1 million refugees, concentrated mostly in the Swat Valley in Pakistan by texting the word "swat" to 20222 to make a $5 donation that will provide medicine, tents, food, and clothing through the United Nations Refugee program. Secretary Clinton asked for donations at the same time as announcing that the US will give $110 million in aid to Pakistan, which has nearly 2 million internationally displaced refugees since last August. According to Spiegel today:
There are few witnesses to the battle currently raging in the Swat Valley. The Taliban threatens to kill all journalists who do not report in their favor. Newspapers and television stations depend on the statements issued by an army spokesman. The Pakistani military has also disabled all cellular phone networks in the combat zones.
The valley at the base of the Hindu Kush mountains, a place of peach groves and clear brooks, is abandoned after a week of the offensive. Last Friday, tens of thousands of people took advantage of an eight-hour lifting of the curfew in Mingora to flee, filling the streets with an endless flow of pedestrians, donkey carts, overloaded small buses, trucks and mopeds. The city of 350,000 had been bombed for days, and water and electricity had been shut off for more than a week. [SOURCE]
Pick up your phones, y'all!
Posts
