Talking points: Mehsud tribesmen demand repatriation or alternate housing

Pass resolution to improve plight of Mehsud IDPs who left home four years ago.

PESHAWAR: After four years, the federal government has yet to repatriate displaced Mehsud tribesmen back to South Waziristan Agency (SWA), said Jamiat Ulema-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Saleh Shah Mehsud on Sunday. The jirga was convened by Mehsud tribesmen at Bagh-e-Naran in Hayatabad.

Tribesmen passed a four-point resolution to ensure displaced persons are repatriated or at the very least provided with suitable accommodation for two years as well as financial assistance to reconstruct their houses.

Addressing the jirga, Senator Saleh Shah Mehsud, who is also from SWA, said security forces had originally planned to launch Operation Rah-e-Nijat for only a week. However, it has been four years and the people of South Waziristan are still waiting to be repatriated.

“This is not the war of the Mehsud tribe only,” he said. “The government has neither established its writ in SWA nor purged the tribal areas of militants.”

According to Mehsud, the government’s attitude towards the displaced tribesmen is likely to have long-term consequences.

Through no fault of their own, the children of the Mehsud tribe will have to bear the brunt of the government’s indifference, he added. “At the rate things are going, an entire generation of our children will grow up as refugees in their own country and without access to education,” said the senator.

The necessity of unity

According to Mehsud, the federal government has been fighting a war against militants but only innocent tribesmen have been punished by the military offensive in SWA.

Mehsud said all funds that had been allocated for displaced persons by international organisations had been used by the government for other projects.

“Biscuits are being given to IDPs as food, is that the ‘reward of blood’?” said Shah. “The government has failed to honour promises and commitments made to tribesmen who left their homes.”

At the jirga, Dr Sulaiman Mahsud questioned why the displaced tribesmen could not return home if law enforcement agencies had ejected militants from 90% of the area.

“Nobody is cooperating with us but we will not surrender and will continue to protest until our demands are met,” he said.

The jirga was attended by a large number of tribesmen and political activists.

In the wake of Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan, launched in 2009 against Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), various tribesmen had been displaced from their homes. For a little over four years, they have been struggling to make ends meet and have lived in rented houses with no sustainable means of income.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2014.