May 18th-UPDATED World News: PAKISTAN: Prelude to a long fight

Blogger's Note: I plan to continue to update this blogspot with very select items including humanitarian groups which I will find through careful research. I will not have time for my frequent commentary at this time. (find these World News UPDATES for May 18th under the following article which I'm leaving here intact so as not to disturb this as a live link)
Hameeda, flanked by her daughters Rozeena and Kulsoom, at a camp set up for displaced persons in G-7 Sector.—Dawn

Prelude to a long fight

excerpt from article: "...their patience begins where ours ends."

here

By Nosheen Abbas, Saturday, 16 May, 2009

There is a melee and a lot of shouting. Every now and then I see many little girls and boys being shoved out of the crowd. They struggle to hold on some packets as stumble out, indicating it is some kind of distribution point. Once stable on their feet, most scatter off but a few are seen trying to hide the small packets of biscuits and milk that they got under their clothes — a smart move to try a second helping.

Welcome to the internally displaced persons camp that has sprouted in Sector G-7 of Islamabad.

The camp has been set up on a plot that was formerly a dumping site. In fact, these IDPs are living on top of a dumpster with a gutter running over the camp. There must have been about 40 tents, each has a set of horrific story of pain and loss — the kind of loss that some would find unimaginable.

Follow up:

As I moved through the terrain of the camp I tried to speak to children, especially orphans. I was introduced to two girls from Swat – Rozeena,10, and Kulsoom, 13 — sitting on either side of their mother in a tent that accommodates nine members of two families, perhaps, complete strangers to each other, sleeping in one tent on a jute mat. Perched on their haunches still smiling and greeting me with warmth, a little stranger came and sat beside me and began fanning us so that everyone got some air as the sun beat down on us.

Rozeena began her families’ painful story: Her father was killed seven days ago when he was out to get vegetables. Unluckily he got caught in the cross fire between the Taliban and military personnel. With the growing threat of Talibanisation like many families, she moved to Islamabad with her widowed mother and two siblings, not getting enough time to even mourn their fathers’ death. They face a crisis within a crisis figuring how to survive from one day to the next. ‘We wake up every morning; we can’t even wash our faces; there is no water, but I set off trying to find something to eat for breakfast,’ says Rozeena.

Kulsoom, looking ill, intercepted: ‘I have a breathing problem and we don’t even have a proper latrines here’. They live in a wretchedly unhygienic area. No access to clean drinking water, they wear soiled, not old clothes. There’s dust in the air and the heat is unrelenting. Used to the clear and cool air of Swat, they not only are having to adapt to the new weather, but a host of illnesses borne out of their filthy surrounding areas. Bugs of all types including flies are roaming in a filth-infested area right in the midst of the camp. Within ten minutes of meeting them I already have two huge mosquito bites. ‘You cannot imagine how many mosquitoes are in the tent at night,’ she tells me with eyes wide open, as I scratch my own arm. ‘The children are developing strange skin problems. It’s because of this gutter that’s running along the camp,’ tells an NGO volunteer. The camp has already seen a delivery, an asthmatic patient, a man who suffered of heart attack, a child who has recently been diagnosed with blood cancer and a woman who suffered post-natal bleeding after she gave birth to her child in the camp without a doctor.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s sister MNA Faryal Talpur has donated these tents to the IDPs, but they are substandard and hardly worth living in. It’s too difficult to justify why our own states fat cats can’t provide decent living areas for victims of this man-made disaster — a catastrophe the outcome and consequences of which were predicted at least a year before the threat reached our doorsteps.

‘Our schools were blown away after we returned to our home, then, because of the Mujahideen we had to leave our home too, now we are here in Islamabad. We want to be able to study and live like humans,’ Rozeena says. Her mother Hameeda says ‘I just want to educate my girls. They are so bright and I am also at the risk of losing my older daughter if she doesn’t get medicine on time,’ pleads their mother.

Having lost everything they spoke about their house with nostalgia. ‘It was a mud house; it was on rent but clean and we had our own rooms,’ said Rozeena.

Their lives have shattered, they sit in a camp for those who have suffered at the hands of the Taliban. They are at a loss of words for a war they cannot possibly understand. ‘I don’t know why they are fighting. They say it is for Islam. But I still don’t understand it,’ says Rozeena.

Many families’ life like Rozeena’s have been vitiated by militants – listening to their stories gives a peak into the lives of millions of people who have become victims of the man-made catastrophe.

