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| Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation of our land (Balochistan) and exploitations of our resources by Pakistani and Iranian Governments, and to bring their Human Rights Violations in Balochistan into the world’s Notice. |
Pakistan denies report about
starving Baloch children
By Khalid Hasan
Mon, 25 Dec 2006
WASHINGTON: An internal UNICEF assessment has alleged that Pakistani authorities are preventing aid
groups from helping more than 80,000 people - many of them acutely malnourished children - who have been
displaced by fighting in Balochistan, according to the Christian Science Monitor,
Pakistani authorities have refuted the report as “overblown.”
The UNICEF report, which a correspondent of the newspaper in Pakistan claims to have been shown, is said to
paint a “disturbing portrait.” UNICEF and provincial health officials, who surveyed the area in July and August,
report that 59,000 of those suffering are women and children and that 28 percent of the children under five were
“acutely malnourished”. Six percent of the children were so underfed that they would die without immediate
medical attention. “I would say this now qualifies as a ‘crimes against humanity’ situation,” says one foreign
observer who has interviewed delegates from the region.
According to the correspondent, Gretchen Peters, for six months, aid agencies and diplomats have been pressing
Pakistan authorities to permit them to distribute aid packages, which include emergency rations, tents, and
medicine. The UN will not deliver aid without permission from the host nation, Robert van Dijk, the top UNICEF
officer for Pakistan, told her. He and other aid workers say provincial officials have continued to assist his local
staff in monitoring conditions in southern Balochistan, but more senior provincial and federal officials have simply
refused his requests or derailed efforts with endless bureaucratic hurdles. “We have tried everything to get our
aid there,” said van Dijk. “I even know of aid groups that tried to deliver relief without permits, but they got
turned back on the road.”
Peters reports that Pakistani authorities have dismissed the UNICEF report as overblown, saying the majority of
people in Balochistan is poor and nomadic, and most of those displaced by the fighting have returned home after
Akbar Bugti’s killing. “This report is untrue,” said Maj Gen Shaukut Sultan, spokesman for the Pakistan Army.
“Almost all of those people have gone back.” While van Dijk agrees that some did return home in September, he
claims that a recent UN assessment has shown that other villagers have since been displaced.
“When we went back there recently, we found the same numbers of people,” he says, “and even worse
conditions - among the worst I’ve ever seen.”
UN help sought to save IDPs from
starvation: Balochistan instability
displaces 84,000
By Baqir Sajjad Syed
ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: The government on Thursday sought United Nations intervention to help avert nutrition crisis
among 84,000 displaced persons in Balochistan. They were displaced due to instability in the province.
This is the first official acknowledgement of the deteriorating nutritional situation among internally displaced
persons IDPs in Balochistan, a senior UN official told Dawn.
In the past, the government had been rejecting the presence of IDPs in the province and had prevented aid groups
from helping them. Among the 84,000 IDPs, 26,000 were women and 33,000 were children, according to UN
estimates.
A letter received by the UN system in Pakistan from the Balochistan government said: “The UN agencies may carry
out nutritional intervention in districts of Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Quetta."
These districts house majority of the IDPs. The remaining are in Sibi and Bolan districts.
The intervention by the UN has, however, been made conditional. It will be carried out through health facilities in
the districts and under the supervision of local authorities.
The United Nations has approved a $1 million humanitarian relief package for six months to address this crisis.
The package includes immediate setting up of 57 supplementary feeding centres and three therapeutic feeding
centres in the three districts, provision of food, medicine and nutrition for children, blankets, water purification and
sanitation equipment and technical assistance.
Unicef will carry out the relief operation, while the UNDP, the WHO, the UNFPA, the WFP and the UNHCR will
support it. The government decision to involve the aid agencies comes after an intense persuasion by the UN to
accept humanitarian assistance for the IDPs in the province.
The issue came in limelight after one of the UN internal assessments had revealed that the survival of several
thousands children was in great danger. The assessment had found out that there were some 84,000 IDPs in the
province.
The report prepared by Unicef on the nutritional status of women and children among the IDPs showed that 28 per
cent children under the age of five were `acutely undernourished’. Out of them, six per cent was in the state of
`severe acute malnutrition’. According to WHO standards, the situation was critical.
