Trip to Balochistan

“The thunder of guns in the mountains of Balochistan has caused deep concern throughout the province…It is almost four days now that the security forces started action in Kohlu district following a rocket attack aimed at the gathering addressed by President General Perez Musharraf…The rocket-firing incident was generally considered contrary to the tribal traditions of hospitality.”

The Balochistan Times, Thursday, December 22, 2005


Its probably better not to even read the newspapers. Maria, one-half of the perpetually cheerful Swedish couple I’m working with, was recently assigned the duty of reviewing the local newspapers for stories that may be of interest/concern to MSF. I think as a result she’s looking forward to her departure in early January. Maria tells me that she has been too busy to write home and that her mother is monitoring my blog in hopes of any news on her precious daughter. Therefore, as a public service I forward the following message “God Jul mamma & pappa! Allt val har! Kram Maria.”

Anyways, let’s get back to talking about me.

I managed to sneak out of Islamabad for a couple of days and flew south to visit our office in Quetta and travel to the Afghan refugee camp at Mohammad Kheil (MK). To get to MK you head west from Quetta on the trade road to Iran. When you get close to the Afghanistan border you turn right off the paved road and across the train tracks. If the road is bad and you think you’ve taken a wrong turn then you know that you haven’t. It takes about 3 hours to drive here which tells you how close Quetta really is to the middle of nowhere.

Mohammad Kheil is about as barren a place as you could find. You wonder why people would come here of all places which is also what I think when visiting Edmonton (which for my Swedish readers is sort of like living in Eslöv). If this is their place of refuge you can only imagine what it was like in Afghanistan. This camp has been here since the early 1980s following the Russian invasion. The population size has varied since then from over 60,000 people to the approximately 15,000 that reside there today. The homes are built mostly of mud and clay and many are abandoned and in decay (hey, that rhymed). It almost has the feel of an ancient Greek archeological site rather than a place where are large population recently lived.

It was interesting to see what MSF provides to the camp. The Health Unit was a busy place and I was impressed with its range of services and how orderly it was. Also at MK there was a feeding centre for malnourished infants. Both locations were fully operated by national staff. MSF is also coordinating the provision of chlorinated drinking water and installing latrines in MK to ensure that sanitation standards are met. I have been in Pakistan for almost two months now and finally I was able to observe MSF at work.