Sunday, May 31, 2009

Obama Sends Envoy to Pakistan Refugee Camps

WASHINGTON — President Obama is dispatching his Afghanistan-Pakistan adviser, Richard C. Holbrooke, to Pakistan this week to visit the refugee camps in the northeast region of the country, where thousands of people have flooded to escape the conflict areas where government troops have been battling Taliban insurgents.

Mr. Holbrooke will be taking an inter-agency team of American officials from the Pentagon, the State Department and Usaid to look for ways to speed up the relief effort, and to help mobilize international support, a senior administration official said. The team will also hold talks with the Pakistani government on ways to help solve the growing refugee problem in the country.

More than one million Pakistanis are believed to have fled the conflict areas of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir since tensions exploded in recent months. The mass migration of Pakistanis is now the largest since the country was partitioned from India more than 60 years ago, and it has added to concerns over security and the government’s capacity to provide immediate relief to the displaced.

The American team will leave on Tuesday morning, the official said.(NYT)

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