REPORT FROM ITALIAN [WIB] DELEGATION IN PAKISTAN

ITALIAN DELEGATION MEETS WOMEN FROM RAWA, HAWCA AND OTHER ACTIVISTS FOR PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN

The delegation is come back from Pakistan. It has been a very intense week, characterised by meetings, visits and appealing emotions. The women of the association (<www.rawa.org>; <www.hawca.org>) we met there, have worked very hard. It is astonishing to see how they can manage to cover the refugees’ first needs, to open schools and to offer sanitary and psychological aid; all this among many difficulties and with very little help from the international humanitarian organizations. While there we visited the refugee-camps and schools where these women operate. These are places where the level of poverty is striking, but where enormous are the efforts to preserve dignity, culture and socialization. A UNHCR member we met, said that the refugee camps run by the women of RAWA are even better than some Pakistani villages and this says much about the work they can achieve to do. The funds (about 12000 US $) that we have risen in Italy and which have been shared between the two organizations RAWA and HAWCA, are but a little help for all the work that has been and is going to be done by these women. They have recommended us, once back in Italy, to thank all the donors: while doing it, we even remind you that the little sum of 15 $ per month is enough to guarantee the survival of a whole family.

The situation of the refugees in Pakistan is dramatic. The country is very poor and 40% of the population lives under the level of poverty. During the last 20 years Pakistan has given refuge to more than 2.500.000 people and their number increases despite the closure of the borders. Those who can manage to cross the borders, try to reach relatives or friends who live in the old refugee camps. The new camps (plastic tents where it is too hot to live in during the summer and too cold during the winter) are planted in a no man’s land, where the first aid is almost inexistent. These camps represent a fertile ground to recruit men that will fight for the jihad and children to be sent to the madrasa (the coranic schools for the talebani).

Many of the refugees, particularly women, wished to tell us their stories; they want to feel that there is someone in the world who cares about them. During the last 20 years, these Afghan women have seen nothing but war in their country. Their freedom was cut to the point that it was prohibited to make any noise while walking. Many of these women have courageously responded to oppression by working clandestinely in order to survive and to be able to ensure their daughters basic rights like education and healthcare.

The women of RAWA hold a clear position in relation to the recent events: they want the talibani out of the country, but they are really frightened at the perspective of a government organized under the Northern Alliance. Still fresh is the memory of what the Alliance did to the land and its people after the USSR invasion; it reminds them of devastation, torture, violence perpetrated on women and children. What they want in order to avoid further bloodshed and war is that all members of civic society and associations who have worked and struggled for their land during all these years, get together in a assembly represented by the neutral person of the old king, in order to get involved in the discussions for the future government in Afghanistan. But before this, it is important to stop the bombs, because it is civilians the first victims of them. Too many the casualties among civilians and the children suffer already of serious psychological problems due to the bombings (they get scared even at the sound of a table knife falling on the floor). Many are still trying to flee from Afghanistan, though the dramatic conditions waiting for them, that we already mentioned above. Moreover, we would like to report that the situation is sometimes worsened by burocracy: the UNHCR office in Peshawar is open just at fixed hours and days of the week, the refugee has to find out how to get and fill up the form (and what about the illiterate?!) and it takes about six months to get an answer.

We conclude by saying that our work continues: we will keep on raising funds for RAWA and HAWCA and organizing visiting delegations to Pakistan.