Since the Pakistani army began its air assault against Talibani militants to reclaim the Bajaur region in the Northwest Frontier August 7, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have been forced to flee for their lives from their homes into refugee camps. There are at least 8 new camps, and even an old camp where Afghans were living up until a year ago outside Peshawar is now "alive" again with Pakistani refugees from the Bajaur region.
In this Guardian article Saeed Shah describes life in the camps that will likely linger on for years ahead.
The only toilet is a communal ditch, which the men use. The women use the surrounding woods. Acute diarrhea is a major problem, along with respiratory diseases.
There is not enough food or water for drinking, let alone washing. Aid groups truck in both. There is no electricity.
One newly arrived elderly woman died of dehydration in the long, chaotic queue to register with the authorities at Kacha Garhi, causing a mini-riot. Mohammad Zahra said he had 20 mouths to feed, his children and those of three brothers. 'But we only get a little food,' he said, displaying a handful.
One old man, Mohammad Amin, has been passed from camp to camp. 'When will we get the blankets and bedding?' he asked. 'After dying?'
12 comments:
True,this particular war never looks like its going to end and the victims are innocents. Aid to these areas is a logistic nightmare,with a high density of population and armed conflict.
Looks like its bad time in the subcontinent, with the swelling srilankan tamil refugees aid agencies need to work over time.
I hate to say it, but the border regions will remain equally as bad under an Obama or McCain administration. Obama has made such an issue of getting to the source of the Taliban problem, I don't think either candidate feels they can step back from a general assault. And of course, the beauty of standoff war using UAVs is that you can fire missiles as often as you want with no risk to U.S. forces, killing as many civilians as you want, and the vast majority of the American people do not care. The hardest point we've tried to make in Citizens for Peace in Space is that automated standoff war is not ethical. What the citizens of our nation care about is the number of body bags of U.S. citizens coming home, and they would prefer kill ratios of 10,000 to zero, thank you very much.
Nautankey, trying to envision the logistics of aid to the hundreds of thousands boggles the mind. The suffering of the people alone is terrible. Add to that the inability to take care of themselves, just utter dependence on others, grasping to survive. Forget comfort, forget lack of pain. Just live. And barely that. In some way I wonder what gives people the will to even survive. For what? Maybe the ones with children at least fight to survive for them.
Loring, I have never understood the mentality of only caring how these things affect Americans. I remember as a kid watching the news, and whenever there was a plane crash, the newsperson would report how many Americans died, if any, and I'd just sit there wondering why do I care how many Americans died? 250 people died in the plane, they were all humans, all had families and friends.
Border patrol indeed. Borders are what we humans have to show for our deftness at the human exchange.
Probably they dream of a bright future some day.In the school I studied we had guys who had seen the srilankan tamil genocide and were refugees in india.Their attitude was surprising then...They never cribbed about the school cafetaria,the bad roads that lead to our school, the power cuts and all other things we teenagers make fuss about..well now I do realize these things are so trivial compared to what they had gone thru.
Hope and faith at times give the positive energy to survive these rough patches
These people are being tortured, sometimes to death, as much as the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Very, terribly sad.
You must be right, Nautankey, that they dream of being rescued and given a chance to start a new life somewhere, sometime. In our community we have about 100 "lost boys" - orphans from Sudan who walked across war-torn Africa looking for safety and life. They work in our big grocery store and are excellent workers. When you take life for yourself and aren't handed it on a platter, contentment comes more easily.
Morna, no human should live this way. No human should inflict this torture. I'm ashamed of being human in light of this.
What are the reasons behind these never-ending conflicts? In some areas, people are incited to hate each other rather than to live peacefully together. Political leaders, money... all mixed up; sometimes religious fanatics, driven by what? (Religion was, at least historically, also en “excuse” for wars and conflicts. I have nothing against religions, but I’m against fanatics.)
Also, and this is perhaps slightly another chapter, sometimes certain communities believe that they are the only ones who have the right solution and that it must be imposed on others. Sorry, but on a larger scale I believe that the US the last decades often have played that role – also at your own expense. The lack of knowledge and understanding of the “world” outside the US by your leaders has been a major issue especially the last 8 years! (Even worse would be if your leaders would have acted like they have by purpose, having the knowledge and understanding.) In Europe, we should be, and are – maybe not enough – thankful for what the US did during the last WWs, but since then your interventions have unfortunately been less successful and not always internationally wished. I hope and trust that your new leaders have learnt the lessons!
In the meantime millions, billions, of people suffer from these stupidities. We should spend our time, energy and money on help, education... not on wars! Well, this is just too obvious, but I said it anyhow!
Peter, I couldn't agree with you more. The extent to which our stupidities infect the world is the extent that our stupidities have become unforgivable crimes. It is a great shame on this quote-unquote democracy. Ohh, don't get me started.
I do hope a new chapter will start in January when President Obama starts to turn the ship a degree or two. Just having a President who respects the ideas of others would be a vast improvement.
Thank you, Peter, for stating your thoughts. Even if I hadn't agreed with you, your ideas are most welcome here. I learn from you.
Shoot, I hope I didn't jinx anything in that comment.
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