But despite their situation Rozeena smiles widely and her eyes light up as she tells me what she wants to become: ‘I want to be a doctor’. Kulsoom is also smiling despite her breathing problems, and in a light voice says that she wants to become a teacher. Their strength is almost panglossian. For little girls to lose their father, their home and their lives in a city where they grew up is a trauma too large to fathom. And to see them smile and yet still say that they have hope in the future is courage that’s rarely seen. It seems that their patience begins where ours ends. These girls who have displayed incredible tolerance for a situation created by our own state’s negligence would make anyone realize that it is spirit like theirs that needs only a nudge.

Please contribute to changing the lives of millions of people who have been affected the worst in this crisis, by contributing to the closest and most reliable charity near you.

nosheenabbas@gmail.com
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UPDATES Monday May 18, 2009
Humanitarian Concerns

Amnesty International seeks safe passage for migrants
Monday, May 18, 2009 Bureau report PESHAWAR:

The Amnesty International has demanded of both the military and militants to immediately allow tens of thousands of civilians caught in the middle of ferocious fighting in Malakand Division leave for safer places.Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi in a press release said more than half a million Pakistanis have fled the conflict zone in the last three weeks, bringing the total number of civilians displaced in the last year to 1.3 million.“But approximately 700,000 people remain trapped in Swat valley according to a local parliamentarian,” he said. “The thousands of people in Malakand, who have not been able to flee, now face a major humanitarian crisis,” he said.Sam Zarifi added that the militants had shown disregard for the safety and well being of the stranded people. “But now the army seems to be pursuing a scorched earth policy. The Pakistani military has imposed a shoot-on-sight policy for anyone violating an indefinite curfew established in Malakand. The curfew was announced from local mosques and through loudspeakers mounted on pick-up trucks,” he said.

International Committee of the Red Cross - Works with the Local Red Crescent
here Humanitarian concerns and PLEA FOR MEDICAL HELP TO BE ALLOWED TO REACH VICTIMS

Other various "Hot Spot" updates mostly - but not all - on recent Pakistan conflict- includes below Sudan War Criminal turning himself into the International Criminal Court, parallel humanitarian & war crime concerns for Sri Lanka military

BBC World Service interviews with humanitarian groups (one has been May 18)have raised questions clear success while civilians trapped - in cases of War Crimes - there are parallel concerns ultimately for Sri Lanka, Pakistan (which possibly may ultimately implicate the US as well as Pakistan leadership?) and other places.

The News dot com PK
here

See listing for today at Dawn "Incorporate Fata...?" right column Op Ed for May 18

Ahram dot org weekly
here

Abc/Au (following four)
here

here

here

here

wtop dot com
here

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MORE World, Palestine-Israel, Iran & Other US News:

Time & Other on Obama with Israel, Iran negotiations, etc.
here

See also Yahoo dot com home page

From Postive Universe dot com Serves writers/activists/readers in 100 nations
find the following at here

Washington Post: Supreme Court Rules Former Detainee Lawsuit Cannot Proceed 2009-05-18 The Supreme Court ruled today that former attorney general John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller may not be sued by Arab Muslims who were seized in this country after the 2001 terrorist attacks and allege harsh treatment because of their religion and ethnicity.

Los Angeles Times: Top Bush officials not liable for Muslims' post-Sept. 11 arrests 2009-05-18 In today's 5-4 decision, the (US Supreme Court) said former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller cannot be held liable for singling out the Muslim men for mistreatment because of their race and religion.

Globe and Mail: After 70000 dead, Tigers surrender in war-weary Sri Lanka 2009-05-18
The 26-year civil war that has fractured Sri Lanka has come to a horrific close, with the surviving Tamil Tiger rebel leaders declaring an end to their struggle to build a breakaway military state, their all-controlling leader reported dead, and their dwindling rump of fighters surrounded by the burnt corpses of thousands of civilians.

Salon: The 13 people who made torture possible 2009-05-18 The Bush administration's Torture 13. They authorized it, they decided how to implement it, and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it.

From Postive Universe dot com Serves writers/activists/readers in 100 nations
find the items above at here

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Watch for more on Geneva Accords, US Constitution, Judiciary and the items above at:
here
scroll down for news or simply bookmark for news only:
here

For Ongoing Human Rights Concerns including Strong Reservations about the new US Military Commissions post changes see Human Rights Watch HRW dot org
here

Sometimes look at The Nation online magazine, Glenn Greenwald Salon dot com,
Counterpunch dot org and ZMagazine - all these are US publications

For Prisoner Detainee News - Andy Worthington dot co dot uk Cage Prisoners cot com
more to be listed soon...