Outside a school in Mardan, Pakistan some days ago. (Photo: Manzoor Hussain/Mercy Corps) - see contrast with photo on right found at Swat Valley dot org (an amazing little constantly updating source of news on this crisis & area with plenty of blogs today! Also, you may want to go here for more Pakistani blogging on the crisis here and find more media links below.
"We left everything we had and went on foot to Malakand. There was no transport available. We were walking with thousands of people. It was a difficult journey. There was no food or water, but most importantly we were going through a war
zone..." excerpt from the stories below...
UPDATES on the military efforts and displacement surrounding the SWAT VALLEY
DISCLAIMER: Blogger of One Heart, Connie L. Nash - am admittedly uneducated in the region and nation represented here - so the newspapers and other sources need to be compared with others from various regions, cities, nations and persuasions for some sense of accuracy, corroboration and helpful information.
Direct news (recognize that this news source doesn't represent this blogger's viewpoint and while helpful may well be biased or understandably influenced by the prevalent backgrounds, religions and ethnicity of the various regions/history) into the Swat Valley: Swat Valley dot org LINK HERE
Find quite a lot here as well: Pakistan English Newspaper: Dawn dot com CLICK HERE
May 15-17 and sources ongoing - Some of these items may help replace some of the URLs which now, apparently, don't link onto the original news items posted:
World News including items on SWAT Valley - Pakistan below..
Civilians asked to leave the area (many evidently still caught inside the area being bombed by Pak military)
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here>
here
here
here
UPDATES May 13, 2009 Some news items present a rather Western view of things - albiet some items may be important to watch - also sounds like again folks running the camps are doing a magnificent work!
(some of these appear to link to the wrong article but left them here in case some related items can still be found.
here
here
UPDATE May 12, 2009
So far, it does look as if this current Pakistan government is trying to provide lulls enough that most of the civilians in the area of the recent bombing are hopefully able to depart without death or injury. (Yet just as I'm posting this, I see reports from US news allegedly according to Pakistani officials that an additional 200,000 civilians were or are still believed to be trapped in Mingora, the main provincial town of Swat, unable to leave because of the fighting.(CBS, May 12)
Also - with the assignment of a leading general - there seems to be thoughtful coordination for activities geared towards emergency assistance for people displaced from Swat and forced to end up in one of the 17 camps for IDPs or Internally Displaced People, established in the northwest frontier province (NWFP). “It is about time a focus came on the table. This is extremely good news” said a U.N. official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity. “I believe General Nadeem Ahmed will provide a great deal of focus to this effort” he added.
U.N. agencies such as the U.N. High Commission For Refugees and the U.N. World Food Program have also decided to step up their efforts to provide emergency relief to the refugees. “It is nothing short of a miracle that I and my family have lived through our journey” said Ajmal Khan, one of the refugees who arrived in Islamabad on Monday. “For two days and nights, we walked through rugged terrain in this summer heat before we were able to board a truck full of others” leaving Swat, he told CBS News in an interview.
For this, the Pakistan officials - in this place with no easy answers - may well be avoiding even more horrific results. Perhaps the process of less harmful alternatives to brutal and careless warring may yet be avoided in future such conflicts. Perhaps these alternatives will be demonstrated by Pakistan's leaders for the rest of the world to see. Our goodwill and prayers for our allies must continue.
However - there are so many displaced people sick at heart for all they have been through - all they have left. How agonizing for those who have experienced trauma enough to last a lifetime and their homelives in beautiful Swat lost forever.
Also, of course many of the military and government are sick as well and between a terrific rock and a hard and dreadful place. They surely need or hourly prayers right now.
Thanks be for the immense, faithful and well-informed work of the Government's efforts of relief and for the ICRC.the UN and so many volunteers!
Let's not forget the fallen - the courageous military doing what they believe they must do and their worried family back home.
