Swat families return to uncertainty

Pakistan says region free of Taliban, but far fewer than expected head home as country criticized for sending people into unsafe area

Fear mixed with joy as the first of two million internal refugees, created by Pakistan's fight against Islamic extremists, returned Monday to the Swat Valley.

Buses, trucks, vans and cars were loaded to the bursting point with possessions and people. Beds and sacks of flour, along with children and burka-clad women, perched precariously on the back of vehicles. However, just 647 families – around 4,500 individuals – returned on the first day of a mammoth program to reverse one of the biggest sudden movements of humanity in recent times. The people of Swat fled after the launch of a Western-backed military offensive 11 weeks ago against Taliban militants who had taken over the area.

Many of those returning to Swat and the surrounding area, in the northwest of the country, said that they feared that the Taliban still lurked, while some aid agencies warned that the Pakistani authorities were pushing people back before it was safe. The numbers going back Monday were far below expectations, despite the grim conditions in which they are having to live, in vast, sun-baked tented cities or crammed into the homes of relatives and friends.

“They [the army] have cleared the roads but the Taliban are in the mountains,” said Mohammad Shakirullah, a 37-year-old businessman, waiting to board a government-provided bus at the huge Jalozai refugee camp in Nowshera, where he spent the last two months. “I will go, of course, as it is my home, but I'm pretty sure that I will have to come out again.”

At Jalozai, many said that they hadn't signed up to return out of concern for their security or because they had yet to receive the 25,000 rupees ($300) in official compensation due to each family. Some said that they felt compelled to go as the government was providing free transport and they couldn't afford to go on their own.

Of the 647 families that went back to the cool temperatures of Swat Monday, 185 of them went in buses provided by the government, while the rest went on their own transport. The authorities' original plan envisaged more than 3,000 families would go back Monday.

The government has announced that Swat has been cleared of the Taliban, though, simultaneously, the army continues to report skirmishes and detentions. It was announced Monday that four “terrorists” had been arrested in the previous 24 hours in Swat, and several caches of arms were seized.

“The Pakistani government is sending people home far too early,” said Kristele Younes, senior advocate for Refugees International, a campaigning group based in Washington, D.C. “Displaced people should be the ones to determine whether it is safe for them to return, and we fear the government is not providing them with clear and accurate information.”

Privately, officials at the United Nations are also uneasy about the return to Swat. The pace of the return is expected to escalate sharply later this week, especially when the authorities open the way to Mingora, Swat's main city.

More than 260,000 families have been registered as evacuees from Swat. The entire return process will take around five weeks, said Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed, who is in charge of the army's special unit to help the displaced. The majority are expected to go back within the next two weeks.

“When things start, there's always tension and fear. But the response has been good,” Lt.-Gen. Ahmed told reporters. “We need to remember that this is a voluntary return.”

At an army check post at Sherghar village, around a two-hour drive from the destination of Monday's returnees, there was a long row of waiting vehicles, held all day in sweltering temperatures before being permitted through in the late afternoon amid tight security, including military helicopter cover.

“I hope that we can restore Swat to the way it was, when it was known as the Switzerland of Pakistan,” said Fazl Raheem, a 40-year-old who was waiting at Sherghar with 12 accompanying family members. “I had a business in Swat before I was turned into a beggar [by the evacuation]. But I am glad that the army took action.”

The weeks living in squalid conditions on the parched plains of the northwest showed on the faces and in the filthy clothes of the returnees.

“It is better to die there [in Swat] than live in the conditions in the camps. The children just keep getting ill in this heat,” said Fazl Elahi, a 57-year-old teacher who had 18 relatives with him. “At least we'll have back our fields and houses.”