UN Secretary General begins historic visit

As part of a three-day visit to the region, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will travel to Pakistan on Wednesday, highlighting his continued support for the people of Afghanistan. Travelling to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, his visit comes one day after a major international donor meeting to raise funds for the war-ravaged country in Tokyo. "This is the second time in less than a year the Secretary General is visiting - demonstrating the importance he places on the region," Eric Fault, director of the United Nations Information Centre, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. "This will be a chance for him to see the difficulties that await the UN in Afghanistan as we proceed to support the Interim Administration," he explained. On Thursday, the Secretary General will hold a series of meetings with high level Pakistani officials including President General Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. "He will be urging Pakistan to help provide stability to Afghanistan," Fault noted. Travelling to the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, the Secretary General is scheduled to meet with the head of the new Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai, as well as other members of the Interim Administration and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He is expected to tour parts of the city that have been particularly affected by the war. He will also meet ordinary Afghans who have suffered from over two decades of conflict, Fault explained. The Secretary-General's visit to Kabul will be the first since UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold visited the Central Asian country in 1959. Regarding his stops in Islamabad and the Iranian capital Tehran, where on Saturday he is scheduled to meet senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Muhammad Khatami, the UN has continually called upon Afghanistan's neighbours to support peace in the country. During his visit to the region, the Secretary General is expected to urge Islamabad and Tehran to work more closely to maintain the security situation in Afghanistan, arguing it is in their common interest. At the Tokyo conference, a total of over US $4.5 billion in pledges and contributions was announced, in addition to US $1.8 billion pledged for the current year. During the two-day forum, described by Annan as "remarkably successful", the Secretary General expressed hope that there would be sufficient funds for the recurrent costs of the Interim Administration in Kabul and praised its Chairman, Hamid Karzai, for welcoming international auditors to see that the money was well spent. "That was just the right approach and the right tone," the Secretary-General said. Asked what kind of Afghanistan he would like to see in 10 years, Annan said in a television interview afterwards that he looked forward to "an Afghanistan that is stable, an Afghanistan that has become a more or less normal state," adding: "And an Afghanistan that is also left alone - no meddling from the neighbours..."