continued partnership, but a partnership of an enhanced quality.

And we have to demonstrate in Paris that there are certain priorities as set by the Afghan Government in its Afghanistan National Development Strategy. We, the international community, have to align our resources behind that Strategy. As I said before, we have to spend much more resources and more attention on building State institutions. That must be the basis for any further progress with regard to security and to development.

We have to spend much more resources on certain key sectors of the economy. So far, we have spent very little on agriculture. The clear majority of the Afghan people depends directly on the agricultural sector. We have to get this right and therefore expand significantly the resources we use on agriculture. I think the food crisis we have been experiencing here and in many other countries illustrate clearly the need to devote more attention to that sector.

But then I come to the core of what I mean when I say enhanced partnership. It is obvious that the international community does not spend its resources as well as it should and it is obvious that corruption is a much too widespread phenomenon in Afghanistan. And I would like to see a partnership coming out of Paris where the international community says: Yes, we will spend our resources better and the Government says: Yes, we will fight corruption more vigorously. That is important to convince the Afghan people that we are doing our utmost to ensure that services reach those who need them most, and it is important to ensure that taxpayers in donor countries continue to be committed to Afghanistan. Because it is not the Governments primarily, it is the people of our societies who are committed.

Finally, one issue that disturbs me profoundly when it happens, and it has happened again a few days ago, when two truckloads of wheat of the United Nations World Food Programme were attacked and destroyed. It has been condemned by the international community, but I want to see this condemned by others also. I would like to see the Taliban, the insurgency, condemn such attacks. I would like them to condemn the fact that what is happening here is that food is stolen from those people who need it most. And I call on them to come out and give their clear condemnation of such actions. Let me also say I believe it would be very helpful if religious leaders and elders also came out clearly to say that such actions that harm the most vulnerable, the poorest, are not acceptable.

Thank you.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

All India Radio: Yesterday the Government of Pakistan has signed a peace treaty with the militants in the North Waziristan region, despite concerns from Afghanistan that asked Pakistan not to do it. Do you think such peace deals will be helpful? In light of the fact that last year Pakistan entered a peace deal with the militants last year but it failed. And when the peace deal was struck there, there were more attacks in Afghanistan. What is your comment on this?

USG for Peacekeeping Operations: The stability of the two countries is linked. A prosperous, stable Afghanistan is good for Pakistan and a prosperous, stable Pakistan is good for Afghanistan. That deal – I don’t know its content, I think it can only be judged by the impact it has on overall security. Certainly any cross-border movement of militants is bad and dangerous. One will have to monitor closely the situation in the area concerned and make sure that the situation does not deteriorate on the other side of the border. The two countries have a vital interest in moving together in addressing a problem that affects them both and that undermines the authority of both States.
 
Ariana TV [translated from Dari]: The Government of Pakistan has released some 271 Taliban prisoners, among them three senior Taliban commanders, to secure the release of its ambassador. In your view, how helpful is this?

SRSG: I have been away for a few days, as you know. Let me come back to you in a few days when I have had a chance to look into the matter.

Noorin TV [translated from Dari]: The National Security Directorate in a press release yesterday informed about the killing of three insurgents while a bomb they were planting under a bridge in Ghazni province exploded. Among those killed is said to be a UNAMA staff member. You comments on this please?

Spokesman: I am not aware of the incident you are referring to but let me assure you that there has been no United Nations staff member killed in recent days or weeks.

Tolo TV [translated from Dari]: My first question is addressed to Mr. Kai Eide with regard to his trip to Iran. Everybody knows that Iran is accused of assisting anti-government elements and providing with weapons to them. Did you touch this issue with the Iranian authorities? Did they accept what is happening?  Was the President convinced of that? My second question is to Mr. Guéhenno, regarding the coordination issue. You stressed that the assistance that has been given to Afghanistan was not always spent the way it should have been. There is a lot of stress on coordination. What is the reason that there is no coordination -- is there no coordination between Afghanistan and the United Nations? What is the real reason behind that?

SRSG: Of course I raised the issue that you mentioned with the leadership in Iran, and they denied any such involvement. They did however confirm their interest in seeing a stable Afghanistan that they wanted to contribute to. Much of the discussions dealt with issues that are of particular concern to Iran, such as the drugs issue, the refugee issue, but also the overall stability in the region. And I offered to assist to the extent possible, and where necessary, where we can find a role for us to play, in bringing the various parties together on the Iranian side and on the Afghan side. There are discussions, as you know, on various issues, on the drugs issue and on the refugee issue, and I offered that, if we can be of any kind of assistance in bringing these issues forward then we will certainly do that. Part of the discussion covered a wide range of issues and I do not think it would be correct of me to go into details on what I discussed with foreign leaders, but the issue you mentioned was raised. Let me add that the level at which we were received, the way we were received and the constructiveness of the discussion underlined to me also the desire of the authorities in Tehran to have the United Nations play an enhanced role in assisting in the stabilization of the region in the future, and that was also underlined by the President and other members of the Iranian leadership.

