PFP demands urgent help for IDPs in Neelum Valley

Muzaffarabad, October 5, 2008:
Press for Peace (PFP), a non-governmental organisation working for promotion of peace and safeguard of basic human rights, has called upon government and international humanitarian bodies to take immediate measures to help displaced people of a border village of Neelum valley in Pakistan administrated Kashmir, who had left their homes due to intimidation of Indian army.
The PFP has warned that if permanent shelters were not provided to those IDPs, approaching winter could result in loss of precious human lives.
More than two hundred families of Chaknar village along the LoC-the boarder dividing Pakistani Kashmir from Indian part, fearing threat and intimidation, had to leave their native homes when Indian army kidnapped three local residents who were on their way home after shopping from local bazaar last year. All villagers of Chaknar, scared from coercion of Indian army, after spending almost one year in Athmuqam area, has now shifted to Jamger village in upper Neelum valley.
The PFP’s Fact Finding Team issued a report to local media in Kundal Shahi after visiting the relief camp, which has been established in Jamger village in upper parts of Neelum valley. The team also released photographs of the people residing in the camp, which depicted miserable living and sanitary conditions.
The PFP report said the victims were living in a temporary relief camp, which lacked water, electricity, sanitation and other basic facilities. The camp has been established in a forest and situated at an altitude of about 8000 feet. The representatives of the IDPs said that their tents would be damaged in the upcoming snowfall season. The residents complained that nothing had been done by government except making false commitments and announcements for their permanent rehabilitation.
The report warned that if shelters were not provided instantaneously, majority of lives of people, especially infants and children, were at risk. The residents have only option to utilize firewood from adjacent forests for their domestic use, which in itself is a damaging practice for the local forests, the PFP team warned.
The PFP called on government and non-governmental organizations to immediately help to the IDPs of LoC in order to save their lives from diseases and bad weather conditions.