The assessment revealed that 80 per cent of deaths among the IDPs were children under the age of five. Senior
UN official Ronald Van Dijk described them as `innocent victims’.
starving Baloch children
By Khalid Hasan
Mon, 25 Dec 2006
WASHINGTON: An internal UNICEF assessment has alleged that Pakistani authorities are preventing aid
groups from helping more than 80,000 people - many of them acutely malnourished children - who have been
displaced by fighting in Balochistan, according to the Christian Science Monitor,
Pakistani authorities have refuted the report as “overblown.”
The UNICEF report, which a correspondent of the newspaper in Pakistan claims to have been shown, is said to
paint a “disturbing portrait.” UNICEF and provincial health officials, who surveyed the area in July and August,
report that 59,000 of those suffering are women and children and that 28 percent of the children under five were
“acutely malnourished”. Six percent of the children were so underfed that they would die without immediate
medical attention. “I would say this now qualifies as a ‘crimes against humanity’ situation,” says one foreign
observer who has interviewed delegates from the region.
According to the correspondent, Gretchen Peters, for six months, aid agencies and diplomats have been pressing
Pakistan authorities to permit them to distribute aid packages, which include emergency rations, tents, and
medicine. The UN will not deliver aid without permission from the host nation, Robert van Dijk, the top UNICEF
officer for Pakistan, told her. He and other aid workers say provincial officials have continued to assist his local
staff in monitoring conditions in southern Balochistan, but more senior provincial and federal officials have simply
refused his requests or derailed efforts with endless bureaucratic hurdles. “We have tried everything to get our
aid there,” said van Dijk. “I even know of aid groups that tried to deliver relief without permits, but they got
turned back on the road.”
Peters reports that Pakistani authorities have dismissed the UNICEF report as overblown, saying the majority of
people in Balochistan is poor and nomadic, and most of those displaced by the fighting have returned home after
Akbar Bugti’s killing. “This report is untrue,” said Maj Gen Shaukut Sultan, spokesman for the Pakistan Army.
“Almost all of those people have gone back.” While van Dijk agrees that some did return home in September, he
claims that a recent UN assessment has shown that other villagers have since been displaced.
“When we went back there recently, we found the same numbers of people,” he says, “and even worse
conditions - among the worst I’ve ever seen.”
UN help sought to save IDPs from
starvation: Balochistan instability
displaces 84,000
By Baqir Sajjad Syed
ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: The government on Thursday sought United Nations intervention to help avert nutrition crisis
among 84,000 displaced persons in Balochistan. They were displaced due to instability in the province.
This is the first official acknowledgement of the deteriorating nutritional situation among internally displaced
persons IDPs in Balochistan, a senior UN official told Dawn.
In the past, the government had been rejecting the presence of IDPs in the province and had prevented aid groups
from helping them. Among the 84,000 IDPs, 26,000 were women and 33,000 were children, according to UN
estimates.
A letter received by the UN system in Pakistan from the Balochistan government said: “The UN agencies may carry
out nutritional intervention in districts of Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Quetta."
These districts house majority of the IDPs. The remaining are in Sibi and Bolan districts.
The intervention by the UN has, however, been made conditional. It will be carried out through health facilities in
the districts and under the supervision of local authorities.
The United Nations has approved a $1 million humanitarian relief package for six months to address this crisis.
The package includes immediate setting up of 57 supplementary feeding centres and three therapeutic feeding
centres in the three districts, provision of food, medicine and nutrition for children, blankets, water purification and
sanitation equipment and technical assistance.
Unicef will carry out the relief operation, while the UNDP, the WHO, the UNFPA, the WFP and the UNHCR will
support it. The government decision to involve the aid agencies comes after an intense persuasion by the UN to
accept humanitarian assistance for the IDPs in the province.
The issue came in limelight after one of the UN internal assessments had revealed that the survival of several
thousands children was in great danger. The assessment had found out that there were some 84,000 IDPs in the
province.
The report prepared by Unicef on the nutritional status of women and children among the IDPs showed that 28 per
cent children under the age of five were `acutely undernourished’. Out of them, six per cent was in the state of
`severe acute malnutrition’. According to WHO standards, the situation was critical.
The assessment revealed that 80 per cent of deaths among the IDPs were children under the age of five. Senior
UN official Ronald Van Dijk described them as `innocent victims’.
Related Links:
-
Baloch refugees need immediate humanitarian help!
-
Headline: New aid crisis in Pakistani Occupied Balochistan
-
UN help sought to save IDPs from starvation: Balochistan instability displaces
84,000
-
Pakistan belatedly approves relief effort for children displaced by tribal conflict
-
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003488237_baluchistan21.
html?syndication=rss