UNAMA Press Conference

United Nations Assistance Mission in

Spokesperson’s Office - Afghanistan

tel: 0039 0831 24 6121 – 0093 (0) 20 297 6121 email: [email protected] website: www.unama-afg.org

Press Conference (near verbatim transcript)

Kai Eide, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan

Aleem Siddique, Acting Spokesman, UNAMA

Kabul – 9 April 2008

www.unama-afg.org

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

UNAMA: Good afternoon everybody. As most of you know, my name is Aleem Siddique from UNAMA Spokesperson’s office and welcome to our press conference this afternoon.

Before we begin, I’d like to make a short statement on a security incident yesterday. UNAMA is appalled and concerned to learn of the attack against a group of Afghan road construction workers in Zabul province yesterday, that resulted in 17 people being killed and injuries to at least 12 others. The contrast between those who are working to bring development and progress to the people of Afghanistan as opposed to those responsible for death and destruction could not be more stark. There can be no justification for such a cowardly attack. We condemn this attack and offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of all those who have suffered.

We are very pleased today to be joined by our new Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Kai Eide. Kai will make a few brief remarks after which we will of course be happy to take your questions. With that, I would like to hand over the floor to Kai and give Kai a very warm welcome.

SRSG Kai Eide

Thank you very much. I am pleased to be here on a more permanent basis, I have been in Afghanistan a number of times in previous capacities for shorter visits, but this is different. It is a privilege to be able to be here and to serve the Afghan people, which is my purpose and I look forward to working with you all over the years to come.

Let me say something that I also said at the airport, which is that the basis for my work is profound respect for the Afghan people. I am here to serve the Afghan people and I respect their religion, their culture and their history and it is on that basis that I will proceed.

Could I also say that I am very encouraged by the reception I received here in Kabul. Over the nine working days I have had so far, I have met the President altogether four times -- once in Bucharest. I have met the Vice Presidents, many of the Ministers, the Speakers of Parliament and a number of other Afghan officials, and I feel there is a warm welcome. I feel that we are developing together a partnership of trust and confidence, which is critical to success.

Let me also underline that what I will do will be based on Afghan leadership. I will listen carefully to the concerns and the priorities of the Afghan Government and reflect that also in my conversations with the international community.

We just have the Bucharest summit behind us with an important meeting on Afghanistan that took place. For me personally and for UNAMA it was a very encouraging summit; it reaffirmed to us that the international community wants UNAMA and wants me to play a more prominent role, a stronger UN role.

But there was one element of the Bucharest summit that was much more important than the support to us and that was the strong commitment given to the Afghan Government, to ensure that the effort of the international community leads to success.

www.unama-afg.org 1

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

And let me add to this: it was a commitment to increase troop levels, yes. But it went much beyond that: it was a clear commitment to strengthen the international community’s efforts in the field of reconstruction and development and it was a clear commitment to strengthen our efforts within the area of governance. I must say, in my experience I have never before seen such a strong international commitment to a broadly based international effort to support Afghanistan.

You may ask what I have done during the first nine days. I don’t think I can report results to you after nine days, and I don’t think you should expect that, but we have initiated important work in a number of sectors. The first and most important priority is, as I mentioned to you before, the question of coordination of the international efforts. I think we have seen that it is still too fragmented to have the effect that we want it to have on the ground. So we are looking at the structures of cooperation and coordination that we have in place, including the JCMB.

I think we are entering a new phase from now on, particularly with the Paris conference coming up. We will then have to address how we respond to the ANDS and its implementation; that will be a critical task head of us. And that certainly will need a fresh look.

Certainly, coordination does not mean exchange of information: that is important, but it is only the first stage. Our cooperation and coordination must be problem solving, it must be delivery-oriented and oriented towards capacity building inside Afghanistan.

What I want to do is to create a new sense of momentum and a new sense of urgency in the way we coordinate ourselves.

We have to get away from a situation where an Afghan administration which is still in need of capacity building is faced with a too fragmented international community. That simply is not going to work. And we have to make sure that the agenda that we pursue is the Afghan agenda and not a number of national agendas. I am working with Professor Naderi, who is my co-chair in the JCMB [Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board], in order to present concrete proposals on how we will move forward shortly and certainly, to be delivered to the Paris Conference.

Related to this we are of course looking at the question of aid efficiency. We have to ask ourselves, do we have adequate resources, do we spend them well enough, do we spend them sufficiently through Afghan channels and budgets, and can we eliminate duplication.

