6-28-06,10:43 am

KABUL, 27 Jun 2006 (IRIN) - Ameerah Haq is one of the two Deputy Special Representatives for Afghanistan appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She is responsible for Relief, Recovery and Reconstruction (RRR), as well being Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan.

Haq highlighted concerns over the impact of ongoing violence in the country, including civilian deaths, displacement and a lack of basic needs such as food and shelter. But Haq was hopeful that the situation would improve in July when NATO-led troops were deployed, allowing the UN to push forward with humanitarian relief. Her comments come a day ahead of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Kabul, where she is expected to discuss the rising tide of violence with President Hamid Karzai.

QUESTION: Is the UN concerned that civilians are not being protected in this new upswing in conflict, particularly in the south and east?

ANSWER: Certainly the UN is always concerned about the protection of civilians, it is our humanitarian mandate to protect civilians. Unfortunately, we don’t really have proper and accurate information about the number of civilian casualties in the recent upsurge in the south.

I think it will be very useful for us to get the figure from the government or other sources on what the civilian casualties are but certainly it’s the UN’s humanitarian mandate more than anything else that we must advocate on behalf of civilians.

We will always try to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in conflict but I think our frustration is, as I said before, that we really don’t know the number of civilian casualties. The BBC estimate is about 900 - that is the number I have seen but I don’t know the real number.

Q: Do you have information on the number of civilians displaced currently in the south by the violence?

A: We don’t have a number for those who are mostly at risk in the south, but we are monitoring through the UN agencies who have operations in those areas - for example on refugees and internal displacements we know that there have been some internal displacements as a result of Operation Mountain Thrust [coalition anti-Taliban operation] three weeks ago.

It’s probably in the hundreds but the difficulty with these kinds of displacements is that we know people have come to [the southern city of] Kandahar but they have moved in with their friends and relatives so you don’t really see a large block of displaced people where you can identify them in camps. Some of them were from Panjwai district of Kandahar [province]; there is another group in Helmand that has moved and another group in Uruzgan, so there have been some movements in various provinces in the south.

Q: What are the immediate humanitarian needs of those affected by the conflict?

A: Obviously there has been some displacement. Whenever there is displacement there is always the need for basic food supplies, children are not able to go to school, normal economic activities are disrupted. When they go back to their places of origin they will again need some support to start up their lives. With the UN there are always the humanitarian imperatives and we must provide people with basics - food, shelter and then after that it is getting back to their livelihoods.

We had a meeting with UNHCR [the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] and the IOM [International Organization for Migration] yesterday [Monday] but they were not able to tell us the figures because those who have been displaced are now with their families and friends. So we don’t have a group that has been dislocated under normal humanitarian circumstances, we don’t have such a situation in the south.

Certainly, there is a military operation in the south and we all know that there are a great deal of anti-government activities in the south, so certainly people are not living normal lives in many of those districts.

Q: Many civilians have been accidentally killed in coalition operations in recent months. Has the UN been able to influence the US-led coalition's rules of engagement to try and protect local people during these attacks?

A: I think the UN always has tried. Our aim is always to try to reduce casualties in any effort. But in terms of specific rules of engagement here in Afghanistan we have not had any specific discussion with the coalition on this issue.

Q: Does the UN anticipate the security situation will improve when the NATO-led force deploys in the south by July?

A: The NATO-led takeover will be in July and I think that is part of the reason why the coalition is conducting this operation [Operation Mountain Thrust], so the situation will be less volatile than it is now. We are certainly preparing ourselves to try and go into the south with more reconstruction and development assistance as soon as we can.

There are a lot of discussions about the push to make this one last effort. I think we will have to wait and see. We are certainly hopeful and we are always hopeful that the situation will get better and that’s why we are looking at already preparing plans in terms of how to move in, for example we want to do a polio eradication campaign.

[Indeed], yesterday I heard that whilst we thought that we had reduced the number of cases of polio in fact we had reduced the number of polio cases last year to nine and this year it’s increased to 14 because we were not able to undertake the campaign in May and June. So we are certainly very hopeful that we would be able to undertake the campaign in July and August and try to stem this.

Q: What are the main reasons behind the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country, particularly in the south?

A: I would say that the humanitarian situation in the south is a combination of factors. One is that I think traditionally if one looks at the pattern of development and reconstruction assistance, we have not been able to access many of the areas in the south.

Then of course as you know a lot of anti-government activities have been taking place in the south so one feeds into the other and I think the reach of humanitarian assistance and governance has not been at the same level.

Q: Is the level of aid activity in the south less than it was last year?

A: It is less right now than it was last year, but there is work going on and it does not mean that the work has stopped but I can say it is much less right now than it was this time last year.

Q: What concerns do you have about the humanitarian situation across the country?

A: We are very concerned right now, particularly in northern provinces where there has not been enough rain for agriculture this year, so there is a shortage in the production of wheat. [Also] through the World Food Programme (WFP) we distribute food to vulnerable people. We try to pre-position the food by August but this year, for example, WFP has only received 20 percent of the food from donors so we are very worried that we will not be able to pre-position [food] by August to some of the areas where it’s needed before the snow starts.