USG for Peacekeeping Operations: On coordination: frankly, I think the difficulties we have found in coordination are a shared responsibility. There is a responsibility of the international community because there is a multitude of actors, some very big, some small, who all have their ideas on what needs to be done. So, is there total coherence between these different priorities, total transparency? – No, and that is a very big problem.

There is also a responsibility of the Afghan authorities, because the whole effort, in our view, has been too much of a top-down effort. How do you identify the needs of particular communities, how do you the combine the geographical identification of the needs with the identification of key sectors? To do that well requires much stronger institutions than those that exist today. There have been some success stories, and most would agree that the National Solidarity Programme has helped local communities in a very effective way. But if we want to make more progress, we need more transparency; we need everybody to put the effort on the table so that there is a coherent and comprehensive picture of what is being done. We need more discipline in the international community. The United Nations, through the SRSG, is encouraged, empowered, to play that role of bringing light to the effort, so that Government of Afghanistan can address the issue of international flows truly based on the needs of communities, not in a top-down process. So really we are back to the point that Kai Eide was making earlier: it is a question of accountability: accountability of the international community on the effectiveness of the way in which it delivers aid, and the accountability of the State on the effectiveness in which that aid reaches those who are most in need.

BBC [translated from Dari]: There were reports that 80 per cent of the assistance of the international community returns to the donor countries and just 20 per cent is spent in Afghanistan. What is your view on this? Secondly, every time civilians are killed in an operation by the international forces they say they will try to prevent this in future, but civilian casualties continue to occur. What is your comment?

USG for Peacekeeping Operations:  On the first question, the percentage of aid that is effectively spent in Afghanistan – this is a good illustration unfortunately of the difficulty of having a clear picture of the money flows. I don’t have a precise answer to your question, maybe somebody else has. I suspect that indeed, unfortunately, a significant amount of the aid is not spent directly in Afghanistan. That does not mean it does not benefit Afghanistan: if an engineer comes from a foreign country to design a road and the road will be built, that will certainly make a big difference to the country. But, and I was discussing this issue with some local officials, I think aid can also be more labour-intensive. As the infrastructure is being rebuilt, if local manpower can be employed, that immediately gives a boost to the local economy. That kind of fine-tuning requires a much more sophisticated approach, much closer to the people and to the local communities than a lot of what has been done. That is why I was mentioning the National Solidarity Programme because it was precisely linked to this notion. When the SRSG and the Afghan authorities stress the importance of agriculture - in agriculture you do not spend money outside Afghanistan - but bringing better seeds, working on irrigation, all these are very concrete actions, they can make a difference for the people on the ground. I think one of the big challenges for the Paris conference is really to send a very strong message that there is urgency, that the people are now getting impatient, that they want to see a difference on the ground. I think the donors will hear this message loud and clear. It is important then, as they put money forward, that they are confident that the channels though which the money will be spent are really sufficiently transparent and that the accountability mechanisms are created that the local communities are able to check how that money is spent. That will give the confidence that the donors need to continue to make considerable efforts for Afghanistan. So the answer to your question is that it really is a joint effort.

SRSG: Can I add to this. The figures can be disputed but the argument is right. Some may dismiss the ACBAR report that came out some weeks ago but I would be very cautious in doing that. I think the report points to some major problems we are facing. There are three phases here: one, in the first phase, we talk about spending money better; the second phase is we commit ourselves on paper to spending the money better; and the third phase is to actually do it. The Paris Conference is an opportunity to commit ourselves on paper and that is what I expect and I will be very disappointed if the Paris Conference does not put us on a different course in that respect.

USG for Peacekeeping Operations:  What I have said on civilian casualties is very clear. Whenever there are civilian casualties we talk to the military authorities. I know they have taken some measures in that respect. I am not responsible for military forces here but I am in other theatres of operation. I think in such situations it is very important to come clear, to investigate, to establish the facts, because the international community is here to help, to alleviate the suffering, to protect the people, it has done so in many instances and there have been some tragic incidents and full light should be shed on those incidents so the trust between the Afghan people and those who have come to help them is not jeopardized. 

Spokesman: Thank you very much.

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