Swat valley

As the Pakistan government strives to repatriate displaced people who fled the severe fighting in Swat Valley, Oxfam’s Jen Corlew speaks to displaced women who desperately wish to return home but fear for their families’ safety.  
“We hear that we should return to Swat. But there are no options for us except to go and sit on our destroyed house,” said Zemit, 52, after she learned that her family home was destroyed by bombing last week.

Source: Flickr

Focus group findings show displaced women fear return to Upper Swat district

Three months after the clashes in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) began, aid agency Oxfam International emphasized the right of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) to return voluntarily and the need to establish sustainable security in their home villages.

The Pakistani military is reopening roads into the conflict-hit Swat valley and neighbouring regions.

The move is intended to encourage people displaced by earlier fighting against the Taliban to return home.

About two million have already returned to the area, but damage to the region's infrastructure means returnees will rely on aid for months to come.

The UN has stressed that the return, which will begin with people living in temporary camps, must be voluntary.

Farkhanda Wazir reports on how single and widowed women displaced by fighting in northern Pakistan are having a particularly difficult time getting the help they need.

As many as 40 pregnant women a day fleeing fighting in northern Pakistan are facing life-threatening complications without proper medical assistance. (Oxfam has launched an emergency response to provide support to around 360,000 displaced people in Pakistan).

Oxfam is helping people displaced by fighting in Pakistan live with as much comfort and dignity as possible. But everyone is waiting for just one thing - the chance to go home.  Shumon Alam reports.
I am surprised and at the same time pleased when a guard stops me for my identification. I pass through a gate into a walled compound where long lines of white tents are set up on both sides of a pebbled path. In one corner children compete for their turn on the slides. To my left there are more rows of tents along a different path.

Farkhanda Wazir reports on the difference Oxfam’s emergency response is making in Yar Hussain camp.
“Water is the main problem in this camp. The water we get is dirty and warm,” Zeenat Begum from Swat tells me.”It is very hot in the tents,” she continues. “We don’t get enough food for our families. For everything we have to stand in line for hours.”  When I ask her what she and her family most need, she answers without hesitation: “we need water coolers to store water and keep it cool.”

In the Pakistani press the Swat assault is painted as a popular triumph. But it has come at a horrific cost, reports guest blogger Kamila Shamsie.
Almost every day the news out of Pakistan offers evidence of growing support for military action against the Taliban in Swat, and growing antipathy ­towards the Taliban itself. The rightwing media, which had urged the government to make peace deals, is falling over itself in praise of military advances.