IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: Northern IDPs begin to return from south
24 May 2005


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

ZAR-E-DASH, 24 May (IRIN) - Zahir Khan, a 50-year-old internally 
displaced person (IDP) was seen off by his friends in the Zar-e-Dash 
camp in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Sunday. The father 
of seven was beginning his journey home to the town of Qaisar in the 
northwestern province of Faryab.

Khan was displaced because of discrimination and harassment against 
ethnic Pashtuns in the north after the collapse of the hardline Taliban 
regime in late 2001. The Taliban drew their support from Pashtuns and 
after their fall many ordinary people from the same ethnic group were 
associated with them.

He is one of 222 people making up the first group of IDPs to return home 
in 2005 with support from the International Organisation for Migration 
(IOM).

"I have heard that the commanders are disarming and the situation has 
improved," Khan told IRIN in Zar-e-Dasht, as he and other IDPs were 
loaded their belongings into trucks organised by IOM.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commission for 
Refugees (UNHCR) there are still 133,000 IDPs in four camps in southern 
Afghanistan. Zar-e-Dasht is the largest, accommodating 49,000 people. 
Most of these IDPs took refuge in the south in early 2002 after 
harassment by local warlords and incidents of systematic ethnic 
discrimination in the country's northern provinces. Other camp residents 
are Kochees, or nomads, from the south who were displaced following 
years of prolonged drought.

Many of the returning IDPs like Khan, are illiterate and most have no 
profession. They are returning hoping to regain their rain-fed farms but 
most have been under the control of local commanders for the last three 
years.

"I heard that the commanders no longer are in control and the Afghan 
National Army (ANA) and international peacekeepers are deployed in 
Faryab," Khan said.

Sunday's movement is significant because it is an indication that people 
perceive the north to be improving for the return of IDPs.

"This is one step towards national reconciliation and it is important 
that IDPs are convinced that the security situation for Pashtuns has 
improved," Ahmad Shah, an information officer with UNHCR, told IRIN in 
Kandahar as the IDPs left for Faryab.

According to the UN refugee agency, up to 5,332 IDP families returned to 
their places of origin in 2004 but with the improvement of security in 
the north and the alleviation of drought conditions a substantial number 
are expected to return in 2005.

"We do hope this return will be the start of something more substantial. 
This is only fifty families, but maybe by next week larger movements may 
start," Tim Irwin, a UNHCR spokesperson, told IRIN in Kabul.

The families are provided with transportation to their places of origin 
and each family receives a small assistance package to help them 
resettle.


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005


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