Letters from the Field - 18 July 2006 - Kashmir

Second (and last) letter from Kashmir – 18 July 2006

I have been here now two-and-a- half months and, while the original plan was for me to have remained until 20 August, I will actually be ending my assignment here 20 July. My next assignment is Khartoum and they want me there immediately. So I will be leaving Muzaffarabad Thursday afternoon, I’ll take care of paperwork in Islamabad on Friday, fly to Geneva Sunday, have a day of briefings on Monday and – and then to Khartoum. All of which is dependent upon my visa being issued. But I’ll return to Sudan in a minute.

The time here has gone too quickly. Like all postings, this one has had its frustrations as well as the moments one will linger over fondly. I have been moved by the warmth of the earthquake victims – those who have lost so much – children or parents or siblings and homes and possessions -- and live under such difficult (and sometimes squalid) conditions in the camps – or in tents next to their destroyed houses. Still, they invite you for tea and complain so little about their plight. I have now seen photos of what Muzaffarabad was like before the earthquake – before everything became a heap of rubble. It will be a very very long time before this is rebuilt. And, with the monsoon rains, which have started, there are landslides and mudslides – and we can only hope the loss of lives will be minimal.

The past few weeks, we have been trying to relocate people from villages in the mountains around Muzaffarbad which are in danger. But it has been a frustrating undertaking. First it was an issue of the government not providing adequate information to the villagers about who had to relocate, why, to where, for how long, what they could bring, etc. Then, the numbers in danger changed dramatically, from a projected 50,000 down to 6,000 – and in the end, we have moved no more than 2,500 people. Some, on their own initiative, have gone to other safer areas. Others just won’t leave – in part because conditions in the camps are far from ideal. There are not enough latrines, in many camps the water supply is inadequate, some of the camps need to be dismantled and the tents re-pitched as there was no site planning and people are living on top of each other, with the rains many of the tents are flooding and a lot of tents need to be replaced. As the Commissioner who heads the Camp Management Organization (CMO) is very nervous that he will be blamed if there are any deaths, relocation meetings are very acrimonious with accusations that the international agencies are not doing what they promised. In some cases, it is true. It others, it is the CMO that is at fault. But, with UNHCR scheduled to withdraw from here at the end of August, and with over 20,000 people still in camps, there are grounds to be gravely concerned about how CMO – the government – will manage the camps on their own, even with the training and the new staffing table projected.

And, if houses are not reconstructed before the winter – and it is likely they will not be as people have not received their second compensation payment for housing reconstruction – the odds are that many people will come down from the mountains before the next winter, as living in tents will be a very unattractive option. Particularly if they have no supplies stocked up to see them through the winter.

Life is very much lived on the edge for many. With the monsoon, the Nellum and Jellum rivers are an angry rushes of water, dark brown in colour. The rivers also carry with them logs that are washed down from higher areas. And logs are money. So people go into to this bitterly cold, bitterly fierce water to catch the logs. Children catch little sticks – sometimes with a net. Old people catch larger ones. And the strongest of the men catch huge logs. I’m told they also catch dead fish -- killing fish with dynamite, which they used to do in Montenegro, is something that apparently also happens here. A day ago, two people got swept away by the river but were lucky enough to catch on to a small island, and were helicoptered to safety when it became clear there was no other way to rescue them. A few days ago, I had planned to go to Neelum Valley to see how people who had returned to their village after the earthquake have made out there. It had to be cancelled because, with the heavy rains, there were many landslides blocking the roads.  Fortunately, a month ago, I went to the Lipa Valley – one of most beautiful in Pakistani Kashmir. The mountain pass we crossed was over 11,000 feet; spectacular mountains with terraced rice fields, and wooden Swiss-chalet type houses. I had also hoped to go to the north – to Gilgit and the Hunza Valley – but as my stay here has been cut short so that means I will need to return to Pakistan in future. I have visited Lahore, but not Karachi nor Peshawar. Definitely need to schedule a return, but hopefully when it is not as hot.

Still – from the frying pan into …. I imagine Khartoum – and especially Darfur -- will be even hotter than here. And there will be mosquitoes and, therefore, the need for malaria pills. But the physical challenge is likely to be minor compared with the mental one.

“Your assignment, if you chose to accept it, is….” Gulp!!!!

