Swat Valley IDPs Continue to Suffer In Pak; Children Some Of The Worst Hit
Twelve-year-old Bahadur speaks of war and the Taliban with the candor children his age employ to talk of video games and cartoons. "I saw helicopters. They dropped shells and mortars. We left home because of the Taliban."
An IDP from Mingora, Swat, Bahadur has left behind his age of innocence, and talks frankly of the sights he saw in the Swat Valley. Bahadur and his family walked for days before they boarded a bus that brought them to the IDP ...
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IDP is a vulgar term to apply to Pakistani refugees, too sanitized and official for me to take seriously. The UN defines refugee as some one who leaves his home country for fear of persecution -- why the distinction if he hasn't crossed the border, especially in a state as unstable as Pakistan?