Pakistan's displaced fear returning home
Updated
Earlier this month the Taliban attacked a hotel in the Pakistan city of Peshawar.
The attack on the hotel, known to accommodate United Nations and other international aid staff, is now seen as a clear sign the Taliban is targeting the U.N. and others assisting those displaced by recent fighting.
Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Paul Risley, Asia spokesman the World Food Programme
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CORBEN: The June 9 attack on the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar killed nine people and devastated the property frequented by international aid organizations working to assist millions displaced by the Pakistan army's fight against the Taliban.
The United Nations World Food Programme Paul Risley, who just spent three weeks in Pakistan and the frontier region, says the attack represented a direct warning to the international aid community.
RISLEY: I have visited Pakistan over the past several years on many occasions. And on this most recent visit I was really struck by the heightened threat situation. Not only was there increased fighting between the Taliban elements and the Pakistan military But there was also a clearer threat by the Taliban elements to bring the fight through terrorism into the urban areas of Pakistan where not only the military was a target anymore but rather the Pakistan society, if you will as well as the United Nations and humanitarian organizations. A bomb devastated a central hotel in Peshawar Pakistan just last week - a hotel I was scheduled to stay in the very next night. It was principally known as the place where the international staff of the United Nations stayed. The targeting of that hotel was a clear signal to the humanitarian community and to the United Nations that the Taliban consider any efforts to provide assistance to the displaced people, to the people of this area in conflict with their own goals. And again similar to what we saw in Baghdad in 2003 when the United Nations was targeted -the UN has become a target for terrorism. That won't go away.
CORBEN: The real challenge over the next few months will be the turn of the weather and how much time will be taken up in the fighting and whether that is concluded before the winter comes. That would be a serious situation?
RISLEY: Exactly. I think that's fairly unique about the present humanitarian crisis in Pakistan - is also that much of it is very predictable. When the Pakistani military begins an offensive in a particular region we can tell with some accuracy the number of people who will be displaced in a particular valley, the communities the military fighting will take place in. And we know where these people will come down to and where they will settle and where we have to begin providing them with food and other necessities. As you move into the winter months it becomes much more dangerous. First, there will be rain and simple the cold weather will make it very difficult for these people to either stay where they are or to begin the often difficult journey back to their homes. And in the meantime they are going to lose access to their livestock, to whatever sort of business they might have had in Swat, in Waziristan, and the places they had hoped to return to.
CORBEN: But Risley says there is a common theme among many of the refugees' comments and those who had fled their homes - for the military operation to succeed in driving out the Taliban from their region.
RISLEY: We know that the government shares with us these concerns and they want to see these people be able to return home. But at the same time they have to make sure that the military has finished their operations, they have to make sure that any mines or IEU - explosive ordnances aren't left remaining on the roads or in the fields or in the villages where these people will return to - and perhaps mostly importantly - it's almost a psychological issue - many of these families report they do not want to return home and then months later have the Taliban return and have fighting again resume. They really would prefer to see the job finished - they would like to know that they can live in conditions of peace and security when they are able to return.