What I know thus far is that, in the context of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) which was signed on 5 May 2006 between Sudan’s Government and one faction of the insurgent Sudan Liberation Army (SLA/MM), there is an agreement by the parties to conduct a Darfur Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) led by the UN, World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) amongst others. The objective of the JAM is to assess and plan for coordinated development policies and integrated approaches to the challenges of reconstruction in post-conflict Darfur. Phase 1 of this JAM process will involve the preparation and implementation of a “Darfur Early Recovery Programme” to be led by the Darfur Early Recovery Team, which will be based in the Office of the Resident Coordinator. I will be the protection expert in the Team and will be expected to cover issues such as support to returns of IDPs, DDR (disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration) activities including for children associated with armed forces, capacity building for local authorities, strengthening rule of law activities, land and property issues, initial peace and reconciliation interventions and gender dimensions of the conflict. Protection expertise will need to be provided throughout the process to as to ensure that protection issues are fully integrated in the programme.

I can't write at this time without mentioning how disturbed I am by what is happening between Israel and Lebanon -- and pray that madmen on both sides don't turn this into a Middle Eastern conflagration. Whether we will get it is another story.

I will write again when I am in Khartoum have a better sense of my situation. Meanwhile, I know you will all wish me luck. And do write to send me your news. Emails from friends is one of the highlights of a day in the field.

Till later.

Letters from the Field - 10 June 2006 - Kashmir

Letter to Procap Colleagues - 10 June 2006 - from Kashmir

Hi to all of you. I realize that I have been in Pakistan (Kashmir) for nearly  6 weeks. Before I left, we talked about starting a list serve for ProCap Protection Officers to exchange info, share experiences, and perhaps support each other in facing various challenges. Perhaps you have been talking amongst yourselves -- since I have never been able to access my ProCap email address, I may have missed out on a conversation. In any event, I thought I'd take a few moments on this Saturday afternoon to drop a line. (I am making the assumption that what we write here stays amongst us – so that we can be candid and open.)

            Its hot here. In the 40s during the daytime. The tents we sleep in (fortunately, it does gets cool in the evenings and we are able to sleep -- even need a blanket) are like saunas between 8.00 and 17.00. So there is little to do on a Saturday except stay in our air-conditioned work tents and work. Ditto for Sunday. The compensation is that we do get R&R every 6 weeks - so on Wednesday, I will be off to Sri Lanka for a short break.

            For those who don't know, my assignment here was to take over the Protection Cluster in Muzaffarabad  - the epicentre of the earthquake which hit this region in October of last year, leaving 88,000 dead, over 100,000 injured, and between 2.5-3.3 million people homeless. As this was a natural disaster – not a conflict – UNHCR did not want to take on the role of Head of Protection, which fell to UNICEF – to which I am seconded. UNICEF has exercised this task with considerable reluctance and a rather narrow focus -- basically on the vulnerable – especially children (orphans), widows, the elderly -- and a strong concern that too much emphasis on protection (or human rights) could antagonize the government, precisely when UNICEF has access to areas of the country largely closed to UN agencies before the quake. Moreover, by the time I arrived, the majority of the IDPs had returned, or were on their way back, to their villages and all of the clusters (except protection) were in the process of being handed over to the Government.

            Assuming that the emergency was drawing to a close proved, however, to be an over-optimistic assessment. After a seismic report was received by the Government, 18 villages near Muzaffarabad (with a population of approximately 50,000) were declared unsafe and a decision was taken to evacuate these – and bring the population down to camps – if possible, before the monsoon. There is a very high risk of landslides with the heavy rains but – just this week – a new government assessment has reduced the number of people that should be evacuated from 50,000 to between 15,000. [Numbers change here daily – and a few thousand one way or the other hardly seems to matter.] The evacuation was to have started early June – but nothing has happened yet. UNHCR was to have assisted the Govt with a mass information campaign, to explain to the villagers why they are being evacuated, to where, for how long, what they can bring, what assistance they can expect, etc. That was to have been a precondition for UN involvement. But, it seems as if that is also falling by the wayside as the government’s position is that the people are already informed and more is not needed. So – it is a bit of a hard row to hoe. Most NGOs have either little knowledge or interest in protection (essentially considered a four letter word) and most have turned from relief to reconstruction, as that is where the funds are. So there is very little dynamism in the Protection Cluster – neither UN agencies nor NGOs want to invest time and resources on this front. There are, however, serious protection issues which remain: there are likely to be 40,000-50,000 people in camps this coming winter; conditions in the villages of return (water, electricity, health care, shelter) are not very good and, in some cases, very poor; and many people have been unable to claim the compensation to which they are entitled. Free legal aid is another four letter concept. So – that is the scene, in brief.

