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After Decades, Pakistan Forces Thousands of Afghans to Leave •
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US Lacks Plan to Operate in Pakistani Tribal Areas, GAO Says
By Dan Eggen
The Washington Post
Friday 18 April 2008
The Bush administration has no comprehensive plan for dealing with the threat
posed by Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
is believed to be hiding, according to a new report released yesterday from
the research arm of Congress.
The Government Accountability Office also said "the United States has
not met its national security goals to destroy terrorist threats and close the
safe haven" provided by the tribal areas, despite having spent more than
$10 billion for Pakistani military operations in the mountainous border region."
GAO staff members interviewed experts inside and outside the government, and
"we found broad agreement ... that al-Qaida had regenerated its ability
to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven"
in the unpoliced region, the report says.
U.S. intelligence officials have previously portrayed the proliferation of
fighters in the Pakistani tribal areas as a central threat to U.S. security
and have expressed frustration at the lack of progress there by Pakistan forces.
But the report also supports an argument by congressional Democrats that the
war in Iraq and administration bungling have helped create new danger in an
area largely out of the control of any sovereign state. After the U.S. invasion
of Afghanistan, Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, are believed
to have fled across the border to Pakistan.
"The Bush administration's limitless commitment of our limited resources
to the war in Iraq has compromised our focus," Senate Majority Leader Harry
M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), chairman
of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which commissioned the study, called the GAO
findings "appalling" and said a "lack of foresight is harming
U.S. national security."
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White
House, said the administration "is dealing with the terrorist threat in
Pakistan through a variety of means," including "health, education,
economic development, political reform" and military resources. "This
is going to be a long battle against a determined enemy," Johndroe said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence agreed that the United
States had not met its national security goals in the tribal areas, while the
Defense Department said it agrees with the need to develop a comprehensive plan.
The State Department, however, said the GAO report "does not acknowledge
that the United States had an overall plan for Pakistan" and that U.S.
government efforts have been comprehensive.
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After Decades, Pakistan Forces Thousands of Afghans to Leave
By Candace Rondeaux
The Washington Post
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Correction to this article: This article on Afghan refugees in Pakistan incorrectly described
the location of Jalozai refugee camp. It is southeast of Peshawar, not southwest.
Officials cite extremism, economics as
reasons for closure of camp in northwest.
Jalozai, Pakistan - About the only thing Aziz ur-Rehman remembers about his
life in Afghanistan is his month-long walk through the mountains to Pakistan
after the 1979 Soviet invasion.
He was 5 years old then - too young to remember much about the events that
drove his family out of Afghanistan. Most of his memories were born here among
the sprawling mass of mud-brick homes, tin-roofed shops and rutted dirt roads
that make up the oldest Afghan refugee settlement in Pakistan. And when the
Pakistani government closes the camp this week, most of his memories will be
buried here.
Three decades after thousands of Afghan refugees fled to this U.N.-backed settlement
in northwestern Pakistan, the Pakistani government has begun to demolish homes
and other buildings here. Citing concerns about extremist influences in Jalozai
and the economic burden of hosting 80,000 refugees, officials set a Tuesday
deadline for closing the camp, located about 20 miles southwest of the city
of Peshawar.
Pakistan had pressed for an earlier closure but was persuaded to wait until
after the winter by U.N. officials, the Afghan government and tribal elders.
Still, years after fleeing Afghanistan, many refugees like ur-Rehman are far
from eager to return to a war-torn country they have never really known. "Life
is better here in Pakistan. There is peace here, and I have my own life,"
ur-Rehman said.
Jalozai is one of more than 80 refugee encampments remaining in the country
that are slated to close by the end of next year. So far, about 3,800 residents
have left Jalozai for Afghanistan, according to U.N. officials.
More than 2 million registered Afghan refugees are settled in camps that stretch
across parts of Pakistan's northwestern frontier and tribal areas. Although
an estimated 3 million Afghans have returned home since 2002, the continued
presence of millions of others in places such as Jalozai has become a thorny
issue for Pakistan since the start of U.S.-led counterterrorism operations in
the region.
A major U.S. ally, Pakistan has struggled for years to quell the rising influence
of Taliban fighters inside Afghan refugee settlements.
A Western diplomat in Pakistan familiar with the camps said that Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, a former U.S. ally with ties to the Taliban, has long held sway over
extremists in the camp at Jalozai and in Shamshatoo, another Afghan settlement
near Peshawar, making the camps a refuge for Taliban fighters. "They provide
the perfect location for disappearing and recruiting, which is why we have been
pushing for closure of these camps. You don't want to create a humanitarian
crisis, but the security there is an issue," the diplomat said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
More village than camp, Jalozai has a thriving economy built primarily on the
transportation of goods and services across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.
Homes are modest but have provided shelter for at least two generations of largely
ethnic Pashtuns with Afghan roots. With fighting still underway in Afghanistan,
many in the camp are fearful of what they will find on the other side of the
border.
"I don't want to go back. In Afghanistan, the situation is clear,"
ur-Rehman said. "Every day there are bombings there, or suicide attacks.
You never know where the attack is coming from."
Many Jalozai refugees have roots in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan, where
the fighting has been especially heavy in recent years. More than half, however,
were born in Pakistan. Three-quarters of the camp population is younger than
28, according to Pakistan's commission on Afghan refugees. Few have firsthand
knowledge of life in Afghanistan.
Zalmay Rasul, Afghanistan's national security adviser, said in an interview
in Kabul last week that the government there is working to ensure a smooth return
of Afghan refugees. Repatriation efforts have been complicated, however, because
many Afghans are returning to conflict areas. "The return of refugees has
already happened, and we are ready to accept those refugees who are coming,"
Rasul said. "We need to have at least a humanitarian infrastructure in
place, however, to receive them."
According to U.N. and Pakistani government officials, the number of Afghan
refugees who have returned to their country since the start of U.S. military
operations in Afghanistan in late 2001 has slowed, while international aid for
refugees has dropped precipitously in the wake of the fighting. About 1.6 million
refugees left the camps for Afghanistan in 2002 compared with 133,000 in 2006,
according to U.N. data.
Meanwhile, aid donated by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
has decreased from $28.9 million in 2001 to $9.3 million in 2007, a drop of
68 percent, a Pakistani government official said. "This is a very troubling
aspect for us - that the world and the donors are losing interest in the refugee
problem. There is donor fatigue in the international community, yet they are
asking us to do more and more," said Abdul Rauf Khan, the outgoing chief
commissioner for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
As Pakistan rushes to close the settlements, refugees are left with scant economic
resources, according to Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. commissioner's
office in Pakistan. "This is a forgotten humanitarian crisis, yet the refugees
are a major player in stabilizing the region," Tan said. "If you push
them out in one go, then you destabilize the region. If you get them to go gradually,
then there can be peace and stability."
Refugees who agree to return to Afghanistan receive about $100 each from the
U.N. refugee agency to aid in the journey home. But with food, energy and lodging
prices on the rise on both sides of the border, the money barely pays for transportation,
several refugees at the camp said.
Abdullah, a bookseller at Jalozai, was an infant when his family moved to the
settlement in the late 1980s. "Our whole extended family has been living
here, and this camp is now like our ancestral village. We have seen the ups
and downs of life here, with marriages and deaths in the family," said
Abdullah, who like many ethnic Pashtuns uses only one name.
His family has been looking for a new home in Peshawar or its suburbs but has
not found anything affordable. Government workers have already bulldozed the
bookstore that he, his wife and four children relied on for income.
"My shop is demolished, but my home is still there," Abdullah said.
"I will be the last person to leave this place."
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Special correspondent Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.
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