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Pakistan races to deal with mounting refugees
Pakistan said Tuesday it was racing to help refugees fleeing a military offensive against the Taliban in its northwest an exodus of some 1.5 million with a speed and size the UN said could rival the displacement caused by Rwanda's genocide.
- AP
- Published: 11:20 May 19, 2009
- An internally displaced girl sits in a class inside a tent at a United Nations High Commission for Refugees camp on the outskirts of Peshawar on Tuesdpay.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Islamabad: Pakistan said Tuesday it was racing to help refugees fleeing a military offensive against the Taliban in its northwest an exodus of some 1.5 million with a speed and size the UN said could rival the displacement caused by Rwanda's genocide.
The humanitarian challenge comes as the military said its troops are fighting street battles against insurgents in key towns in Pakistan's Swat Valley and amid government denials that the country is expanding its nuclear stockpile.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, who leads a group tasked with dealing with the uprooted Pakistanis, told reporters that the government had enough flour and other food for the displaced but said it needed donations of fans and high energy biscuits. He also said the refugees would get money and free transport when it was safe enough to return.
A "camp is not a replacement for home," Ahmed said, adding there are at least 22 relief camps operating.
The US has praised Pakistan's military operation in Swat and surrounding districts, which comes amid long-standing American pressure on its Muslim ally to root out Al Qaida and Taliban hide-outs along the border with Afghanistan. Militants in those sanctuaries threaten American and Nato troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan's own future, US officials warn.
Whether Pakistan's will to take on the militants will falter could depend on the fate of its displaced citizens, many now stuck in the sweltering camps.
UN officials said Monday that nearly 1.5 million people had fled their homes in Pakistan this month.
Earlier offensives had caused another 550,000 people to flee, though Ahmed said Tuesday that 230,000 people had returned to Bajur, a tribal region overrun by the Taliban that underwent a lengthy operation.
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