    Except to say that Kashmir is beautiful. I visited the Leepa Valley this week and the scenery was breathtaking – undoubtedly one of the most spectacular vistas I have seen. And the people are warm and welcoming and in desperate need of someone to advocate on their behalf.

    So – let’s see what happens.

I’d welcome news from all of you.

Laurie

Letters from the Field - 7 May 2006 - Pakistan

First letter from Kashmir – 7 May 2006

Muzaffarabad, capital of AJK – Azad (Independent) Jammu and Kashmir – but in UN politically-correct language PAK (Pakistan-administered Kashmir).  The population of Muzaffarabad city before the earthquake of 8 October  was 98,000, the district was about 740,000 and AJK was 3.6 million. Now, there are approximately 40,000 IDPs still in the district of Muzaffarabad – was is referred to as the “residual case load” – those that cannot return to their places of origin for a variety of reasons: they may have become landless as a result of the earthquake, their villages buried under landslides; or their villages may be inaccessible -- roads are still blocked; or they have become extremely vulnerable – a widow, an orphan, disabled; and there are many from the city whose houses were destroyed and are not able to rebuild.

The policy of the government has been/is to have the IDP camps emptied and people returned to their places of origin as quickly as possible. There is a logic to this. The govt does not want to create a culture of dependency, or IDP camps that remain indefinitely. But it is not that simple. So there will have to be camps for that terrible expression “the residual case load”. While I was in Islamabad – a week – I visited the camps in and around the capital. The camps were rapidly emptied through a push factor – the government had announced that, as of end March, there would be no more food distributions in the camps and the water and electricity would be turned off; and pull factors – the compensation being given to enable people to rebuild their homes was being given only at their places of origin (so to get compensation, you had to get back home); and that free transportation back to the villages would end by 1 May. So, while no force was used, the return was not necessarily what we might call completely voluntary. But – by and large, and when compared against other experiences, the government (more particularly, the army) has performed exceedingly well. There are comparatively speaking very few cases of deliberate human rights violations (no rapes or attacks against IDPs). But there are and will be protection issues around people getting the compensation they are entitled to, and land and property rights (women whose husbands died in the earthquake will have a hard time getting land back, as the law does not recognize women’s rights to inherit land).

My ‘job’ – or part of it, is to head up the “Protection Cluster” (all the UN agencies as well as NGOs) in Muzaffarabad, as well as in a neighbouring district of Bagh; and possibly also to help with coordination of protection issues in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) – especially the district of Mansehra. I came to Muzaffarabad on Monday, went to visit Bagh on Tuesday – so I am really just getting on top of the concerns. One major issue looming on the horizon is a recent announcement that 17 villages in the district of Muzaffarabad (a total of between 20,000-30,000 people) may need to be evacuated to the camps which have been emptied out because of the dangers of further landslides with the onset of the monsoon rains expected in the next two to three weeks. If that does happen, it will be necessary to monitor how the evacuation is done and how what conditions will be like in the camps – and what services provided – as it is likely that as many as 60,000 will have to be in the camps over the coming winter.

So --- that is what is on my work agenda.

What is it like here? Muzaffarabad is quite beautiful – on the confluence of two rivers, the Neelum and the Jehlum. They are huge and very fast flowing rivers – exceedingly cold I am told, with the run off from the snow-capped mountains. But at the present, they are murky grey with the mud and rubble of the earthquake – slashed with white streaks from the current. In the winter, they say the water is crystal blue. (Sadly, as in Montenegro and in so many other places that could be paradise, the garbage and the untreated waste of the cities is simply dumped into the rivers.)

Muzaffarabad is in a valley – surrounded by mountains. They are not the jagged, hard, black mountains of Montenegro – rather, they are rounded on top green – heavily wooded. Except that the earthquake has sheered off huge slabs of mountain – which is now bald faced and white. Yet, what struck me as I was driven by car on Tuesday from Muzaffarabad to Bagh, climbing hairpin turns and following the winding course of the river, was the lushness of the pine forests. There are apparently harsh laws against illegal cutting of trees – and if they are enforced, I can only say amen. (Though I not naive enough to imagine that no one manages to make out very well from the forest industry, which is a multi-million dollar business for AJK.) 

