Pakistanis Refugees Return Home to Swat Valley

Pakistani displaced man packed his belonging as he prepared to return to their villages from Jalozai...

Pakistani displaced man packed his belonging as he prepared to return to their villages from Jalozai Internal Displaced camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, July 13, 2009. Hundreds of Pakistani refugees who spent weeks in sweltering relief camps began heading home to the battle-scarred northwest Swat Valley on Monday under a government repatriation program, traveling on buses with security escorts.

(Vincent Thian/AP Photo)

After weeks in sweltering camps, refugees from Pakistan's Swat Valley boarded buses and began heading home Monday — the first day of an official repatriation program for those uprooted by fighting between the army and Taliban militants.

Pakistan's military launched an operation this spring to clear Swat of Taliban insurgents — an offensive strongly backed by the Obama administration, which considers it a test of Islamabad's resolve to curb Islamist extremists.

The fighting drove some 2 million people from their homes in the country's northwest. The army has now declared most of Swat cleared of militants, and on Monday began ferrying those stuck in camps back home.

But only a fraction of the total number of refugees actually began their journey home Monday. Some refused to go back, citing lingering security concerns and demanding aid promised them by the government. Thousands more tried to return without official permission and were blocked by the military.

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The repatriation program's sputtering start illustrates the Pakistani government's struggles to respond to one of the most challenging humanitarian crises in the country's history. Islamabad has had a mixed record in the past. Last year, officials told refugees from the Bajur tribal region they could return during a cease-fire with Taliban fighters, and many did, only to see fighting resume.

On Monday, some families said they would not go home unless they were given money, food and other government-promised aid. Each family was supposed to get $306, but the government has had difficulties handing out the cash.

Still, many people were desperate to go home after spending weeks in stifling tents.

Khurshid Khan, 65, traveled with his extended family of 30 people to their home in Barikot, south of Swat's main city of Mingora, after spending two months in a camp.

"We are very happy. We pray to Allah that we always have peace here. We hope the bad days are over," Khan said after unloading blankets, mattresses, plastic sheets, electric fans and a one-month's ration of food from the top of a dust-covered bus.