CONSIDER: Along with the savage acts of the so-called "enemy" - let's not forget the fallen Taliban - who were once most likely either playful or desperate children -however guilty they became. Perhaps the angry, misled or coerced child soldier grown into a hardened man - his innocence and now his future taken from him. The abandoned ones with unhealed vengeance and certain rather limited religious precepts and values hard for so many others to understand. How can the young be allowed and helped to experience more of the best kind of education and exposure to the beliefs and values of others no matter how poor? How many of these soldiers of terrorism were the product of ruthless policies and history way before their time? What might we who could have some influence on the sociology and mindset of such ones do for the future healing of our people and lands?
Here below are the touching current stories of three internally displaced people who were forced to leave everything behind...
FARHAN, 23, STUDENT, NOW IN ISLAMABAD
We left Mingora three days ago. The situation had become very dangerous. We were caught up in the brutalities between the Pakistani army and the Taleban.
We were trapped inside our homes for a week, while there was constant shelling. A mortar demolished a house just a few yards from our home.
There was no water, no power, everything was destroyed.
To add to that, the Taleban threatened to kill young people if they didn't join them in their so-called 'jihad'. There have been personal threats to our family too, as my father is an outspoken critic of the Taleban.
We had to leave. We left everything we had and went on foot to Malakand. There was no transport available. We were walking with thousands of people.
It was a difficult journey. There was no food or water, but most importantly we were going through a war zone and we were scared that we'd encounter Taleban militants.
Once in Malakand we hired a truck and drove to Islamabad. Were are relatively safe here but I don't know for how long.
We left everything and now we are with empty hands trying to start our lives again.
We are trying to leave the country. Swat is empty now and we don't want to go back ever.
MAJID, 24, STUDENT, NOW IN PESHAWAR
We fled Mingora last Friday, together with much of the population of the city. Our life had become very difficult: we were trapped in curfews, electricity was cut, there was no water or food.
In the early hours on Friday morning we were under attack from gunship helicopters. Later the army told us we had to leave Mingora.
We got up, put clothes on and rushed out of the door. We didn't have time to pack anything. We didn't even prepare food for the journey. We just shut the door and left.
People were running, everyone was so scared. We didn't know what was going to happen next.
We decided to go to Peshawar. The first part of our journey was on foot, until we reached Malakand. The road was packed with people, thousands of them. My grandfather is old, he couldn't walk for long and needed regular breaks. And it was a hot day.
Then we hired a truck and drove to Peshawar. Many people stayed behind, as not everyone could afford to hire a vehicle.
I am staying at a university hostel with friends. My family is at some relatives' house. Many joined refugee camps, but those must be full, because I see lots of people lying on the roads, people for whom there's no accommodation or help.
The nearby park is full of people from Swat. There are Swat people all over the city, everyone with their own story.
Everyone is deeply disturbed by this experience. We left everything and our life here is uncertain.
I am thinking of leaving the country to study abroad. My dad says that he'll try to set up his own business and open a shop in Peshawar.
I feel depressed. Swat has been brought back to the Stone Age. Each and every individual has left. There's no life there any more. I am not hopeful that things will get better any time soon - they can't clear this mess up in a hundred years.
GHALIB GUL, TEACHER, NOW AT A CAMP IN SWABI
From the BBC's Urdu service
I am from the Damghar area in Buner. There was no school in our area so I decided to start a school. At first we had only 28 children but with time the number rose to 90.
That was four years ago. One day, the Taleban arrived in my village. They threatened to kill me if I didn't close it down. I informed the other villagers that it was not possible for me to continue to run the school. That's how it ended.
I feel very sorry, because the kids were so bright.
A day after the school was closed, the army started the operation against the Taleban. My son Muaz did not have any food for three days and kept on asking why these planes were bombing us. I told him that they were killing the Taleban.
The Taleban is to blame for this situation more than the government. It is true that the government forced us to leave the area, but at the same time it is providing relief for us. When we suffer from the Taleban, they never help us.
I would like to be able to go back and restart my school but I don't have any hope that the army operation will end any time soon.
BBC News
here
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