NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Aid distributions that were suspended after a twin suicide bombing killed 43 displaced people at the weekend in northwest Pakistan should resume by the end of the week, the head of the U.N.'s emergency office said on Tuesday.
Around 300 people, displaced by fighting between the Pakistani army and militants, were queuing for food and shelter assistance at a U.N. registration point in Kohat district on Saturday when two male suicide bombers, disguised in burqas, attacked.
The United Nations suspended some of its humanitarian operations in the immediate aftermath due to security concerns in Kohat, as well as in the neighbouring region of Hangu, where it is assisting over 250,000 people who have fled fighting in volatile areas bordering Afghanistan.
Manuel Bessler, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan, said the two U.N.-run displacement camps in Hangu were still "fully operational", but that registration activities and aid distributions to those living outside camps had been suspended.
"The tragedy is not in suspending our activities, but the fact that 43 people were killed. Obviously, we cannot go back to business-as-usual after such a big tragedy. We have to review security arrangements," Bessler told AlertNet by phone from Islamabad, adding there would be a meeting to discuss this on Wednesday.
"I think we will be able to restart our activities before the end of the week," he said.
Bessler said the United Nations and other international aid agencies working in the area would look at more rigorous screening at registration and aid distribution points outside camps, and may stagger handouts to avoid large gatherings.
"U.N. NOT A TARGET"
Over 1.3 million Pakistanis are currently displaced - living in camps and with host families - as a result of military offensives against al Qaeda-linked Taliban militants which began in August 2008.
At the peak of the crisis last year, U.N. agencies and scores of aid groups struggled to provide relief to around 2.3 million people who had fled fighting in the scenic Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province.
While many have returned home to rebuild their lives, the military has expanded its operations to other areas including South Waziristan, Orakzai, Khyber and Kurrum regions, uprooting hundreds of thousands more.
Bessler said beefing up security at camps was not necessary, adding he believed Saturday's attack was not aimed at the United Nations - which has been targeted in the past - but rather related to sectarian tensions between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims.
"We don't believe that this attack was aimed at the U.N. We are afraid that it has some sectarian involvement as it targeted a registration point in a Shi'a dominated area," he said.
The Pakistani military says its latest operations in the Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram regions have killed hundreds of militants.
But the offensives have failed to weaken the resolve of the Taliban, whose series of violent suicide bombings has raised questions over the stability of U.S. ally Pakistan.
"WAR CRIMES"
Since Saturday, there have been three more attacks by militants. On Sunday, seven people were killed and 26 wounded when a suicide car-bomber attacked a police station in Kohat town.
This was followed by the deaths of another 24 people in two separate attacks in Peshawar city on Monday - one outside a school which killed a six-year-old boy and another in the city's central bazaar.
Human rights group Amnesty International said on Monday it considered these attacks to be "war crimes" and called on the Pakistani government to do more to protect civilians.
"The Pakistani Taliban and other insurgent groups seem to be escalating their attacks on civilians, in clear violation of the laws of war. Such attacks could constitute war crimes," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.
"The Taliban and other insurgent groups are subject to the international laws of war, and they must cease targeting of civilians. Meanwhile the Pakistani government has to do a better job of providing security and provisions for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced during the conflict."
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