Taking care of IDPs

The 'handling' of the tribesmen displaced by the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan by the Afghan government should be a matter of grave concern. In the name of facilitating the 'refugees' from Pakistan, a relief camp has been set up near the town of Khost - though it is another matter that local Afghan mujahedeen council is in competition outbidding the government offer of cash assistance by promising to meet all 'basic needs' of the refugees. Without trivialising at all in any way the ordeal of the Pakistani IDPs who fled the conflict area and have reached the bordering Afghan city one would still not believe that the Kabul rulers have undergone a change of heart and are genuinely concerned about the well-being of the incoming migrants. In this case also their past is the present: that warm hospitality provided to Mulla Fazlullah and his foot soldiers in the wake of military operation in Swat-Malakand area served them well a replay of the same in the works at Khost. No surprise then that the KP Governor, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, who is the federal government's top representative in the tribal areas, including North Waziristan Agency and a former chief minister of KP (the then NWFP), has seen through the Kabul rulers' excessive kindness for the migrants. The Afghan government should refrain from 'encouraging Pakistani tribesmen to take shelter on its soil', he said, warning 'this is inappropriate... its repercussions would be very severe for the entire region as Pakistan did not want to interfere in Afghanistan's domestic affairs'. The Foreign Office is said to have conveyed Islamabad's concerns over this matter. That someone should be cashing in on human misery is an Afghan preserve that characterizes the mindset of the Kabul rulers.
Given the porousness of the Durand Line and the reality of overlapping tribes its foolproof sealing is just not possible. Last week and even before during presidential election in Afghanistan the Pakistan authorities had done everything possible to secure the border, but Kabul doesn't seem to be reciprocating this gesture, especially now when military operation is on in the bordering region and such criss-crossing of the common border is quite likely. One unfortunate but inescapable consequence of any conflict, be it domestic insurgency or inter-state war, is the dire plight of non-combatant populations who are forced to leave their homes and hearths and take refuge somewhere else. Who could be more familiar with this tragic saga than Pakistan who played a willing host to some three million refugees who fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s? With disagreeable aftermath of that war still lasting in the form of terrorist outfits and their sanctuaries in the tribal areas, Pakistan is once again confronted with the challenge of hosting and caring thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the wake of a military operation in North Waziristan. A vast majority of them is said to have arrived at the camp set up by the government at Bakkakhel in FR Bannu where they are being looked after by the Fata Disaster Management Authority. Since exodus outflows of people from the battle zone have acquired a political sensitivity and a cause of opposition to the idea of military operation the federal government is quite conscious of the imperative that the IDPs should get maximum relief at the doorstep, a task assigned to the federal minister Lieutenant-General Abdul Qadir Baloch (retd). The KP government too is set about preparing round the clock arrangements for adequate supply of food and medicines. Not all the IDPs have shifted to the government camp; quite a few have joined their relatives in other parts of the country. There is another disturbing aspect to the problem of IDPs: they are as much victims of the haughtiness of their local leaders as of the unavoidable consequence of war in their area because militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur has warned the people not to stay at the government camp or else they would be responsible for the consequences. Naturally many IDPs would prefer to bear heat and hunger than to face summary trials and quick justice at the hands of militant executioners. It is necessary that both the military operation - which is expected to expand in coming days throwing up many more IDPs - and the civilian authorities take necessary steps by ensuring that IDPs' journey to the camps is easy and risk-free. The allocations set aside for the IDPs are disappointingly low; more funds should be earmarked in this regard without any further loss of time.