UN warns of refugee crisis as thousands flee fighting in Swat valley

Fighting between government forces and Taliban intensifies as Pakistan prepares for extra 500,000 refugees


Officials and aid workers in Pakistan were today facing a fresh influx of people fleeing fighting between government forces and Taliban militants in the Swat valley as the UN warned that the situation was fast becoming a crisis.

Following heavy ground and air assaults, which reached the outskirts of the region's main town, Mingora, many people took advantage of a brief lull in the violence to load their families into cars and trucks and flee.

Thousands have arrived in the town of Mardan, further south inside the North-West Frontier province.

The government is preparing for up to 500,000 internal refugees, the largest displacement crisis in Pakistan's history.

According to one UN official in Mardan, up to 60,000 displaced people have already registered at centres in the town.

The figure is likely to be only a fraction of the real total as most fleeing families stay with relatives or friends rather than seek official help.

Several thousand people are already based at camps around Mardan. Hundreds more are waiting to register for assistance with shelter and food.

"The international community needs to realise that this is becoming one of the major displacement crises in the world and it needs to be dealt with," Killian Kleinschmidt, deputy head of the UN refugee agency in Pakistan, said. "We need money now for what is going to happen through the summer."

More than 500,000 Pakistanis driven out by fighting in other regions of the country's north-west are already living in camps or with relatives elsewhere.

Washington sees the fighting as a key test of Pakistan's commitment to tackling an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency.

In February, the government in Islamabad agreed to the introduction of Islamic sharia law in Swat, formerly a tourist destination, prompting US concern about what is saw as capitulation to Taliban pressure.

But the pact broke down and, 11 days ago, security forces began an operation to remove militants from several districts, resulting in heavy fighting.

According to the government, more than 60 militants have been killed. The Taliban says 30 civilians have died.

Yesterday, the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, met the US president, Barack Obama, and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, in Washington.

Both Zardari and Karzai "fully appreciate the seriousness of the threat" posed by al-Qaida and its allies, Obama said later.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, praised the operation in Swat.

"I'm actually quite impressed by the actions the Pakistani government is now taking," she said. "I think that action was called for, and action has been forthcoming."

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, told US troops in Afghanistan today that there was no prospect of their being deployed across the border.

During a question and answer session at a US base, Gates told a sergeant he did not have to "worry about going to Pakistan".

The last battle in Swat, over a period of 18 months from late 2007, saw militants fight the army to a standstill, resulting in the now-collapsed February peace deal.