Top UN official in Afghanistan takes up position

Mar 15, 2010, 19:12 GMT

New York - The UN chief of mission in Afghanistan arrived in Kabul over the weekend to be followed by his deputy next month, the UN said Monday.

Steffan de Mistura of Sweden arrived in Kabul Saturday to fill the vacuum left by Kai Eide of Norway, who left last year as head of the UN Mission in Afghanistan. De Mistura's deputy Martin Kobler of Germany is expected to arrive in early April.

'Whatever the UN will be doing in Afghanistan will be done to assist both the stability and socio-economic improvement of the Afghan people, remembering it should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned, with total respect for their own sovereignty and independence,' de Mistura said.

In his 38-year career with the UN, de Mistura has served most recently with the World Food Programme in Rome, in Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans, Rwanda, Chad and Sudan. He worked in programmes from humanitarian operations to political and public affairs.

Kobler, a veteran of Germany's foreign ministry, will be responsible for political issues, including electoral and parliamentary matters, as well as questions relating to peace and stability, security-sector reform and human rights.

The UN said Kobler has extensive experience in developing policies for conflict resolution as part of his work with the German foreign services. He recently served as director general for culture and communication in Berlin's foreign ministry.

The UN said also that UN staff that had been evacuated after the their guesthouse in Kabul was attacked in October have returned to their posts. It reported also that the World Health Organization and other agencies have launched an anti-polio campaign to vaccinate 7.7 million Afghan children under five years old this week.

WHO has stocked medical supplies in Kandahar that would cover medical needs for 80,000 Afghans for three months. In the meantime, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has embarked on its second-phase literacy project to help 300,000 illiterate Afghans, 60 per cent of whom are women, learn to read.