'Operation Salam': to build a future.

With the Afghan winter now over, "Operation Salam" the United Nations office set up ill 1988 to co-ordinate humanitarian and economic assistance to Afghanistan-is gearing up for a large increase in its activities. Despite the volatile political and military situation in the country, massive assistance can and should be provided to the Afghan people in 1990. Operation Salam's new plan of action foresees a commitment of funds amounting to more than US $650 million, even though a number of contributions pledged have not vet been received.

The main areas of activity in 1990 will be agriculture and health, although work in most sectors will depend on the removal of mines and other unexploded ordnance. Nearly, 20,000 Afghans have so far received UN training in mine clearance and awareness programmes. Actual mine clearance by the UN inside Afghanstan started in the eastern provinces of Hunar and Paktika earlier this year and, once the ground has thawed properly, it will take place on a far larger scale. Every one of Afghanistan's 20 provinces received UN assistance during 1989 in the form of pilot projects, and there is a regular UN presence in the provinces of Badghis, Balkh, Herat, Kabul, Kunar and Paktika. Funds have so far been used to promote 201 projects inside the country through UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Until recently, UN teams had seen little evidence of widespread malnutrition or emergency food needs. But the current situation in several northern provinces, where last year's harvest was ravaged by locusts and sunn pest, is continuing to deteriorate. Three-fold response

The UN response to this emergency is three-fold: food and other essential items are being distributed in the worst-hit areas to prevent starvation and the migration of further refugees to Iran; insecticides are to be provided to ensure that the next harvest is not destroyed in a similar way; and seeds and fertilizer will be allocated later to revitalize the agricultural sector in the north.

In the autumn of 1989, the UN organized a series of "train convoys" known as "Salam Expresses", originating in Finland and Italy laden with over 35,000 tonnes of wheat donated by several countries for delivery to stricken areas. By April, the first 7,500 tonnes had been delivered to the northern provinces.

Kabul and other cities, traditionally dependent on the north for their food and with their lines of supply periodically cut by antigovernment forces, from time to time suffer acute shortages. To avoid a repetition of the food and medical supply crisis of the winter of 1988-1989 and to prevent further suffering of such vulnerable groups as women and children, Operation Salam-in collaboration with UNICEF, WFP and other agencies-distributed blankets, medical supplies and high-protein food at the end of last year. Zones of tranquillity

Continued hostilities in Afghanistan, which some experts classify as "low intensity conflict", are fortunately limited to a few specific zones. These hostilities have not been a serious impediment to UN efforts in the country as a whole. And since one function of humanitarian aid and economic reconstruction is to serve as a building block for peace making, the activities of Operation Salam should logically precede rather than follow peace.

In order to demonstrate more tangibly the link between peace and humanitarian assistance, the UN intends to recognize a number of areas and provinces in Afghanistan, in co-operation with local and national authorities, as zones of tranquillity". To qualify for this increased volume of UN aid, an area must have been peaceful for a certain period of time and local authorities must be fully supportive of the UN presence. These zones are not being created" by the UN but already exist and are being consolidated through' significant assistance. It is hoped that they will facilitate the voluntary return home of internally displaced persons as well as refugees and also serve as peaceful models to be emulated in other regions.

The UN Secretary-General's 1988 appeal still has a shortfall, and to be able to use the in-kind contributions which form 70 per cent of the amount pledged so far, Operation Salam is appealing for more cash contributions. The choice is between abandoning the Afghan people to their fate-which can only mean more suffering and instability-or providing what is needed to build a future.