IDPs Start Returning Homes: A Big Challenge For Pakistan And World Community
Muhammad Khurshid
June 22, 2009
There are reports that internally displaced persons of Malakand Division and Tribal Areas have started returning homes. Now this will be a big challenge for the government of Pakistan and world community as how they will cope with the new crisis. The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) established by the government for controlling and monitoring the relief operation for IDPs has dispatched tents, kitchen items and relief kits to District Coordination Officer (DCO), Buner District of Malakand division for their onward distribution among 400 IDPs families of Sultanwas, who opted for returning to their area voluntarily. According to an ERU handout issued here, Provincial Relief Commissioner and ERU Incharge Muhammad Azam Khan informed that the provincial government would encourage voluntarily repatriation of IDPs to their respective areas. "The ERU will provide all-out support to those families, who want to return to their homes after restoration of peace in their respective areas," he added.
Sultanwas of Buner District has remained battleground for several days as first the village has been occupied by miscreants and then the army had used full force against them. A large number of people have been forced by the continued fighting between security forces and miscreants. Now residents of Sultanwas have started returning to their homes after restoration of peace.
The ERU Incharge said that the provincial government had been trying its best to make the relief operation for IDPs more effective, but at the same time would encourage the IDPs to return to their areas.
According to a newspaper comment, in a message on World Refugees Day on Friday, Prime Minister Gilani appreciated the support of the international community for the approximately three million external refugees from Afghanistan living in Pakistan for the past three decades. This, the largest refugee population anywhere in the world, has over the years constituted a heavy burden on the Pakistani state. It also holds deep implications in the current context, for the scale of the Afghan refugee crisis must be juxtaposed with the issue of the people displaced internally by the fighting against the Taliban in the north-western parts of the country. Official estimates put the number of IDPs at over two million. The actual figure is likely to be much higher.
Now, the government claims that some areas have been cleared of the militants and is sending out appeals for the IDPs to return. The issue is not so easily resolved, however. For one thing, the military operation is set to expand to other areas that continue to harbour militant cells, including Waziristan and parts of Fata. While necessary, the move will result in the destabilisation of civilian life — the further displacement of people is virtually certain. Secondly, the military continues to encounter pockets of resistance even in areas that the government has declared ´safe´.
This, in conjunction with the fact that the administrative and utilities´ infrastructure of the affected areas is in tatters, means that the IDPs are reluctant to return to their hometowns. Of the estimated 700,000 people who fled Buner, for example, only about 6,000 have returned after the area was declared ´safe´, according to District Coordination Officer Yahya Akhundzada. Stressing the need for people to start returning to the secured areas, Mr Akhundzada noted rightly that this would build confidence which would contribute to the defeat of the Taliban. But the government must offer more than mere assurances of safety.
It must demonstrate the administrative resolve to reconstruct the battle-ravaged areas, which includes setting up education and health facilities and creating employment opportunities. It must also demonstrate the ability to rehabilitate the IDPs. Most importantly, the government must show the political will to change policies that allowed the creation of the militant-Taliban nexus in the first place. Otherwise, Pakistan risks adding the IDPs issue to the Afghan refugee crisis which remains unresolved despite the passage of three decades, and of continuing to create circumstances that stoke extremism.
The End
Sultanwas of Buner District has remained battleground for several days as first the village has been occupied by miscreants and then the army had used full force against them. A large number of people have been forced by the continued fighting between security forces and miscreants. Now residents of Sultanwas have started returning to their homes after restoration of peace.
The ERU Incharge said that the provincial government had been trying its best to make the relief operation for IDPs more effective, but at the same time would encourage the IDPs to return to their areas.
According to a newspaper comment, in a message on World Refugees Day on Friday, Prime Minister Gilani appreciated the support of the international community for the approximately three million external refugees from Afghanistan living in Pakistan for the past three decades. This, the largest refugee population anywhere in the world, has over the years constituted a heavy burden on the Pakistani state. It also holds deep implications in the current context, for the scale of the Afghan refugee crisis must be juxtaposed with the issue of the people displaced internally by the fighting against the Taliban in the north-western parts of the country. Official estimates put the number of IDPs at over two million. The actual figure is likely to be much higher.
Now, the government claims that some areas have been cleared of the militants and is sending out appeals for the IDPs to return. The issue is not so easily resolved, however. For one thing, the military operation is set to expand to other areas that continue to harbour militant cells, including Waziristan and parts of Fata. While necessary, the move will result in the destabilisation of civilian life — the further displacement of people is virtually certain. Secondly, the military continues to encounter pockets of resistance even in areas that the government has declared ´safe´.
This, in conjunction with the fact that the administrative and utilities´ infrastructure of the affected areas is in tatters, means that the IDPs are reluctant to return to their hometowns. Of the estimated 700,000 people who fled Buner, for example, only about 6,000 have returned after the area was declared ´safe´, according to District Coordination Officer Yahya Akhundzada. Stressing the need for people to start returning to the secured areas, Mr Akhundzada noted rightly that this would build confidence which would contribute to the defeat of the Taliban. But the government must offer more than mere assurances of safety.
It must demonstrate the administrative resolve to reconstruct the battle-ravaged areas, which includes setting up education and health facilities and creating employment opportunities. It must also demonstrate the ability to rehabilitate the IDPs. Most importantly, the government must show the political will to change policies that allowed the creation of the militant-Taliban nexus in the first place. Otherwise, Pakistan risks adding the IDPs issue to the Afghan refugee crisis which remains unresolved despite the passage of three decades, and of continuing to create circumstances that stoke extremism.
The End