We may be defeated by refugee camps
Monday, May 11, 2009
Daily Times, Pakistan
Monday, May 11, 2009
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani says the Swat operation is a fight for the “survival of Pakistan”. True. But we could be defeated in this fight by the developing crisis of the refugee camps in Mardan and elsewhere in the NWFP unless we do some emergency reorganisation. When the provincial government asked the people of the Malakand region to leave their homes to give the Pakistan Army a chance to take on the Taliban without too much collateral damage, the local population readily agreed. But their reception at the camps is turning out to be a trauma they did not anticipate.
The camps have been hurriedly put together in Mardan, Swabi and other places in the NWFP, and first reports are not very heartening. Around 200,000 have moved out of the target areas; an additional 300,000 are on the move and are expected to reach the camps by the beginning of the week. They will have joined the earlier 500,000 that fled the conflict zone and have been absorbed in various parts of the province, including the old deserted refugee camps used by the Afghan refugees in the past. That makes a total of one million refugees. The NWFP government projects a figure of 1.5 million as the war in Swat goes into attrition.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) disagrees with the numbers on the basis of registration because registration is the only way you can officially compute the size of displacement. It is true that many Swatis and people from other areas have moved in with their relatives outside the region but the coming flood of refugees is mostly going to be looked after by the state of Pakistan. The prime minister has already given Rs 1 billion to the NWFP government but it is organisation and expert handling that is missing. The first images appearing on the TV channels tell us that both are in short supply.
If this is the case, we may be defeated by the Taliban because of the refugee camps. We had a much better record of handling the displaced persons after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP. Have we forgotten the lessons? The 2005 earthquake was a sudden natural calamity and we could not have organised rescue and settlement beforehand. Adverse publicity of government performance went on for weeks before organisation caught up with the homeless. Beyond 2005, we had decades of experience of handling the Afghan refugees most of whom were lodged in the NWFP. Where has that expertise gone?
Read more
Monday, May 11, 2009
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani says the Swat operation is a fight for the “survival of Pakistan”. True. But we could be defeated in this fight by the developing crisis of the refugee camps in Mardan and elsewhere in the NWFP unless we do some emergency reorganisation. When the provincial government asked the people of the Malakand region to leave their homes to give the Pakistan Army a chance to take on the Taliban without too much collateral damage, the local population readily agreed. But their reception at the camps is turning out to be a trauma they did not anticipate.
The camps have been hurriedly put together in Mardan, Swabi and other places in the NWFP, and first reports are not very heartening. Around 200,000 have moved out of the target areas; an additional 300,000 are on the move and are expected to reach the camps by the beginning of the week. They will have joined the earlier 500,000 that fled the conflict zone and have been absorbed in various parts of the province, including the old deserted refugee camps used by the Afghan refugees in the past. That makes a total of one million refugees. The NWFP government projects a figure of 1.5 million as the war in Swat goes into attrition.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) disagrees with the numbers on the basis of registration because registration is the only way you can officially compute the size of displacement. It is true that many Swatis and people from other areas have moved in with their relatives outside the region but the coming flood of refugees is mostly going to be looked after by the state of Pakistan. The prime minister has already given Rs 1 billion to the NWFP government but it is organisation and expert handling that is missing. The first images appearing on the TV channels tell us that both are in short supply.
If this is the case, we may be defeated by the Taliban because of the refugee camps. We had a much better record of handling the displaced persons after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP. Have we forgotten the lessons? The 2005 earthquake was a sudden natural calamity and we could not have organised rescue and settlement beforehand. Adverse publicity of government performance went on for weeks before organisation caught up with the homeless. Beyond 2005, we had decades of experience of handling the Afghan refugees most of whom were lodged in the NWFP. Where has that expertise gone?
Read more
Labels: Army Operation, Internally Displaced Persons, Pakistan, Refugees, Swat, Taliban, Terrorism
posted @ 5:37 PM,
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