Afghanistan: Refugees in their own land

Many are people accused of being Taleban sympathisers in 2001, who then fled their homes and still do not feel safe to return.

But growing numbers of displaced people are also fleeing nature - the drought that has afflicted large parts of Afghanistan for several years.

Persecuted

One of the largest camps for the displaced is Zhare Dasht in southern Kandahar province.

It is a sprawling settlement of mud brick houses and tents.

Hundreds of men and boys crowd round with wheelbarrows and carts when lorries carrying sacks of flour and other supplies arrive.

Most of those here are from Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns.

These people used to live in the north but the fall of the Taleban in 2001 left them exposed.

Because most of the Taleban were also Pashtun, they were accused of being supporters of the movement and were persecuted by northern militia commanders like Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Camp resident Moosa Khan said he and his family had no choice but to flee south.

"It's been almost three years since we left our province of Faryab because of Commander Dostum," he says.

"They were going to try to kill all our people. We were scared so that's why we left. But still we have to stay here."

Another camp resident, Asmatullah, says he was tortured after being accused of being a Taleban fighter.

He shows a large scar on his leg where he says hot bricks were pressed on to his skin.

Asmatullah says will only go back home if General Dostum is removed.

"When there is peace and security we will go back home. But we know some of Dostum's commanders are still there. They won't let us go back and they have taken all our homes and property."

Marco Rotelli, from the Italian aid agency, Inter SOS, which oversees the camp for the UN refugee agency, admits there are "political problems" but says the continuing drought is also keeping people here.

"If we go deep in the situation we will discover that the main problem is the lack of resources. So this drought is affecting everyone in Afghanistan," Mr Rotelli says.

In the Zhare Dasht camp office, manager Haji Mohammed Nassim says there are also growing resource issues here.

"There are two main problems, one with the amount of food rations they are getting, and also with the water. The wells dug by the foreign agencies are getting very low," he says.

The camp certainly has a bleak aspect - harsh barren mountains on one side and on the other, stretching to the horizon, empty desert.

There are more than 50,000 people living here and because of the drought the numbers are growing.

The increase is largely due to an influx of Kuchi nomads who usually move around the region with herds of goats and sheep.

But so severe is the drought that many have had to abandon their traditional existence.

Elders like Haji Mir Ahmed Khan say they have little hope of living as nomads again.

"We want to have our life back but we have lost all our animals and there is still no water for the grass to grow so we have to stay here," he says.

With no significant rainfall this year, Mr Rotelli says the camp has to plan to accommodate even more Kuchis.

"People will not leave by the end of the year. We're starting now some discussion with donors about medium- and long-term solutions," he says.

Compared to the millions of Afghan refugees who fled over the past decades of war, these internal refugees receive far less attention and it is hard to get the necessary funds to help them.

With no sign of the drought ending the problem is likely to get worse.

http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=83855