UN team to assess war damage.

• Position: United Nations - Afghanistan

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...