And the third issue that we have been addressing is the question of governance. I have known Mr. Popal for quite some time and it is a pleasure working with him. We want to support him politically, we want to support him by mobilizing financial support and also by seeing to it that that financial support is coordinated so that he is not facing additional problems in bringing resources together around the plans that he has established.

But the governance issue is of course an area much wider than the IDLG [Independent Directorate for Local Governance]. We have to have a short-term perspective and a long-term perspective. The long-term perspective is of course that there is recruitment to the government sector, to various parts of the government at various levels, to ensure that progress can be sustainable and here we are working also with several Ministers, including Minister Atmar.

www.unama-afg.org 2

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

The next area is the area of elections. In light of the decisions being made, we are looking at how we can best support the holding of these elections, and we will devote a lot of energy and resources in the period ahead of us, in order to go more deeply into that matter.

The last area I would like to mention is the humanitarian area. We have to be able to meet humanitarian crises and problems better than we do today. We have to be able to assess problems that are coming and we have to be able to deliver assistance more efficiently than we are.

One of the meetings with the President today, which was in a wider circle, had to do with the food situation. Work has been done already with regard to analyzing the situation that may be ahead of us, but more work needs to be done and we will certainly assist in that respect. This also has a longer-term perspective, of course, and the question of prominence given to the agricultural sector as such. It is a critical sector and we have to look at whether or not we are giving the agricultural sector sufficient prominence in the overall efforts that we are undertaking – the Afghan Government and the international community.

I have mentioned the Paris conference already. I am sure it will be a successful conference. It will require careful planning and must provide a firm commitment to working together in implementing the ANDS in particular and ensuring that we have the right resources and implementation mechanisms in order to make it a success.

And of course at that conference there will also have to be a political dimension and let me mention only three important issues in that respect: elections, governance and the regional dimension.

I wanted to meet you today after nine days of work simply because I wanted to report to you that we are undertaking important work and also because I am leaving tomorrow for Europe on a first visits to European capitals.

I will be going to London, to Paris, to Brussels for the EU and NATO and then to Berlin. The themes to discuss will be those that I have outlined already. I will of course outline the main general concerns that I have, but I will also be direct in addressing the authorities in each and every country and institution that I visit.

And the basis for this will of course be: if we are to coordinate better, it is not just through exchange of information that we will do it, we can only do it by asking ourselves, each and every one of us, what can we do differently form what we have done in the past, and I expect openness from my interlocutors in providing answers to those questions. I will just spend a week here and then I will go to Washington and Ottawa towards the end of the month, and then my plan is to visit Islamabad and Tehran some time during May.

So there you have my agenda, both with regard to substance and with regard to the timetable over the weeks to come. Thank you.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Salam Watandar [translated from Dari]: The Afghan population is concerned that the money donated for Afghanistan by the international community has not been utilized in an effective way. Do you have any serious programme or plans to tackle corruption and deal with aid effectiveness?

www.unama-afg.org 3

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

SRSG: Aid effectiveness is very much at the top of our agenda. I do honestly think that much has been achieved and I can go through the list of achievements. If you compare this country with what it was four, five or six years ago you will see important progress in many areas. But resources are not well enough spent. We all see it and we should address it. With regard to corruption; it is an issue of serious concern. It has been raised by the President and various ministers in conversations we have had, and it has been raised in Bucharest. So the awareness of the problem is there and we have to move forward in tackling it. What we do within the area of governance is of course a very central part of that work, to ensure that we have the right and competent people placed in key positions across the country.

DPA: You just spoke about key focus areas including governance, humanitarian crisis and above all coordination of international efforts in Afghanistan. Do you have any timeframe for success so we can see tangible results on the ground?

SRSG: It is easy to say how long it will take to move a military vehicle from point A to point B. But it is much more difficult to say how long a political process will take. Let me say one thing. There is the Paris Conference coming up on the 12th of June, and I do hope that in some of the areas that I have outlined we will be able to demonstrate progress by then. I think it is important for the international community and it is important for the Afghan Government. But I want to see that there is a sense of direction and that there is sense of urgency. I think that is needed now. We will certainly do our best to contribute to that direction and to the urgency.

AP: Could you please just tell us how you plan to reconcile the intent of impartiality with your stronger coordination with NATO. Where is your line going to be?

