The spring of 1992 witnessed the beginning of one of the greatest migrations of the century -- the hopeful return of more than 6 million Afghan refugees who had fled their homeland during a 14-year-long war that ended in April 1992, when a coalition of Islamic guerrilla armies toppled the Soviet-backed government in Kabul.
They had lived for years in the sprawling encampments set up to house them in Pakistan and Iran. Now, they thought, it would be safe to return.
At the time, Robert Breen was the senior repatriation officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. He recalls rising at 4:00 AM to watch the surge of humanity moving out of the city and up toward the dust-colored peaks of the Khyber Pass. "I'd go to the camps around Peshawar to watch people loading up their belongings. It was overwhelming to be able to go along the road through the Khyber Pass and watch lines of trucks loaded with animals, bedding and children on top and bikes tied to the back. People were festive; there was such optimism."
The refugees were impatient to return. Their numbers were staggering. Breen and other UNHCR staff members decided that, given the immensity of the problem, it would be best to let the refugees themselves arrange for their return. Meanwhile, UNHCR would provide each family with about $130 in cash to help family members get back on their feet once they had returned to their home village or city, and a three-month ration of 300 kilograms-roughly 660 pounds-of wheat.
The decision to assist in the refugees' return was immediately challenged. It was wrong, the critics said, to encourage people to return to a countryside littered with mines. For Breen and others, this missed the point. The Afghans had formed a human flood that could not be held back. For UNHCR staff, the whole issue boiled down to a single question: How can we help these people? Throughout the summer of 1992, the flood surged over the borders. Then, in August, came "the stab in the heart," as Breen puts it. Fighting erupted among the guerrillas, this time in and around Kabul, the capital, which had survived intact throughout the previous years of war.
When the renewed fighting began, Breen recalls, "100,000 people a week were crossing the border. The fighting in Kabul meant that a new population was fleeing. So our people positioned at the border crossings started counting both ways. In the period through the winter of 1992-93, we had 90,000 leaving Afghanistan and 1.2 million on their way back into their homeland."
By: Shiela Rule, (excerpt from Securing Relief and Refuge), from: A Global Affair: An Inside Look at The United Nations, published by Jones and Janello, copyright 1995, all rights reserved.
