VZCZCXRO3056
OO RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHIL #1143/01 1461723
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 261723Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2919
INFO RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0354
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4959
RUEHKP/AMCONSUL KARACHI 1705
RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE 7305
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR 6244
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3968
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK NY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0446
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 001143 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM PK EAID PREL PINR PTER
SUBJECT:  UNHCR ON THE PAKISTAN IDP CRISIS 
 
REF:  A) Islamabad 1122 B) Islamabad 1120 C) Islamabad 1007 D) 
Islamabad 996  E) Islamabad 967 F) Islamabad 940 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: UNHCR Islamabad staff said on May 25 that UNHCR is 
not providing transport for returning IDPs nor is it being notified, 
by individual, of their return.  UNHCR believes that IDPs are 
returning only temporarily to harvest their crops and will not 
return permanently until after they receive the GOP's promised 
25,000 rupees per family. IDPs will not be deregistered unless they 
fail to show up for two consecutive (monthly) dry food 
distributions. The National Database and Registration Authority 
(NADRA) will now will enter all IDP registrations into a database to 
eliminate duplicate registrations and will also issue some IDPs a 
special Benazir Income Support smart card that will qualify 
recipients for a variety of benefits.  UNHCR estimates that database 
verification will reduce the IDP count by 20-30 percent.  Official 
IDP camps are well run, have necessary services approaching Sphere 
(international disaster assistance) standards, and will soon 
transition from cooked food to dry food for preparation by the IDPs. 
 HCR staff have heard no reports of visible extremism or 
indoctrination in the camps, but GOP intelligence is quietly picking 
suspects up from the camps.  UNHCR will begin a mass distribution of 
non-food item kits to hosted IDP families on May 26.  HCR staff 
anticipates funding needs beyond those articulated in the May UN 
Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan appeal as IDP planning numbers 
have already been exceeded and further displacement is anticipated 
with additional military operations.  End Summary. 
 
----------- 
IDP Returns 
----------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) In a meeting with Refugee Coordinator and DART team leader 
on May 25, UNHCR confirmed that it has not been facilitating IDP 
returns.  UNHCR staff believe that IDPs are largely returning home 
temporarily in order to harvest crops and that the IDPs themselves 
are in the best position to determine whether it is safe to do so. 
IDPs are free to take their UNHCR-provided tents and non-food items 
kits if they return home.  The NWFP administration is not providing 
UNHCR data on those returning, and thus the absence of returned IDPs 
is only evident, whether within or outside of the camps, when they 
don't show up for food distributions.  IDPs will not be 
deregistered, however, unless they fail to show up for two 
consecutive (monthly) distributions of dry rations. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The UNHCR Representative and staff in Islamabad posited 
that IDPs will not permanently return home until after they have 
received the GOP's promised 25,000 rupees/family, now due to be 
distributed before rather than after return.  Families are also 
supposed to receive compensation for loss of family members killed 
in the conflict.  UNHCR staff said they had no way to assess GOP 
estimates of returnees from outside the camps.  UNHCR officials 
noted that staff had observed IDPs leaving Joalozai camp to return 
to Bajaur.  UNHCR staff told Post reps that the GOP will not pay the 
25,000 rupees to families outside of the Northwest Frontier Province 
and that UNHCR had been prohibited that day from registering IDPs in 
Islamabad.  (Comment:  The GOP has been explicit in informing 
international donors that it will not permit IDPs to concentrate in 
the major cities out of concern over potential Taliban infiltration. 
 We believe this is a reasonable decision.  End comment.) 
 
---------------- 
IDP Registration 
---------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) In the newly developed procedure for registration, the 
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will now issue 
some IDPs a special Benazir Income Support smart card that will 
qualify recipients for a variety benefits.  An IDP will go first to 
NADRA, and if he has lost his ID card, NADRA will verify his 
identity and provide the IDP with a document to permit issuance of a 
duplicate ID card.  The IDP will also be issued a token and a number 
and then will proceed to a registration center to be registered (as 
before) by the Ministry of Social Welfare (working in cooperation 
with UNHCR).  NADRA will then do the data entry of the Social 
Welfare registration forms.  NADRA has committed to complete data 
entry of all existing IDP registrations by the end of May, and the 
database created will permit elimination of duplicate registrations. 
 While the numbers of registered IDPs has been estimated as high as 
 
ISLAMABAD 00001143  002 OF 003 
 
 
2.8 million, UNHCR assumes that this number will decrease by 20-30 
percent after database verification. 
 
¶5. (SBU) UNHCR staff said that the current number of IDP camps is 
actually 23 (22 and the Palai transit center) and that the GOP's 
temporary use of higher numbers recently reflected an inclusion of 
educational buildings being used temporarily to house IDPs.  Of 
these camps, 4-5 are run by ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent, and 
the rest are the province of UNHCR.  In camps where UNHCR is plays a 
role, its level of involvement differs from camp to camp.  In some 
camps, UNHCR provides the NWFP provincial authority with some 
support and supplies the non-food items.  In others (like Jalozai, 
Kacha Ghari 1 and 2, Sheikh Shehzad, Jalala, Sheikh Yassin, and Yar 
Hussain), UNHCR plays the more direct role of camp manager. 
 
--------------- 
Camp Management 
--------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) UNHCR Representative Guenet Guebre-Christos, a UNHCR 
veteran of refugee and refugee-like situations, is, like Post, of 
the opinion that the new IDP camps are, by any comparison, well-run 
given that they were established less than three weeks ago.  They 
are approaching Sphere standards for disaster response. 
Guebre-Christos noted that there is some confusion as to the 
Pakistan government lines of authority in the camps as Lt. General 
Nadeem's newly formed Emergency Response Unit (ERU) has designated 
new government camp managers.  It is still unclear whether these new 
managers are working with the experienced Commissionerate for Afghan 
Refugees (usually the government's entity for camp management) or 
whether they are working directly for the ERU.  It is also unclear, 
according to Guebre-Christos, whether the ERU has the capacity for 
camp administration, but it deserves to be given a chance. 
Guebre-Christos opined that the ERU seemed to be looking more to 
ensure security through its camp appointments than to provide 
humanitarian relief management.  UNHCR has a Pakistani field officer 
consistently present in each camp and also has international staff, 
including a community service officer, a protection officer and a 
gender advisor, who travel between the camps. 
 
¶7. (SBU) As previously noted, there is some concern about water 
contamination in the camps, and an investigation is underway.  There 
has been no outbreak of serious, water-related disease, however. 
UNHCR and implementing partners are aware that further hygiene 
education is required.  Water, latrines, and common shaded areas 
have been provided in all the camps, although more may be needed in 
some, and HCR is providing "greenhouse nets" to provide additional 
shade to the individual tents.  Guebre-Christos noted that dry food 
rations will soon be provided in the camps to permit the transition 
away from cooked food.  Because the IDPs prefer individual family 
food preparation in lieu of communal kitchens, HCR will have to 
provide firewood and bricks in the near term and reforestation 
(probably through cash for work) in the mid-term.  The GOP expects 
WFP to provide dry rations and expects UNHCR to provide firewood 
because the NGO previously providing firewood to IDP camps has run 
out of funding. 
 
--------- 
Extremism 
--------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) According to UNHCR staff, GOP intelligence officials (NFI) 
have been quietly picking up people in the camps.  UNHCR has not 
heard of any extremist preaching or indoctrination, however. 
Guebre-Christos noted that there was an opportunity for the 
government to play a role in providing the camp populations with 
some redirection, if not reeducation, whether through discussion , 
theater,  or music, for example, to compensate for the limited and 
extreme perspectives they are likely to have encountered in their 
home villages. 
 
---------------------- 
Hosted IDP Populations 
---------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) UNHCR staff said that the IDPs outside of the camps are 
still underserved.  While HCR has provided shelter and non-food item 
kits in small defined areas, it has otherwise been stockpiling to 
permit mass distributions in more IDP-populated areas where it would 
 
ISLAMABAD 00001143  003 OF 003 
 
 
be very unwise and disruptive to do a partial distribution.  UNHCR 
has provided 4,000 tents to Habitat for distribution and intends to 
provide 10,000 in total.  (Note: UNHCR staff described good 
cooperation with UN Habitat and cited the organization as possibly 
the best source of information on hosted IDPs.)  With regard to 
non-food item (NFI) kits, UNHCR is targeting a population of 250,000 
families and has distributed thus far to 56,000.  Assistant 
Representative Kilian Kleinschmidt anticipates that with further 
military operations, an additional 150,000 families will require 
assistance.  UNHCR is planning to be the "backbone" of NFI 
distribution as no other humanitarian assistance partner is large 
enough to do so.  With 80,000 kits, procured locally, in the 
pipeline and another 30,000 funded by USAID/OFDA through the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR is planning a 
major distribution beginning May 26.  UNHCR will look to other 
partners and NGOs to supplement the NFI kits with hygiene kits, 
clothing items, etc. 
 
-------------- 
Funding Status 
-------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) UNHCR staff reported that based on previously received 
funding and the initial pledges it has received toward meeting its 
USD 80 million funding gap announced in the appeal, UNHCR Pakistan 
now has an increased spending authority of USD 50 million.  The 
funding gap remains at approximately USD 44 million.  The planning 
figures in the appeal are already below current realities, however, 
and do not account for the possibly up to a million more people who 
might result from military operations in Waziristan, Orakzei and 
elsewhere.  Additional funding needs might be approximately USD 150 
million.  UNHCR estimates the cost of NFI kits at USD 170 without a 
tent.  HCR is currently procuring local quilts instead of blankets 
and is moving toward procurement of all-weather tents that are more 
expensive (USD 270 vice USD 170) but will better serve IDPs through 
summer, monsoons and winter, whether in displacement or upon initial 
return. 
 
¶11. (SBU) UNHCR staff also noted that statistics are beginning to 
show that the more accurate average family size for IDPs is 6.5 
instead of 6.  UNHCR has been warned by the government to be ready 
for new outflows of IDPs and fears that if it is not prepared (and 
funded) to establish new camps, the gap will be filled by others, 
and the risk of extremism is much higher in spontaneous camps. 
Currently there is expansion capacity in Yar Hussain and in Shah 
Mansour.   (Note:  It has now been agreed that ICRC and the Pakistan 
Red Crescent, and not UNHCR, will manage the extension of the Shah 
Mansour camp currently run by ICRC and its partner.)  While there is 
also capacity in Jalozai, UNHCR is not eager to expand this 
problematic camp where disruptions have occurred.   HCR staff said 
that additional camp sites might be available in Haripour, and 
Mansehra, possibly at Jabba an old earthquake camp in Mansehra, and 
that HCR would have to look into Punjab for Waziristan IDPs. 
 
PATTERSON