Military

DATE=04/02/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=UN/AFGHAN RETURNS

NUMBER=2-288265

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R, says huge numbers of Afghan refugees are returning home from Pakistan. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva the U-N-H-C-R says it urgently needs money to cope with, what it calls, the "phenomenal" return of these refugees.

TEXT: The U-N Refugee Agency says it is surprised at the speed with which the Afghan refugees are returning home. It says since the joint repatriation program with Pakistan began on March 1st, nearly 150-thousand people have gone back to Afghanistan. U-N-H-C-R spokesman, Rupert Colville, says the refugees now are returning at a rate of 50-thousand a week. On Monday alone, he notes, more than 14-thousand went back through one single registration center.

///COLVILLE ACT///

This is a phenomenal rate of return so early in the year and it is reminiscent of 1992 when one-point two million Afghans returned to Pakistan in eight months. The speed of the return is in danger of outstripping the receipt of funds. We are down to our last two million dollars.

///END ACT///

Mr. Colville says the agency has received only 128-million U-S dollars out of a total of 271-million dollars requested in the last appeal. On Wednesday, the refugee agency, Afghanistan and Iran will sign an agreement to eventually repatriate about one- and-one half million refugees from Iran. Mr. Colville notes money also will be needed for that operation. On Wednesday as well, the United Nations will be hosting a donors' conference to raise funds for national police and military forces in Afghanistan. The U-N¹s Special Representative to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, says the country is completely destroyed and funds are desperately needed to

equip and train these domestic forces.

///BRAHIMI ACT///

Many countries and organizations are generally reluctant to contribute to the military. And, what we have been saying

all along is that in the case of Afghanistan, this is an essential part, indeed, the first indispensable part of any reconstruction program. The peace process depends on the resolution of the security situation.

///END ACT///

Mr. Brahimi also is calling on the international community to expand the international peacekeeping force which currently only operates in the capital Kabul. He says international peacekeepers are needed to ensure peace and security in other parts of the country, as well.

(Signed)

NEB/LS/MEM