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TechnoratiSwat Valley Could Be Worst Refugee Crisis Since Rwanda, UN Warns
The human exodus from the war-torn Swat valley in northern Pakistan is turning into the world's most dramatic displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the UN refugee agency warned.
![[Internally displaced girls fleeing a military offensive in the Swat valley hold classes inside a tent at an UNHCR camp (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) in the outskirts of Peshawar May 19, 2009. A Pakistani military offensive against Taliban militants in their Swat valley bastion has forced more than a million people from their homes, the government and the United Nations say.
(REUTERS/Ali Imam)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/swatvalley_refugees.jpg "swatvalley_refugees.jpg")
Almost 1.5 million people have registered for assistance since fighting erupted three weeks ago, the UNHCR said, bringing the total number of war displaced in North West Frontier province to more than 2 million, not including 300,000 the provincial government believes have not registered. "It's been a long time since there has been a displacement this big," the UNHCR's spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva, trying to recall the last time so many people had been uprooted so quickly. "It could go back to Rwanda."
The army reported fierce clashes across Swat, a tourist haven turned Taliban stronghold. After a week of intense aerial bombardment with fighter jets and helicopter gunships the army has launched a ground offensive to drive out the militants to rout the militants from the valley. Commandos pushed through the remote Piochar valley, seizing a training centre and killing a dozen Taliban, a military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said. Gun battles erupted in several villages surrounding Mingora, Swat's main town. Abbas said the military had killed 27 militants, including three commanders, and lost three members of the security forces. The figures could not be verified, as Swat has been largely cut off since the operation started.
The Taliban leader in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, remains at large. His spokesman vowed the rebels would fight until their "last breath".
The operation continues to enjoy broad public support. Opposition parties endorsed the action at a conference called by the government, dispelling the notion that the army was fighting "America's war".
But that fragile unity could be threatened by heavy civilian casualties or a further deterioration in the conditions of the 2 million displaced. Returning from a three-day trip to Pakistan, the UNHCR head António Guterres termed the displacement crisis as "one of the most dramatic of recent times". Relief workers were "struggling to keep up with the size and speed of the displacement," a statement said.
The main difference with African refugee crises such as Rwanda, however, is that a minority of people are being housed in tented camps. According to the UN just 130,000 people are being accommodated in the sprawling, hot camps in Mardan and Swabi districts, while most are squeezed into the homes of friends or relatives, with as many as 85 people in one house.
Nevertheless aid workers and political analysts warn that if international aid to ease the crisis is not urgently delivered, the strain on the displaced and those helping them could lead to political destablisation. Acknowledging the scale of the crisis, the prime minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said: "The displaced men, women and children should not feel alone. We won't leave any stone unturned in providing them help and protection."
The UN is expected to launch an international appeal for aid running into hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming days.
9 Comments so far
Show AllThe Pakistani Military should divert its funding of its nuclear program for a few years till they fix this problem you would think ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090520/wl_asia_afp/pakistannuclearweaponsus
wikipedia:
The Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988 [fueled by the USA, Saddam's sponsor], the 1990 Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait [lacking any US threats/warnings], the [USA's] first Gulf War and subsequent conflicts [e.g. Shiite uprising encouraged by the USA] all generated hundreds of thousands if not millions of refugees.
Iran [target of relentless US aggression for over 50 years] also provided asylum for 1,400,000 Iraqi refugees who had been uprooted as a result of the [USA's] Persian Gulf War (1990–91).
According to UNHCR estimates, over 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced [internally/externally] since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The United Nations estimates that nearly 2.2 million Iraqis have fled the country since [US invasion of] 2003. The humanitarian crisis in [US occupied] Iraq is the worst in the Middle East since Palestinians were displaced in 1948 [by European Zionists].
Refugees are mired in poverty as they are generally barred from working in their host countries. In Syria alone an estimated 50,000 Iraqi girls and women, many of them widows, are forced into prostitution just to survive.
