UNHCR Office in Farah Afghanistan torched

Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan
Islamabad (Office of the United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan), 16 November 1999--The United Nations Afghanistan is extremely concerned about the destruction of UN property during recent demonstrations in Afghanistan by crowds angry about the sanctions imposed on that country by the UN Security Council.

Demonstrations targeting UN property have recently been held in Kandahar, Farah, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad, among other locations. UN offices in these areas have been attacked and windows broken. In some areas, offices have been forcibly entered, and vehicles and equipment damaged. Today, the United Nations learned that the UNHCR office in Farah has been torched.

No UN staff have been injured in these attacks.

"The Taliban provided guards and police to UN offices, but they proved powerless against such large crowds," said Erick de Mul, United Nations Co-ordinator for Afghanistan. "Moreover, we believe that the authorities are not doing enough to discourage these demonstrations in the first place." He appealed to the Taliban to support and protect UN premises and staff, who work to provide much needed humanitarian assistance to poor and vulnerable Afghans. The United Nations has protested to the Taliban and has requested the Taliban to respect existing security agreements.

De Mul and heads of UN agencies, based in Islamabad, were scheduled to travel to Kabul on Tuesday for the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) with Taliban authorities. In light of recent demonstrations, the JCC has now been postponed. De Mul, however, will travel to Kabul with UNICEF Country Representative Louis Georges Arsenault to discuss the current situation and to request that the authorities at the highest level extend further cooperation to the assistance community.

In addition to discussing matters of security, they will also address the need for a humanitarian corridor across the front lines from Kabul into the Panjshir Valley to deliver humanitarian aid for displaced persons from Shamali Valley. The United Nations has requested the Taliban repeatedly since September to allow the UN access into the area from Kabul, but has not yet received permission for the operation.

As long as security of UN personnel remains adequate, humanitarian aid will not be affected by the UN sanctions against Afghanistan. Yesterday, for example, WFP resumed its bakery project in Mazar for the first time since 1997, providing highly subsidized bread for 85,000 people, while the final phase of the 1999 massive anti-polio campaign is scheduled for late next week.

For more information, please contact: Stephanie Bunker 211451 ext. 415; 0320 261325