Targeting of relief agencies staff adds to IDPs miseries

[LahoreEstate]

Monday, June 15, 2009

By Qaiser Khan Afridi

PESHAWAR: The militants’ strategy to target the NGOs and UN agencies working for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) has added to the miseries of the already distressed and displaced from their native areas.

The insurgents — having no concern for the woes of the masses — on the one hand displaced thousands of people while on the other they are bent upon scaring away those providing assistance to the war-affected people of Malakand division.

Though the militants are responsible for the huge displacement of the people of Malakand division, the operation at the eleventh hour also left people with no option but to flee the region.The government too failed to evolve a post-operation strategy to cope with the huge influx of people.

The June 9 blast at the lone five-star hotel in Peshawar left 17 people dead and many wounded. Most of the foreigners caught in the hotel explosion were the ones working in the UN agencies and other organizations providing relief to the affectees of military operation in Malakand division.

At the time of the blast, officials of the WFP, UNHCR and UNFPA, who had arrived in Peshawar, were present in the hotel to take stock of the IDPs situation.One of the two UN staff members killed was Perseveranda So, a Unicef education specialist from the Philippines. The other was Alexander Vorkapic, a Serbian information technology specialist for the UNHCR. The three injured UN staff members included a Briton national of the WFP.

The UN aid agencies had already warned that their efforts to help IDPs in Malakand division were in trouble due to fund shortfall. The shortfall coupled with attack on the PC has raised fears that the recent military gains against the Taliban in Swat could be undermined by a failure to help more than two million refuges from the area.

After the attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel, the United Nations has shifted most of its international staff from Peshawar.The blast in Peshawar’s most secured area had not only exposed the security lapses but also deprived the city of the lone five-star hotel where functions and high-level gatherings would take place.

Due to the inefficiency of the government and security agencies, Peshawar, once known as the city of flowers, has become a no-go area for the foreigners and for many Pakistanis as the locals, too, are avoiding visiting public places for fear of terrorism.


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