Half a million displaced by violence

William Spindler,spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva,said that up to 200,000 people had arrived in safe areas over the past few days and that there could be another 300,000 on the move or about to flee areas in northwestern Pakistan.

The numbers were in addition to 555,000 counted since last August fleeing the areas of Dir,Buner and Swat,he said in a telephone interview.

We could be talking about a total of one million since last August including the latest displaced people,he said. The figure is much higher than previously reported by international organisations. Spindler said the figures for the new exodus were from provincial authorities and that the relief agency considered them reliable.

In a separate statement,Ron Redmond,another spokesman for the UN refugee commissioner,said a situation of massive displacement could be unfolding as the confrontation between Government forces and militants becomes more widespread.

The authorities had established three new tented camps to absorb some of the people traveling in rickshaws,cars,small trucks and buses, Redmond said,according to a transcript of his remarks. Most carry little more than the clothes on their backs.

The International Committee of the Red Cross gave similar estimates on Friday of the number of people displaced by the conflict,though a spokesman for the Red Cross in Islamabad,Sébastien Brack,stressed that,due to the rapidly changing nature of the situation,no-one has reliable figures.

Brack said the Pakistan Government estimated that 500,000 people may have been uprooted since the latest hostilities began last week,in addition to up to 400,000-500,000 people made homeless in previous conflict in northwest Pakistan.

Fighting and curfews imposed by the military authorities are preventing many civilians from fleeing,Brack said. Relief agencies had not been able to secure security guarantees to visit the contested areas in Swat,Buner and Dir,he said.