Pakistan - Swat valley

Thousands flee as army pounds Taliban-held areas

Article published on the 2009-05-07 Latest update 2009-05-07 14:55 TU

An internally displaced woman, fleeing military operations in Buner, sits with her children at a UNHCR camp
(Photo: Reuters)

Pakistan's army Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kayani has vowed to win a decisive victory over Taliban forces in North-West Frontier Province. As thousands flee the fighting, aid organisations are preparing to deal with up to 120,000 internally displaced people in refugee camps.

The army "will employ requisite resources to ensure a decisive ascendancy over the militants", Kayani told a meeting of senior officers on Thursday, according to a statement released by the military.

Nine soldiers were killed in fighting in 24 hours, according to officials, including seven in an ambush on the way into Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley. The area has been the scene of fighting since Taliban spread into neighbouring districts from Malakand, where Islamic sharia law had been imposed in a peace deal.

Attack helicopters and war planes pounded suspected Taliban hideouts on Thursday, as thousands of people fled the area. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Thursday that a humanitarian crisis in the area is getting worse.

Local officials say that more than 40,000 have left Mingora in 24 hours and the government says that up to half a million may flee the area.

"We can no longer reach the areas most affected by the fighting on account of the volatile situation," said the ICRC's Benno Kochner, adding that the agency, along with the Pakistani Red Crescent, is preparing to care for 120,000 people.

The military operation faces two problems, which could boost the Taliban's ranks if they are mishandled, warns Friday Times editor Najam Sethi.

"The first is that there will be a lot of civilian casualties," the veteran journalist told RFI,  "because the Taliban are hiding behind civilians in built-up areas and the Pakistani army is not trained in counter-insurgency operations, in which search and destroy operations are carried out by patrols."

"The army is using heavy guns, tanks and artillery and mortar, which means that the army casualties are minimal but the casualties on the other side are maximal, which includes civilian casualites."

The more civilians die, Sethi warns, the greater the backlash.

The second problem is internally displaced people, he adds.

"Now there are hundreds of thousands of people streaming out of these areas and the government of the North-West Frontier Province is hard-pushed to set up refugee camps for them. If the conditions in these refugee camps are not good, then they could become festering grounds for the recruitment by the Taliban."

Sethi belives that the US, which is treating the region as a priority, should stump up the cash for facilities in the camps and warns that the Taliban will keep fighting, even if they are defeated militarily.  

"It's going to take years to clear out these areas," he says.