By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The ongoing battle between Pakistan’s forces and the Taliban continues to challenge aid distribution to Pakistan’s growing refugee crisis. As many as 18 people were killed on Tuesday night when alleged Taliban forces detonated a bomb at a luxury hotel in Pakistan.
The Pearl Continental Hotel, the target of Tuesday’s attack, was housing nearly 30 members of the United Nations staff when the bomber hit it. The bombing disrupted aid operations immediately an resulted in a one-day suspension of food distribution efforts. It also prompted several United Nations agencies to move most of their international staff to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
Despite reports indicating alarm, the emergency coordinator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Kilian Kleinschmidt, said “It’s a reshaping of operations, it’s not a reduction. We will not abandon the more than two million people. That’s very clear.”
Among the relocated staff members are also several World Food Program employees who have been brought on board to help handle the influx of Pakistani refugees from the North. Mr. Paul Risley, spokesman for the World Food Program said, “This is a very specific targeting of the humanitarian effort. It was a tragedy, but it won’t stop the U.N.’s work.” Two World Food Program employees were wounded seriously in the attack, but more are expected to arrive soon.
The United Nations High Commissioner, Antonio Gutierrez, in a joint statement with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, condemned the attack, saying, “Humanitarian workers around the world are coming under increasing attack, and it is the poor, the uprooted and the vulnerable who will suffer the most by their loss.”
Needless to say, the refugees’ loss is one that cannot be quantified.
For more information, please see:
NY Times – Bombing Challenges Aid Distribution – June 10, 2009
United Press International – Pakistan Hotel Bombing – June 10, 2009
Reuters – UNHCR Mourns Loss of Staff Member – June 10, 2009