Despite the fact that we are in the mountains, it is hot – burning hot in the daytime. The temperature reaches into the high 30s, low 40’s and I am told it will get

hotter yet. By 8 a.m. it is really warm. By noon, unbearably hot outside. I made the mistake of taking  a shower at midday yesterday – the water was burning hot though unheated -- a sauna if it were drier. Indeed, when I left the shower and went into the outside (temperature in the high 30s), it actually felt cool outside. I now continue my practice of showering either before 8:00 or after 16.00.

Our offices – like our accommodations – are in tents. Fortunately, UNICEF’s tent, where I work  – and the only one in the compound – is air-conditioned. (The others make do somehow with fans, though I would wilt entirely.) Luckily, however, it cools down very in the evening. By five o’clock, it begins to be reasonable and you can actually wear a sweater – or shawl as is the case here – in the evening. At night, you need a blanket – even two – which is great. Because you can get a good night’s sleep.

Livingwise, it is a strange situation for me here – rather like summer camp. (I must say, I always did like summer camp, and I am quite enjoying it.)  There are about 250 people in the camp – 20 are women. Everyone sleeps in tents. Ours are partitioned, so you have a little tent within a tent – which gives you some privacy – but it is a tiny cubicle – enough for a cot and a small shelf, with room for a suitcase under the cot, one on the floor beside the bed. The showers and toilets are communal. So are the eating arrangements. Breakfast is from 6:30-8:00, lunch from 12.00-1:00 and dinner from 6:00-7:00 – and the cooks are the Swedes (Remember the Swedish chef. I will not comment further on the cuisine.) And, if you are not there on time, there is no food. On base, there is no shop where you can buy snacks – not a cold drink, not a pack of cigarettes (thank God I don’t smoke anymore, but I have to go scouting around to stock up on chewing gum). You can, of course, go into town to get supplies, but it is a bit of a hike and in the heat, there is little incentive to do so. What you can not get – sadly – is wine or alcohol. Boy, do I miss my Montenegrin Cabarnet.

In town, there is one “good” restaurant at the Sangram Hotel, on the river, and I have been there twice. Actually, on Friday night, we were sitting on the patio having just ordered our food when they started playing music – Silent Night and Jingle Bells!!!  There is also a market, and I ventured there yesterday – Saturday --  braving the heat. It is quite large – and I have only started exploring it – but, I of course have, already, managed to acquire some cloth I do not need, some cushion covers I certainly don’t need and some shawls I do need but resist wearing. I have not yet bought any carpets. You see, I have been good. I am not so good with the clothes. On base, you can wear t-shirts. But once you go off the base, you need long sleeved shirts and shirts that go down to the knees or below, plus a shawl to cover your breasts. I just have a hard time with that. So I improvise. At least you are not forced to cover your head. I am managing.

OK – time to call it a night. I will mail this tomorrow morning – as I need to put together my mailing list.

When all is said and done, I am delighted to be here and enjoying every minute of it.

Kashmir. Wow!!!

Letters from the Field - 29 April 2006 - Pakistan

First Note from Pakistan - 29 April 2006

Well – I have been here for almost a week and beginning to get emersed in the situation. It is already interesting and challenging and I think it will be a fascinating four months. I twice postponed my departure from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad first because I wanted to visit the IDP camps in and around Islamabad and then to attend a meeting today which has since been postponed (such is so often the case). As a result, I could not get a place on the helicopter on Monday (it is fully booked), so I will be leaving for Muza by road at 6 a.m. that morning. Apparently, it is only a 3 hour drive from here.

Islamabad is a city of wide avenues, palatial villas, bougainvillia and jacaranda trees.  It is the capital city – a city totally built from nothing (like Brazilia) in the 1960s. The Margalla hills, which are on the north of the city, are considered "the toenails of the foothills" of the Himalayas. It is a city for government officials, international agencies (which all occupy large villas), and for the rich. There appear to be no accommodation for poor people in Islamabad. The workers all live in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi (a few kilometres away). And Rawalpindi is a much more bustling and vibrant place – though I am told that Lahore is really the cultural capital of Pakistan (its New York, its "lolliwood" and where people who really love to eat go.) I will get there before I leave, I'm sure.   Islamabad is laid out in a grid of squares, each 2 x 2 kilometers. At the center of each is a market area – really, like a shopping mall. You seem to be able to pretty much get anything you need here – I even say Crest toothpaste, though no mueseli (I am eating wheatabix – how low can one sink!) – and I am doing that because I was hit in the stomach on Wednesday, so I am trying to be a little more cautious. Although the food here is really very good. And you can order tea in the office all day long.

