People who had fled from fighting in the Swat valley wait in line at the Jalozai camp, about 140km from Pakistans capital Islamabad. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/ReutersPaul O'Brien | The Irish Times, June 22, 2009
An unprecedented human drama is unfolding in Pakistan and yet few in the wider world are paying attention. Why?
THE STORY is there is no story. The question is “why?” As I remember the destruction and death in north western Pakistan after the earthquake in October 2005, an event that attracted huge international attention and propelled frontline international aid agencies like Concern Worldwide to begin their rapid response emergency work, little did I know then that some four years later over two million people would be on the move in this part of the country, internally displaced by a sustained and ferociously intense military conflict between the Pakistani army and Taliban insurgents.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres has said of the current situation that he doesn’t recall “any internal displacement crisis in which so many people have moved in such a short amount of time”. Since early May, these two million people have felt compelled to leave their homes, farms, communities and villages.
Tags: Antonio Guterres, internally displaced people, international aid, international humanitarian response, military conflict, Pakistan, Pakistan army, refugees, Taliban
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