Pakistani Refugees Suffering in Camps

Shah Mohammed Bugti sits outside his makeshift home in Murid Bugti, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) east of the Baluchistan capital, Quetta in Pakistan Wednesday, Dec 27, 2006. Bugti says his nine-month-old son has died and his daughter may soon follow if humanitarian aid does not reach tens of thousands desperate tribesmen fleeing a civil conflict in Pakistan's tense southwest. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt) (Arshad Butt - AP)

For the past year, life has been miserable for the ethnic Baluch refugees arriving from Dera Bugti and Kohlu, districts at the center of the conflict between government troops and armed rebels of the Bugti and Marri tribes.

More than 30,000 people are crowded into two camps _ one for Bugti tribesmen, the other for Marri tribesmen _ in desert terrain at Murid Bugti, about 160 miles east of the Baluchistan capital, Quetta. Refugees claim local administrators have prevented Pakistani charities from sending aid, which the government denies.

Over the past three months, at least 61 Marri refugees, most of them children, have died because of the effects of malnutrition, weather and other hardships, said Ahsanullah Marri, a village mayor from Kohlu district. Camp residents said at least 15 Bugti refugees also died.

The refugees say they want to go home but accuse the government of blocking them.

Many in the Bugti camp accuse the government of settling hundreds of people from other tribes in their home district to neutralize the influence of an anti-government tribal chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed in a military operation in August.

"The government is our enemy," said refugee Nawaz Bugti, 24. "I will prefer to die than ask the government for help."

Some camp residents said security forces had targeted them. A spokesman for the Baluchistan provincial government, Abdul Raziq Bugti, denied the charges, saying security forces target only "anti-state elements" in Dera Bugti.

Hundreds of Bugti and Marri militiamen are waging a guerrilla war, attacking security forces and sabotaging electricity and gas infrastructure.

Human rights activists and opposition politicians have urged the government to resolve the crisis through negotiations, but Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said rebels will be dealt with by force unless they lay down their arms.