PAKISTAN: Pakistan says its Afghan refugee camps are a breeding ground for a resurgent Taliban and they should be closed

Record ID: 1548246

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Pakistan says its Afghan refugee camps are a breeding ground for a resurgent Taliban and they should be closed
  • Date: 11th February 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Pashto) WATAN JAN, AFGHAN REFUGEE, SAYING: "Unless Bush leaves Afghanistan, the land of our ancestors is a wilderness for us. Now (Pakistani President) Musharraf is our king; we now accept Musharraf as our king."
  • Embargoed: 26th February 2007 18:29
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0FOE7344FPB5LUJQEWSMFSHQ
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Pakistan says its Afghan refugee camps are a hotbed of support for a resurgent Taliban and they should be closed-- but it seems no one in the Pir Alizai camp wants to go home.
    A sprawling settlement of about 150,000 refugees crammed into mud houses about 50 km (30 miles) from the Afghan border, Pir Alizai was set up soon after Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Nearly 30 years later Afghanistan is still at war, but Pakistan is now determined to close the camp, and other similar settlements, saying they have become sanctuaries for Taliban battling the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops across the border.
    But residents of Pir Alizai denied Taliban militants were hiding in the camp, although some people appeared sympathetic towards the Islamists battling to expel U.S. and NATO troops and defeat the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
    "There are no militant Taliban in this camp. Of course, since we are teaching religion in the madrasa here, there are Taliban (students) of the other type, but there are no militant Taliban here," Maulana Inayatullah, a teacher at a madrasa (religious school) inside the camp told Reuters Television.
    Dozens of small boys milled around chanting religious verses, under the watchful eyes of bearded teachers.
    Most refugees said they could not go back to Afghanistan because there was no peace there. Others said they would be even willing to go to Pakistani jails rather than go back to their country.
    Violence surged in Afghanistan last year to its most intense since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
    "Unless Bush leaves Afghanistan, the land of our ancestors is a wilderness for us. Now (Pakistani President) Musharraf is our king; we now accept Musharraf as our king," said Watan Jan who came to Pakistan 26 years ago when he was barely six years old. But Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will have none of it.
    He told a news conference in the city of Rawalpindi recently that the camps, particularly those in Baluchistan province, like Pir Alizai, were Taliban safe havens which needed to be closed.
    "Now we are crying since years: 'Take them (Afghan refugees) away; we don't want them here.' Is anyone helping us? No, sir nobody is helping us. So what do we do? Should we force them and throw them out? Should we put a barbed wire fence around them and convert it into some kind of a controlled place where we can control exit and entry at two or three points only," Musharraf said.
    NATO and Pakistan agreed this week that three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan posed a security threat and needed to be repatriated.
    Afghanistan has struggled to cope with the return of more than 4.6 million refugees since the Taliban were overthrown. Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.N. refugee agency agree repatriation of the remainder will be voluntary and gradual because Afghanistan would be overwhelmed if Pakistan started forcing back large numbers, aid officials say.
    Four camps in Pakistan are due to be closed soon but there are numerous others -- small and large -- scattered across border provinces.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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