Sea of misery
Monday, May 25, 2009
Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Monday, May 25, 2009
The UN has launched an appeal for $543m to help the over 1.5 million people displaced in Pakistan. The UN has described the scale of the displacement as overwhelming. The head of its office for humanitarian coordination had previously described the crisis as one of the worst ever. Accounts of the suffering of the IDPs continue to pour in. High heat, sickness and a lack of facilities at camps all add to these. The situation is an exceedingly complicated one to tackle. Rarely have so many people streamed out of homes so rapidly and in so much distress. The limited capacity of the state to cope with disaster has aggravated the situation. To make matters worse, more displacements could follow, from Waziristan and other areas where the military operation may soon be extended. We see before us a sea of misery with no signs yet of the shore anywhere in sight. Experienced relief agencies which have worked before in all kinds of condition of crisis admit to being overwhelmed and at a loss to tackle the situation. Efforts are being made also to reach out to IDPs based with host families, but there are as yet many difficulties inherent in this.
While global attention is at least focused on the IDP issue, the situation of people still based in the conflict zone is being largely forgotten. According to information that has emerged from Kalam, where local people have agreed to an uneasy truce with the local Taliban, there are desperate shortages of food and medicine. Women are said to have died in childbirth because there was no access to medical help. Transport has vanished off roads and supply lines have been cut off. There is a need for this situation too to be addressed. The humanitarian crisis needs to be taken note of as a whole. The Pakistan government needs to consider requesting the Red Cross and other groups with expertise in war zones to move into areas of fighting. People there too need assistance as do the millions who have fled. Aid drives to collect funds are now on across the country – but there is still a need to do much more to offer succour to people who face a nightmarish reality in which they have been driven from homes and forced into an inhospitable situation.
Source
Monday, May 25, 2009
The UN has launched an appeal for $543m to help the over 1.5 million people displaced in Pakistan. The UN has described the scale of the displacement as overwhelming. The head of its office for humanitarian coordination had previously described the crisis as one of the worst ever. Accounts of the suffering of the IDPs continue to pour in. High heat, sickness and a lack of facilities at camps all add to these. The situation is an exceedingly complicated one to tackle. Rarely have so many people streamed out of homes so rapidly and in so much distress. The limited capacity of the state to cope with disaster has aggravated the situation. To make matters worse, more displacements could follow, from Waziristan and other areas where the military operation may soon be extended. We see before us a sea of misery with no signs yet of the shore anywhere in sight. Experienced relief agencies which have worked before in all kinds of condition of crisis admit to being overwhelmed and at a loss to tackle the situation. Efforts are being made also to reach out to IDPs based with host families, but there are as yet many difficulties inherent in this.
While global attention is at least focused on the IDP issue, the situation of people still based in the conflict zone is being largely forgotten. According to information that has emerged from Kalam, where local people have agreed to an uneasy truce with the local Taliban, there are desperate shortages of food and medicine. Women are said to have died in childbirth because there was no access to medical help. Transport has vanished off roads and supply lines have been cut off. There is a need for this situation too to be addressed. The humanitarian crisis needs to be taken note of as a whole. The Pakistan government needs to consider requesting the Red Cross and other groups with expertise in war zones to move into areas of fighting. People there too need assistance as do the millions who have fled. Aid drives to collect funds are now on across the country – but there is still a need to do much more to offer succour to people who face a nightmarish reality in which they have been driven from homes and forced into an inhospitable situation.
Source
Labels: Human Rights, Humanitarian Crisis, IDPs, Refugees, Swat Operation
posted @ 9:48 AM,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment