Relocate refugees to stop Taliban attacks: Kasuri

KABUL—Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri proposed the repatriation of more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees as a way to stop Taliban militants infiltrating into Afghanistan.
Kasuri, on a three-day visit to Kabul, admitted that militants were making cross-border attacks from Pakistani soil, but said that Islamabad was doing its best to stop the problem with some 80,000 troops on the frontier. “I’m not denying that people are coming from across the border ... but this is happening despite Pakistan,” Kasuri told reporters after holding talks with his Afghan counterpart Rangeen Dadfar Spanta on Friday.
He said there was a parallel with attacks in Iraq which happened “despite the United States.” Kasuri said the militants infiltrating Afghanistan from Pakistan were Afghan refugees and that sending them back to their home country would help in reducing the violence.
“If they (Afghan refugees) come back, they’ll not cross the border and it’ll be easier for us to control the border and the tribal areas,” Kasuri said. More than 2.8 million Afghans who fled a quarter-century of instability in their homeland have returned from Pakistan since 2002 under a UN-assisted voluntary scheme, but almost the same number still remain.
Ambassador Munir Akram has proposed that the Afghan refugee camps should be relocated in Afghan side and Marshal Plan like programme be implemented in South and Southeast Afghanistan to stem the deterioration in the security situation in Afghanistan. This suggestion was made by Ambassador Munir Akram while addressing the Security Council meeting convened to discuss the report submitted by Security Council Mission on Afghanistan, here on Friday
President Musharraf has proposed the implementation of a Marshal Plan like programme of 4 to 5 billion dollars in the south and southeast of Afghanistan. The International community should seriously consider this proposal, which under the prevailing circumstances, can provide a realistic chance of bringing durable peace and development to Afghanistan. The international community has avoided seriously addressing the problem of the Afghan Refugees, he said. Three million of them are still in Pakistan without any appreciable international assistance.
Many of the complaints regarding illegal border crossings would end if we could return these refugees to Afghanistan, he said. Pakistan has proposed that the Afghan refugee camps on the border should be relocated to the Afghan side and we are planning to return all refugees within three years to Afghanistan. That should put an end to allegations of cross borders movement. But it is surprising that the refugee issue does not figure in the report of the Security Council’ Mission. It was certainly raised with Ambassador Oshmia by the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan whom he consulted in Islamabad he contended.—Agencies