I am staying in a guest house about a 10 minute ride away from the UNICEF offices. Its OK, though the fuse on the air conditioner blows regularly. The temperatures have been hovering around 42-45 degrees during the day time. That is centigrade. I also had to draw the attention of the management (a rather nice man who seems to be the owner) to an invasion of cockroaches – huge ones, 2 inches or more in length, plus an additional inch for their feelers. They seemed to be climbing out of an open pipe in the bathroom. The night I killed 10 of them, I decided this could not be normal. The owner/manager since had sealed the hole with concrete and that seems to have solved the problem. There are also mosquitoes, which will become worse when the rains come – a few weeks away. But, strangely, the heat is not as debilitating as I thought it might be. One problem, though, is that you cannot go with short sleeves – in Kashmir, though in Islamabad you can get away with it. Most people carry a scarf, though I haven't quite found something I feel comfortable with. It should be somewhat cooler in Muzaf – but, I'll wait and see. In the meantime, I have bought 4 long-sleeved shirts which will serve.

So – my routine – I have been getting up at 7:00 ish. A car picks me up and brings me to the office at 8:15. I can then get a shuttle back to the guest house at 6 or 7 in the evening. I have been connected to Internet and Lotus Notes – though we are using my own lap top and not an office computer.[Given that I am now using my laptop on the Internet, can you ask Dev if I should update my virus protection. The IT people here can probably do that for me.] They have also given me a wireless card, because that is how it will work in Muzaffarabad.

You can eat lunch here at UNICEF – excellent meals for pennies (but I have now stopped since my innards protested) and – frankly – with the heat – I am not particularly hungry at noon. In the evenings, I have been frequenting a Kabul restaurant with excellent grilled beef, chicken, lamb, rice. Not too adventurous yet but a start. To get around after hours, you take cabs, which are actually very cheap. But in some areas (like outside my guest house) they can be hard to flag down.  

In Muzaffarabad – all I know is that I will be in a tent but, apparently, it is airconditioned and quite good, with good shower facilities and clean toilets. We will see.

What I have been doing, apart from lots of meetings with folk from different agencies and NGOs, have been to go out to the IDP camps for earthquake victims around Islamabad. The govt is trying to empty them and get the people to return to their areas (even if they cannot return home) – and while there is no "forced" relocation, the govt has used tactics like cutting off water, stopping all delivery of relief (food) supplies, destroying cooking and washing facilities – so return can hardly be described as voluntary in all cases. And, there are people who cannot go back because their villages are gone or their land is gone, or they are from cities where they are not going to be permitted to rebuild. I will append a few photos – one of H-11 camp, which used to be very large (about 18,000) but now has only about 2000 people, and one from Fateh Jung (outside the city, on an abandoned airstrip) where tents are on the tarmac and there is nothing in the vicinity. The temperatures are now over 40 and the tents are unbearably hot in the daytime. And, there are women in their last week of pregnancy, and some rather sick children, and amputees, and people with spinal injuries. Lots of difficult cases. I also went to see a camp in Kamra (about an hour and half away) for orphans and widows – actually a nice facility but not a very good solution, to institutionalize these people, which would cut them off completely from their communities and social support system and make them totally dependent. And, I have been working with someone from OCHA to try and see if we can get a convalescent centre established for those unable to travel – and with the Protection Cluster (UN agencies and NGOs) to develop recommendations to the government to, amongst other things, permit the creation of a camp for "residual cases" here – or, if not, to ensure that people are only moved from the Islamabad area if the camps in Kashmir or NW Frontier Province (from where they come) are really able to provide them with basic services. And, yesterday, I had my first report of sexual abuse and abuse by camp management in Muzaffarabad.

So – there is work to do. I will go to Muza on Monday, as I mentioned, and fly by helicopter to Bagh (another town in Kashmir) for meetings on Tuesday. And then, we'll see. Exciting!! And, I must admit – though I hate to – that I already bought an old Afghan necklace (which I will probably never wear – but its fun), a small necklace of jade beads – and a couple of pairs of sandals. I have looked at carpets and shawls and jackets and said no to everything as many come from Kashmir. So I am being very good and waiting.

Before signing off, I should note that the Pakistanis are incredibly warm and hospitable. And what a different it makes being in a society where you can speak to the local population. While people talk Urdu, all educated people speak English – which is the official language in Pakistan. So, you can get a very different insight into the society.

A few photos (I am not sure if I am attaching them correctly. If not, let me know and I will resend) As well -  I am not quite used to the camera yet.