Refugees are moving freely across border authorities insist is sealed

Chaos and confusion reigned yesterday at the critical Chaman border crossing in Pakistan as refugees from Afghanistan moved freely…

Chaos and confusion reigned yesterday at the critical Chaman border crossing in Pakistan as refugees from Afghanistan moved freely across the border even as local authorities insisted it was sealed.

"There are no new refugees in Baluchistan province," declared Mr Shafui Kakar, deputy commissioner for Chaman. Even after being told by eyewitnesses who had just returned from the frontier and seen people without documents Mr Kakar maintained his view: "That is the official position," he said.

The matter is important for several reasons. The Chaman border crossing is the largest between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the southern region and the closest to the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan, which is the home base of the ruling Taliban.

It is also one of the bases used by Osama Bin Laden. The US has said its first task in its military mission will be to capture bin Laden.

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Thousands of refugees fleeing Afghanistan are being kept by Pakistani authorities a kilometre from the border crossing inside Afghanistan. But journalists and aid agencies are being prevented from seeing the conditions in which they are living.

Those leaving the area say health conditions are dire. Mr Rupert Colville, a spokesman for UNHCR, said he had received a report of two births and one death in the refugee area in the last few days.

Mr Colville also announced that some 5,000 refugees had been observed at the border watchtower. But the UNHCR, along with Oxfam and other aid agencies, was denied access to the camps.

Mr Colville announced that the UNHCR was planning to open two refugee camps on the Pakistan side, with 5,000 kitchen sets and 2,000 tents. A convoy of 25 trucks was bringing supplies from Peshawar.

But a visit to the areas where the camps are to be built revealed no preparations whatsoever. In fact, two Oxfam representatives who were planning to visit the sites to determine the availability of water were turned back by the authorities.

"We won't let international aid agencies in until we have permission. I have no authority to allow them," said Mr Kakar.

Nonetheless, a flow of desperate refugees is making its way across the dusty, desolate and arid plain deep in the Khojak mountains. Housing consists of lean-tos and straw-matted roofs over mud huts. Apricot trees dot the landscape. The refugees are travelling by moped, donkey-drawn cart and large trucks.

One man who did not wish his name to be used said he left Kandahar a little over a week ago.

He is an educated man and says he was able to enter legally because he has a Pakistani identification card.

"The people in Kandahar started to leave because the Taliban and the Arabs were leaving. We said why are the Arabs leaving? I would say most people have left the city and gone into the mountains. They feel safer there."

The man was asked how much people in Kandahar know of the World Trade Centre outrage in New York.

"I don't think they know much. All they know is that Osama has done something bad again. It is like after the accident in Africa ... (the bombing of the US embassies). People know Osama did something. They know Osama is not good for Afghanistan but they are afraid to say it. Indeed even this man fled when a photographer tried to take his picture.

A number of refugees are spread out across Chaman, a bustling border town on the Pakistani side that is also a major trading port.

Although the aid agencies are not being permitted to deliver food, private food is plentiful ... for a price.

At least five trucks could be seen packed with boxes and bags of wheat for sale, heading into Afghanistan. One man told us the food was being delivered by a private bakery that had been in Kandahar but whose production had been obstructed when the Taliban ruled that women could no longer work there.

In the town of Chaman, Mr Abdul Waheeb Achazae runs a small private hospital which is funded by donations. Three Afghan families are currently being housed there.

Gulub is the father of one clan. He says he has travelled to Pakistan in search of food and job opportunities. He says he knows little about the Taliban.

His daughter is more forthcoming. "Osama never did anything to help me," she says.