Displacement

I'm very happy the army is rooting out the militants … but the aerial bombing targeted our neighbor's house. Our house was hit too. We ran out and couldn't take anything with us. We lost our wheat and cattle worth 200,000 rupees (about U.S. $2,500).

– A 22-year-old man who fled fighting in FATA in 2008

This is just one story from the thousands of residents forced to flee fighting between the Pakistani military and pro-Taliban insurgents in Bajaur Agency in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) during late 2008. Residents had to walk six hours through the mountains before catching a bus that brought them to Charsadda District in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), where they were hosted by generous strangers and then moved to camps in the provincial capital, Peshawar.

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Many civilians in northwestern Pakistan face a difficult dilemma: On one hand, they face the harsh policies and increasing brutality and repression of militant groups; on the other, they are endangered by indiscriminate government offensives that in many cases have destroyed homes, livelihoods and property. Many see escape as the only solution: to flee from their homes, often leaving behind livestock, property and money in search of basic survival and safety.

The difficult situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan is intensified by the Taliban and other militants that target civilians as they try to leave their homes. A man displaced by fighting in the summer of 2008 told Amnesty International:

First, the Taliban didn't say anything when people started to leave. But later on, when people were leaving in large numbers, they were afraid that soon the village would be empty. After 10 August [2008], the Taliban started to stop people from fleeing. They started stopping people on the roads so that nobody could go out of the area. They even fired at people.

Similar accounts repeated in news stories indicate that the Taliban knowingly expose civilians to government attacks and may use civilians as human shields—acts strictly prohibited under international law.

Pakistan is now facing a serious displacement crisis, as hundreds of thousands have been forced out of their homes, including tens of thousands now living in camps formerly used to house Afghan refugees. While the politicians in Islamabad and Washington talk about geopolitics, people in these quiet villages have their lives shattered.

– Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director, addressing Pakistan's military offensive against the Taliban in April 2009

Click image to enlarge Copyright: Amnesty International - Women carrying their children fleeing from Maidan to escape the fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani government forces in Lower Dir, North West Frontier Province, April 27, 2009.

Historically, the number of displaced people in the northwest region of Pakistan has skyrocketed as a direct consequence of government offensives directed at militants. The combination of the Taliban's violent campaign targeting civilians in markets, schools and other civilian buildings and the government's indiscriminate response has not only forced hundreds of thousands to flee to other areas of Pakistan in search of shelter, food and employment, but it has also rendered aid groups unable to deliver desperately needed support services.

An estimated 300,000 civilians fled violence in FATA following the government's most recent offensive in South Waziristan in October 2009. Displacement in neighboring agencies will most likely increase as the government shifts its military campaign to target militants leaving South Waziristan to move into nearby areas.

Conditions around South Waziristan are even worse than in Swat [in NWFP], because few aid groups, whether international or local, are able to operate in this highly insecure area. Add to that the impending cold weather, and the potential for a real calamity is quite high.

– Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Director, October 2009

In Kurram Agency (FATA), sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'a fighters has displaced thousands of people, hindered distribution of life-or-death medical supplies and prevented children from receiving education and families from working and generating critical income.

Between 200,000 and 500,000 people were displaced from the Swat valley (NWFP) in 2008 as a result of fighting between Pakistani Taliban groups and the military. In April 2009, the Pakistani army launched a major offensive in northwestern Pakistan against the Taliban, displacing an additional 2 million people and causing the largest displacement crisis in Pakistan's history. Although many people have returned to their homes at least temporarily despite persistent insecurity, many remain displaced in the region.

Returning Home

Things are now quite calm, and I have been based here since August with my family. However, I lost all my potato and vegetable crops, most of my wheat crop and almost all my cows, so now it is a struggle to manage.

– Khaled Hasan, a 40-year-old farmer from a village near Mingora in Swat valley

The struggle does not end for internally displaced persons when they return home. After fighting between government troops and the Taliban in the NWFP's Swat valley ended in June 2009, many of the region's 2 million IDPs began to make their way back. For many, returning after several months' displacement meant finding their farmland rendered useless by bombing campaigns or finding their livestock killed or stolen. For some, return will be impossible.

We expect some returns, but there will also be people who will remain displaced as they have nowhere to go back to as their homes have been destroyed.

– Manuel Bessler, Head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), January 2010

Women-headed households tend to be more affected than others in the aftermath of displacement. Despite some aid reaching returning IDPs, the struggle to survive can be bitter, as Farhat Bibi, 45, described after returning to Mingora:

My husband was killed in the fighting. My father-in-law died of a heart attack a month ago. Now I am alone with my three children who are all aged under 15 and my elderly mother-in-law. If I had a few goats or hens or bees I could manage, but there are none, and I lack money to buy them. For now our neighbors help us.

Total IDPs and IDP Camps

Click image to enlarge © Amnesty International USA.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there were 1.3 million IDPs from the northwestern areas of Pakistan by the end of 2009. However, the number of people displaced by violence in the region is difficult to count. Treacherous terrain, lack of access by aid groups and the media, and ongoing movement, including the return of some residents, make accurate calculations almost impossible. Moreover, displaced people often stay in the homes of family members or strangers in neighboring provinces because IDP camps have limited space and are far away.

At the end of 2009, there were 13 official IDP camps open in the Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Lower Dir and Hangu districts in NWFP, serving the needs of more than 100,000 IDPs. Yet many camps were too small, requiring displaced people to live outside the camps in makeshift shelters.

Given the substantial number of IDPs and the relative difficulty of reaching populations still in insecure areas, current funding for services is insufficient. Unless this shortfall is corrected in 2010, food rations for IDPs will have to be cut or prioritized for specific groups. Further, the brutal winters in northwest Pakistan pose a serious threat, especially to those living outside the camps. Humanitarian agencies have been distributing winter kits and winterized tents, but those without access to these goods will remain vulnerable.

It is very hard to manage now that it is so cold. We sleep on an open verandah at our host's home because he has only two rooms indoors and these are occupied by his own family of 10 … Two of my four young children are sick with high fever and bad colds, and it is hard to keep them warm at night.

– Waris Mehsud, 35, who was displaced during the government's military operation against militants in South Waziristan (FATA)

According to the United Nations, future military offensives against the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan will put tens of thousands of additional people at risk of being displaced.