Perhaps as many as half a million Iraqi Christians Assyrians are thought to have fled the sectarian fighting in Iraq.
Mandaeans are an ancient ethnoreligious group in southern Iraq. They are the last practicing gnostic sect in the Middle East. There are thought to have been about 40,000 Mandaeans in Iraq prior to the US-led invasion. As a non-Muslim group, they have been abused by sectarian militias.
The vast majority of Baghdadi Mandaeans left Baghdad many have fled to Syria, Jordan and elsewhere while Mandaean communities of southern Iraq are still more or less secure with the exception of Basra where the Mandaean Manda (Temple) was attacked by an unknown militia. Mandaean diaspora organizations are reportedly focusing all their resources on evacuating all the remaining Mandaeans in Iraq.
This article is not credible.
A week of "intense aerial bombardment by fighter jets and helicopter gunships" killed "27" militants? Were they using live ammo? Who DID they manage to kill? This makes little sense.
Nor does the facile assertion that this operation "enjoys broad popular support," this Army bombing of it's own people which is causing a catastrophic refugee crisis enjoys "broad popular support?" O-kay, now I understand.
The Army quit operations of this kind recently precisely because they lacked just such support....
Why not?
Typical modern offensive war. Kill and displace millions just to bag 27 bad guys. Where oh where arizona neocon, did you think the taliban came from? They are not from Pakistan. They are refugees that fled the soviet and our attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't think it's so hot to have millions of Mexicans show up at my house. Never mind, that already happened in....CA.
But this has little to do with nabbing bad guys. It's about oil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline
The original project started in March 1995 when an inaugural memorandum of understanding between the governments of Turkmenistan and Pakistan for a pipeline project was signed. In August 1996, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) consortium for construction of a pipeline, led by Unocal was formed. On 27 October 1997, CentGas was incorporated in formal signing ceremonies in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan by several international oil companies along with the Government of Turkmenistan. In January 1998, the Taliban, selecting CentGas over Argentinian competitor Bridas Corporation, signed an agreement that allowed the proposed project to proceed. In June 1998, Russian Gazprom relinquishes its 10% stake in the project. Unocal withdrew from the consortium on 8 December 1998.
The new deal on the pipeline was signed on 27 December 2002 by the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.[1] In 2005, the Asian Development Bank submitted the final version of a feasibility study designed by British company Penspen. Since the United States military overthrew the Taliban government, the project has essentially stalled; construction of the Turkmen part was supposed to start in 2006, but the overall feasibility is questionable since the southern part of the Afghan section runs through territory which continues to be under de facto Taliban control.
On 24 April 2008, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan signed a framework agreement to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan.[2]
[edit]Route
The 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi) pipeline will run from the Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there TAPI will be constructed alongside the highway running from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India.[3]
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Here AzJoe,
Let me draw you a picture:
http://tinyurl.com/pugc5x
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Swat Valley Could Be Worst Refugee Crisis Since Que Sera Lanka.
"bringing the total number of war displaced in North West Frontier province to more than 2 million, not including 300,000 the provincial government believes have not registered"
"The human exodus from the war-torn Swat valley in northern Pakistan is turning into the world's most dramatic displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the UN refugee agency warned."
Granted, this situation is happening fast, but still, this is an amazing omission by UNHR.
It's like Iraq never happened.
"The situation in Iraq continues to worsen, with more than 2 million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside the country and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighboring states. "
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/iraq?page=news&id=466579e64
The Billions of $$$$ weve been pumping into Pakistan should go towards helping these refugees rather than F-16's. Hopefully the Pakistani Military will give up its expansionist plans vis-a-vis Afghanistan and focus on feeding and taking care of these refugees. The rest of the world also needs to address this humanitarian disaster-in-waiting and put their money where their mouth is by helping Pakistan deal with this crisis.
President Obama (The British pronounce it "Obommer")is simply delivering on a promise he made as candidate Obama to "bomb the mountains of Pakistan".