Friday, August 19 2005 17:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

The 9/11 attacks and its impact on Afghan refugees

The September 11, 2001 attacks and their impact on the region, with Washington declaring Afghanistan the epicenter of international terrorism, jolted Pakistan out of its complacence. With the threat posed by al-Qaeda and the Taliban to the United States and its allies, Islamabad is now keen on accounting for all Afghan refugees on its soil. For that purpose, a census was started early this year because of the fact that as long as the refugees remain in Pakistan unaccounted, it is not possible for Islamabad to prevent the rebels operating from its soil.

Thanks to the emergence of Pakistan as a global recruitment centre for jihad during the Afghan war, it became easy for people from different nationalities to move in and out of the country.

It is pertinent to mention here, since the 9/11 terror attacks, Islamabad has apprehended and killed over 1,000 alleged activists of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban from various parts of the world. Fleeing from Afghanistan, they had hoped to find shelter in Pakistan only because of the past connection. Pakistan has been home to the single largest refugee population anywhere in the world for over 25 years now.

According to Guenet Guebre-Christos, United Nations High Commission for Refugees Representative in Pakistan, the census found that 1,861,412 Afghan refugees live in the North West Frontier Province, 783,545 in Baluchistan, 136,780 in Sindh, 207,754 in Punjab, 44,637 in Islamabad and 13,097 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas.

The Pakistani authorities announced in May 2005, the closure by the end of June 2005 of over a dozen refugee camps located in the area due to security concerns. There were at least two million refugees in Pakistan alone before the US-Allied Forces attacked Afghanistan in October 2001. More than 200,000 refugees have reportedly crossed the border since then.

Many of these refugees are desperate to return home but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been urging them not to return immediately since Afghanistan is not ready to receive them. The primary obstacle to large-scale repatriation now is security as tribal warlords continue to fight over the spoils of war. Jobs and food are also both in short supply in a country where six to seven million people are reported to remain on the brink of starvation.

Following the Pakistan Government's decision, the office of the UNHCR has launched a special drive to help repatriate Afghans living in refugee camps in the North Waziristan agency of Pakistan's western tribal belt. "The UNHCR teams will visit all the refugee camps in North Waziristan in the first two weeks of June 2005 to register those families wishing to avail the refugee agency's assistance package for voluntary repatriation," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told media persons in the capital, Islamabad, on June 9, 2005. Afterwards, the heads of the families would have to travel to Bannu district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), located some 40 km away, in order to receive the Voluntary Repatriation Forms (VRFs) required to secure assistance.

The UNHCR standard repatriation assistance package includes a travel grant of US $3 to $30 per person depending on the distance to the recipient's destination in Afghanistan and another $12 per capita to help them re-establish themselves in their homeland.

Jack, however, agreed that the UNHCR staff cannot distinguish between a genuine Afghan refugee and a terror operative belonging to either al-Qaeda or Taliban, who now want to cross over to Afghanistan to escape arrest.

The Pakistan Government decided the eviction of the Afghan refugees from the Waziristan area at a time when international aid workers and Afghan officials were struggling to avert a looming humanitarian crisis as thousands of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan pour across the border fleeing Pakistani Army operations to hunt al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Over 25,000 Afghan refugees have already crossed the Pakistani border into Afghanistan's troubled south-eastern provinces, many of them leaving Pakistan after decades with only hours to pack what little they can carry, aid workers said. Because of the military operations in the Waziristan area, many of the Afghan refugees were forced to leave their belongings because they had no time to pack.

Afghanistan's southeastern provinces, bordering Pakistan, are a hot bed of the Taliban-led insurgency. The Afghanistan Government, the United Nations and most aid organisations have pulled out fearing attacks on their workers. On the other side of the border, Pakistan is stepping up a military campaign to hunt al-Qaeda-linked fighters in the quasi-independent tribal areas. The Government is closing Afghan refugee camps, believed to be shelters for hundreds of hardened militants from Afghanistan, Chechnya and Uzbekistan.

The United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to root out al-Qaeda linked fighters. In January 2005, the Pakistani security forces had bulldozed two refugee camps, Zarinoor One and Zarinoor Two, in the South Waziristan tribal district. Later, the military operation was expanded to the North Waziristan, leaving more Afghan refugees being caught in the crossfire.

According to the Pakistani intelligence sources, the North Waziristan is a more serious challenge to the military in flushing out remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban than neighbouring South Waziristan. They informed that the North Waziristan is a stronger base for militants due to the presence of a large number of seminaries and because around 70 percent of the local population supported militants. Since early 2005, the Pakistan Army has carried out a number of search operations and killed and arrested a number of foreign militants and their local facilitators in North Waziristan after bringing the situation in South Waziristan comparatively under control. Approached for comments, a senior Pakistan Army official said while requesting anonymity, "The next six months in South Waziristan are critical for the Government. If we cannot build on successes that our forces achieved in the last quarter of 2004, then all the efforts will go waste."

Already a major American television network (ABC) has obtained videos, not seen so far, showing fierce fighting between Pakistani troops and al-Qaeda forces in South Waziristan. The videos made for propaganda purposes by none other than the al-Qaeda itself, showcase the intensely violent fighting and unique difficulties that surround the hunt for Osama bin Laden in the remote tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. The videotapes were reportedly made in January 2005 when the Pakistan Army undertook a major offensive into South Waziristan where the fiercely independent Waziri tribe resides and where some leading al-Qaeda lights are believed to be in hiding.

The Pakistan Army declared the campaign in Waziristan to be a major victory. However, states ABC, "In at least four cases, the video shows that Pakistani army troops were driven into ambushes. One scene shows the insurgents tracking a Pakistani convoy from the mountains above before opening fire. Another scene focuses on the fiery aftermath of an attack on an army convoy."

The footage also shows what appears to be new al-Qaeda training camps inside Pakistan, similar to the ones that were dismantled in Afghanistan. The tapes show a new generation of militants, some no older than 10 or 12 years, carrying automatic weapons. "These are infidels and they deserve to be killed," a youngster tells the camera.

Pakistani soldiers are also shown leaving behind their dead and abandoning trucks full of arms and ammunition, which are then collected by those fighting them. Those weapons add to an already impressive arsenal, according to the tapes. In one scene, the fighters can be seen using what appears to be a Russian multiple rocket launcher against the Pakistani troops. Quite interestingly, the well-armed fighters move with ease through the rugged terrain, using donkeys and mules.