KABUL, Oct 1 (AFP) - A long-awaited programme to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate (DDR) some 100,000 Afghan militiamen will start on October 25, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"The programme will start off with a pilot project before we go to the main phase," Paul Cruickshank, operations manager for the UN-supported Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), told reporters.

"At the moment we anticipate the likely start date to be the 25th of October."

A pilot project to disarm 1,000 militiamen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 1 (AFP) - A UN Security Council team is heading to Afghanistan in late October to look at security issues, UN officials said Wednesday.

The team, scheduled to be in the region from October 31 to November 8, will also visit the Pakistani capital "for briefings and consultations," according to a UN statement.

Several ambassadors have announced their intention to go on the visit, which includes stops in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif.

The team's official goal is to "observe

SC/7884
Security Council
4835th Meeting (AM)

The restoration of the rule of law was a sine qua non for the sustainable resolution of conflict and the rebuilding of secure, orderly and humane societies, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council this morning as it considered "Justice and the Rule of Law: the role of the United Nations". Too often, he said, the United Nations had failed to give that critical sector the importance it was due.

This is a summary of what was said by the UNHCR spokesperson at today's Palais des Nations press briefing in Geneva. Further information can be found on the UNHCR website, www.unhcr.ch, which should also be checked for regular media updates on non-briefing days.
1) LIBERIA

Despite an overall improvement in the security situation in Liberia, hundreds of Liberian refugees continue to flee into Guinea, fearing fighting between government and rebel forces in central Liberia. This week, UNHCR has so far registered 500 Liberian

Kabul/Brussels, 30 September 2003: As Afghanistan embarks on an ambitious program to demobilise large numbers commanders and fighters, greater international engagement in the process is essential. This disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DR) process must succeed if the shattered country is ever to achieve an acceptable level of stability.
In anticipation of the Afghanistan New Beginnings Program (ANBP), the UN plan for DR set to begin in late October 2003, the International Crisis Group publishes its latest report, Disarmament

Recipient: Mecroryan Medical Clinic
Shipment Number: 3577
Shipment Date: 9/24/2003
Value: $79,068
The Mecroryan School and Orphanage in Kabul is a daycare center and kindergarten that cares for both orphans and non-orphans from three to six years old. Approximately 200 children attend the facility with an additional 600 currently wait listed. Built during the Soviet occupation, the Mecroryan School is in the middle of a Soviet-style apartment complex that is now the home of approximately 10,000 people.

The return of the international community

Program Description
USAID/OTI's program goal is to support the process of recovery, rehabilitation, and political development in post-conflict Afghanistan. Working with local and international partners, the program is building citizen confidence in the progress of political development, empowering citizens to address basic community needs, and building an alliance between legitimate government structures and citizens. In addition, USAID/OTI supports efforts to strengthen independent media. USAID/OTI's budget for FY2002 was approximately $27 million. In FY2003 the budget was approximately

Researched, written and published by the Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI
James Darcy
Charles-Antoine Hofmann
Executive summary

This report considers ways of achieving a more consistent and accurate picture of the scale and nature of the problems people face in humanitarian crises, and how to ensure that decisions about response are properly informed by that understanding. Three main problems underlie it: first, international humanitarian financing is not equitable, and amounts allocated across various contexts do not reflect comparative

GENEVA - Welcoming Iraq's new Minister for Displacement and Migration to the annual meeting of UNHCR's 64-nation Executive Committee, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers declared Monday that he was ready to work with Iraqi authorities to prepare for the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Addressing the opening session of the five-day meeting, Lubbers said the security situation in Iraq had put on hold UNHCR's plans