UN team to assess war damage.

A UN team of experts has been dispatched to Afghanistan to evaluate "war damage and destruction", and to report on requirements for the country's rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The General Assembly on 18 December, in resolution 47/119, launched a broad appeal to all States, the UN system and other intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations for "all possible financial, technical and material assistance" to help restore basic services and to repatriate and resettle refugees and displaced persons.

In addition to ensuring the strengthening of the humanitarian and economic assistance programmes relating to Afghanistan, the Secretary-General was asked to mobilize assistance to that country, including convening a conference of donor States and international financial institutions.

In a 27 November report (A/47/705-S/24831), Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated that the situation in Afghanistan, a country "subjected to total devastation", had been aggravated by the presence of the "world's largest group of refugees", political instability and "intermittent fighting" between rival Muslim factions.

Afghanistan, one of the world's least developed countries, now faced an "emergency of immense proportions", compounded by the huge numbers of returning refugees--more than 1 million in 1992, he said.

The Secretary-General deplored the poor response to his 5 June appeal for $180 million for emergency humanitarian assistance: only $59.3 million had been received by 30 october.

International efforts should focus on the needs in the humanitarian, economic and social sectors to allow the Afghan people to "consolidate peace with rehabilitation and reconstruction". What the country needed most, Mr. Boutros-Ghali stressed, was "post-conflict peace-building".

Calling on all Afghan leaders and groups to concentrate on a dialogue to resolve their differences peacefully, the Secretary-General pointed to the essential need for establishing a "broadly representative government through peaceful and democratic procedures based on the will and the traditions of the Afghan people". It was time for "understanding, forgiveness and the healing of wounds".

On 9 December, he expressed concern over the renewed outbreak of fighting in Kabul and appealed for an immediate end to those hostilities so as not to interrupt the flow of emergency supplies to the city.