SRSG: The way I see the question on political or civil-military coordination is the following: It is not a question of the civilians following the military lead. It is a question of seeing to it that, also in what the military do, there is space for the political effort and there is space for humanitarian efforts. That would be an important part of that coordination. I have worked for many years inside NATO and I believe that they will listen to me when I reflect our concerns from a political side and from a humanitarian side.

We talk a lot about an integrated approach. What does that mean? It means to me that we proceed in a way that allows the civilian and humanitarian and the political dimension to have the space required to move forward and to expand. We have to be able to bring the various dimensions of our work together in a coherent approach. I will take seriously my mandate with regard to civil-military coordination, but I will never do that in a way that compromises the impartiality of the United Nations and the unique role that it has to play in the political and civilian field.

I think the military knows that, yes, we must think together, that is obvious -- if not there cannot be an integrated approach -- but we must act in a way in which our role is respected. That is certainly in the interest of all, and it is also in the interest of the military and the security sector. So, I will not allow our role to be compromised in any sense.

GMA[translated from Dari]: Paddy Ashdown was supposed to come to Afghanistan but, due to some sensitivities, the Government of Afghanistan said that the United Nations was asking for a much more powerful role in Afghanistan in different

www.unama-afg.org 4

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

spheres. Could you please clarify whether this difference was in Paddy Ashdown or in the role that he was going to be given?

SRSG: I have a mandate that I believe is sufficient and that is sharper than the mandate has been. I have the confidence on the Afghan authorities and the international community. Those are the tools I need and those are the tools that I will make use of to my best ability. What has happened in the past is really not relevant to me. To me what is relevant is what we can do together as we move forward.

VOA [translated from Dari]: You outlined your agenda in Afghanistan, but did not make much reference to the issue of talks with the anti-government elements in Afghanistan. It seems that the international community is to some extent in favour of talks with anti-government elements. Do you have anything on your agenda about this issue?

SRSG: I also discussed this with my interlocutors, but I would like to emphasize one thing: any such agenda must be an agenda led by the Afghan Government. It must be an agenda based on what has been achieved, which is the Constitution and a number of other things which benefit the Afghan people and the consolidated list [UN Security Council resolution 1267 which places sanctions on the leadership of Al- Qaeda and the ]. Any such process in the future must be based on the Afghan Government's efforts. Should such process get underway, then I must say we are of course available to the Government of Afghanistan and this is one element of the mandate that the Security Council has given us. Progress and solutions to the problems of Afghanistan cannot and will not rest with military forces; it has to be a political solution in the end, and that political solution will consist of a number of elements that I have outlined to you before.

Press TV: You said that you have worked with NATO and that they will listen to you. Though NATO has made significant progress in bringing stability to Afghanistan, but civilian casualties are a big concern in the entire Afghan community. How do you suggest taking up that point? I am talking about civilian casualties that usually take place during aerial military operations of NATO.

SRSG: It would be wrong to say that NATO is the only or main culprit when it comes to civilian casualties. An important responsibility lies with the Taliban and on the insurgency itself. When it comes to NATO, I have in my national capacity before repeated the importance of avoiding civilian casualties, and I raised this again here in Kabul and I will continue to raise it whenever I feel it is necessary.

IRIN: Aid agencies are concerned about diminishing humanitarian space in Afghanistan. What will the UN do under your leadership in the coming months to enhance and regain the independent humanitarian space so aid agencies can reach and assist vulnerable Afghans?

SRSG: I think I have answered to your question partly but now I will answer it more precisely. First of all, I will do everything I can to protect the integrity and the independence of the role that the United Nations plays. I want the United Nations to be seen and observed in that way by all. The second element is that I will conduct a regular dialogue with NGOs and those engaged in humanitarian work. I have already had a meeting with them and I will have more in the near future. I listen to their concerns and I want their advice. They must see my firm commitment to protecting and widening the humanitarian space. But here we also come back to another issue I mentioned earlier which has to do with the situation we are facing now with regard to

www.unama-afg.org 5

UNAMA Press Conference – 9 April 2008

food shortages. I think we need a better ability to analyze the humanitarian problems that are there and that we may face. We will certainly work with others and try to put that capability into place.

Thank you very much for joining me today. I must say I am committed to this work, to Afghanistan, and to try to contribute to progress, and I look forward to working in a transparent way with you all. Thank you very much.

------

www.unama-afg.org 6