Calm returns to Herat as UN relocates staff

Aid workers and United Nations international staff members are moving out of the western Afghan city of Herat following the attack on Sunday by angry demonstrators on the compounds of the UN and other aid agencies. Seven people were reported killed and over 20 injured in the incident, although no UN employee was badly hurt. The city is now reported to be calm and the Afghan National Army (ANA), supported by US-led security forces, is controlling the situation on the ground. The United Nations has moved 76 staff, including 38 international employees, to the capital, Kabul, the UN security office in Kabul (UNSECOORD) confirmed to IRIN. Meanwhile, UNSECOORD said that 67 expatriates, including NGO aid workers and embassy employees, had also vacated the troubled city. The deadly protests in Herat erupted after Afghan President Hamid Karzai fired the long-time provincial governor and a powerful Islamic warlord, Ismail Khan. Hundreds of people, angry at Khan's dismissal, took part in the demonstration. They burned and looted UN and some international aid agencies' compounds. Filipo Grandi, UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said the attacks were evidently targeted at the UN premises. "There were a few hundred mobsters that visited, in some cases several times, the UN premises and conducted these attacks," Grandi said. Immediately after the incident, Grandi led a UN mission that visited Herat to review the situation. "It is pointless for staff to go back where there are no offices to work in. We will have to do some repairing or set up some emergency premises," the UN official said, adding that the offices were in ashes and that everything was burned. "Only when we have a sense [of normality], then we can afford sending back a large number of staff and sending our national staff out to work on projects. This is why we cannot resume our activities in full right away." Grandi said local staff, together with 15 international aid workers, were still in Herat. He said 15 US-led provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) soldiers were reported by US forces as injured and two UN international staff members were also lightly hurt. Eyewitnesses and officials say the city is returning to normal, with government and US-led coalition forces patrolling the streets. A curfew at 9 pm has been imposed, according to local reports. The UN is optimistic that the situation in Herat will improve and further tension will not emerge. "We have now received assurances from all those that we consulted that these attacks will not happen again," Grandi noted. The UN withdrawal comes at a difficult time, as staff were due to help organise elections there next month. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has condemned the violence, but said the UN remained committed to providing humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan.