VZCZCXRO4341
PP RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHIL #0940/01 1211319
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011319Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
INFO RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL PRIORITY 0210
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 4830
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR PRIORITY 6100
RUEHKP/AMCONSUL KARACHI PRIORITY 1561
RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE PRIORITY 7165
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 3912
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 000940 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF PHUM PTER PK
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON PAKISTANI IDPS 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  As military operations continue in Dir 
and Buner in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), access 
to these areas remains the greatest impediment to the UN and 
others conducting registration, assessing needs, and 
delivering aid.  Higher internally displaced persons (IDP) 
estimates range from 50-75,000 for Lower Dir and a totally 
unverified 30-35,000 for Buner.  Registration of new IDPs got 
underway April 30 in Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi Districts. 
UN agencies have agreed to establish two new IDP camps:  one 
for 1,000 refugee families at Jalala in Mardan District and 
the other for 250 families at Yar Hussain in Swabi District. 
Site development for both camps has begun.  Another 1,000 
families could be immediately accommodated in Jalozai. End 
Summary 
 
Humanitarian Access Remains the Foremost Issue 
-     - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) 
convened an emergency meeting on IDPs on May 1 for GoP and 
various implementing partners, including the UN and 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  Meeting 
participants stressed that access for the NWFP Ministry of 
Social Welfare and UNHCR, who are responsible for 
registration of IDPs, and other players, such as ICRC, 
remains the greatest impediment to clarifying IDP numbers, 
conducting needs assessments and delivering aid.  Roads into 
the districts are blocked, and cell phone coverage in Buner 
is also down, preventing communications with people trapped 
inside.  International agencies asked the NDMA to speak with 
the military and local authorities to facilitate access.  A 
USAID/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) 
implementing partner team that tried to enter Lower Dir on 
May 1 was blocked by military at Chakdara, the entry point 
into the district. 
 
Lack of GOP-Coordinated Information 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Media, the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNHCR and Embassy contacts 
report continued operations against militants in Buner and 
targeted operations, searches, and sporadic firing from 
military bases in parts of Lower Dir as of May 1.  NWFP Chief 
Minister Haider Hoti told Peshawar Principal Officer on April 
30 that he expects Dir and Buner operations to be completed 
within about a week.  (However, the Commissioner for Afghan 
Refugees (CAR) in Timergara, Lower Dir, informed UNHCR on 
April 30 that military operations had already ended in Dir.) 
UNHCR is receiving reports that the Taliban are scattered 
around Buner District.  Bombing of their positions continues 
in the villages of Sultanwas, Sangar, Karakar, Jowarah, Kalil 
Kandau, Ambela, Gukand and Daggar.  People continue fleeing 
these areas and moving toward Swabi and other areas.  OCHA 
reports on May 1 that, according to Pakistan Army sources, 
fighting is subsiding in Lower Dir, and the curfew has been 
relaxed in the area between 8 am and 1 pm. 
 
IDP Numbers 
- - - - - - 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In discussions of the number of new IDPs created by 
the military operations in Lower Dir and Buner districts, 
estimates by participants at the NDMA-convened meeting ranged 
as high as 60 ) 70,000 in Lower Dir and 30,000 from Buner. 
An OFDA implementing partner that works in Lower Dir and 
Buner reported that the NWFP Social Welfare Department 
estimates that there are 75,000 IDPs from Lower Dir (95 
percent of whom are still in Lower Dir) and 35,000 from Buner 
(70 percent of whom are still in Buner).  Concrete numbers 
from places like Timergara, where improvised camps have been 
set up and families have been counted, do not support these 
large estimates, however.  OCHA says that overall 
displacement from Dir is about 50,000 individuals, of whom 
10,000 have been accommodated in educational buildings in 
Dir.  About 40,000 individuals displaced from Dir are either 
staying with relatives in safer areas within Dir district or 
have left Dir for districts like Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda and 
Peshawar. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) UN OCHA also reports as of April 30 that the total 
number of IDPs displaced from Bajaur and Mohmand agencies and 
 
ISLAMABAD 00000940  002 OF 003 
 
 
SWAT district (excluding Dir and Buner districts) is 92,239 
families/556,539 individuals.  About 14,656 families are 
living in 11 IDP camps in Lower Dir, Malakand, Charsadda, 
Nowshera and Peshawar while 462,912 individuals/77,583 
families are outside camps living either in rented houses or 
with relatives. 
 
Steps Toward Providing Additional IDP Assistances 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶6.  (SBU) International agencies are moving ahead where 
possible to provide relief to Pakistan IDPs.  Registration of 
new IDPs got underway April 30 in Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi 
Districts, although few families have thus far shown up to be 
registered.  As a result of site assessments this week, UN 
agencies have agreed to establish two new IDP camps:  one for 
1,000 refugee families at Jalala in Mardan District and the 
other for 250 families at Yar Hussain in Swabi District. 
UNICEF is making water/sanitation preparations; UNHCR is 
initially providing 200 tents at Jalala, and local 
authorities have thus far put up forty tents at Yar Hussain. 
UNHCR and WFP are ready to distribute food and NFIs as people 
register.  Site development for the camps began May 1, and 
UNICEF implementing partners have already begun to set up 
water and sanitation systems.  The Yar Hussain site has a 
borehole well nearby that can be used, but for the time being 
water will be tankered into both camps.  Communal latrines, 
with separate sites for men and women, are being prepared as 
an interim measure while UNHCR completes laying out the camp 
sites over the next few days.  Thereafter UNICEF will provide 
latrines for family or clan units as they have done in other 
established camps. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) UN OCHA reports that 1,000 families/about 6,000 
individuals from Dir and Buner could be immediately 
accommodated in Jalozai IDP camp, Nowshera district, while 
UNHCR and CAR are ready to register 5,000 more families at 
Jalozai and Kacha Gari in Peshawar over the short-term. 
(According to UNHCR, as of April 30, 480 families had gone 
back from Jalozai, Nowshera District, and 80 families from 
Kacha Gari, Peshawar District to their villages of origin in 
Bajaur and Mohmand.) 
 
¶8.  (SBU) According to the CAR, eighteen IDP families who 
arrived from Maidan in Lower Dir at an existing camp in 
Timergara (Degree College) have received tents and NFIs. 
Health and water/sanitation facilities are already available 
in the camp.  CAR has pitched additional tents (63) in the 
camp as a contingency; an additional 500 tents are available 
through the Pakistani Red Crescent (PRCS), and ICRC has 449 
available in Lower Dir.  Most of the IDPs in Maidan are thus 
far staying with friends and relatives in Samarbagh or 
Timergara or in schools, government buildings and hotels. 
The PRCS has agreed to provide food to Dir IDPs, and (the 
Jamaat Islamiyya NGO) Al-Khidmat Foundation is also providing 
cooked food and other services in most of the IDP settlements 
in Lower Dir. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) An NWFP contact has told Consulate Peshawar that 
Al-Khidmat Foundation had not established any camps for the 
Buner IDPs in Swabi but was assisting IDPs and collecting 
data.  The NWFP contact estimated that 200-300 individuals 
from Buner had arrived in Swabi and were staying with family 
and friends or in rented houses.  According to the provincial 
government, relief for the Buner refugees will be available 
at the camp in Jalala.  According to Consulate contact, the 
Al-Khidmat Foundation camps in Lower Dir currently shelter 
about 400-500 families, and the IDP camp established by the 
provincial government in Timergara thus far has received 39 
families although it can accommodate another 200-300 
families. 
 
Funding for IDP Relief 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶10.  (SBU) As assistance agencies ramp up to meet increasing 
IDP flows and Embassy continues to push for increased 
humanitarian access, the remaining hurdle will increasingly 
be the availability of funds.  While the programs of the 
90-day Prioritization Statement of the UN,s Pakistan 
Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP) are 96.95% funded 
($34,860,057 out of $35,956,491), the USG will need to press 
 
ISLAMABAD 00000940  003 OF 003 
 
 
other donors to step up to the plate when the UN issues its 
revised PHRP at the end of June.  The revised PHRP will 
include return packages and funding to rebuild for IDPs from 
Dir and Swat. 
 
 
FEIERSTEIN