Behind the scenes: A refugee camp for Pakistani Christians
Pastor Dale Morgan
Behind the scenes: A refugee camp for Pakistani Christians*
* Story Highlights
* 2,000 Christians have settled in the middle of the road
* They say the government kicked them off their land without warning
* Government says they were given plenty of warning
* Doctor says he is surprised at poor conditions in the camp
In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their
experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events.
CNN's Cal Perry reports on a refugee camp in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Children at the camp are in danger of dehydration, says a doctor who
visited the refugees with CNN.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- They are not war refugees, not displaced by
violence; rather they believe they're here because they are Christian.
A mother of two sobs as she tells us, "I have no money. No money for
books or uniforms to send my children to school." It's around 110
degrees Fahrenheit in this squalid camp in downtown Islamabad, where
2,000 Christians have settled, literally in the middle of the road.
The Christian population of Pakistan is only 5 percent of the overall
population. Overwhelmed by a Muslim majority, at times they face violent
attacks. Other times, they believe they're expelled from their lands --
faced with a distant and dark future.
This group has ended up living in tents for the past 3 months.
They say the government kicked them off their land without warning: only
because they are Christian. The government tells a different story,
saying that they were given plenty of warning. Further than that, they
say they will take care of this problem, a problem they are well aware of.
The minister of minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, says, "We are
constitutionally bound to protect the life and property of the
minorities and to look after the interests of the minorities in this
country. Because they played a role in the founding, they are equal
citizens of the country. Yes, there is a problem, but we are trying to
solve those problems."
The truth is, regardless of any religious strife, people are dying of
poverty in this camp. Two have died since the group settled here, and
children lay in the sun, totally exposed to the sun, suffering slowly.
We brought a doctor to the camp; he seemed stunned, both at its location
and the conditions.
"I think there's a danger here, especially with some of the younger
children, that they could just die from dehydration or from all kinds of
infections," says Dr. Rixwan Taj. "I am very surprised, really because
this is the center of Islamabad, just right in the center. And every
facility is not but 10 minutes from here."
The water the camp is using to survive on is a broken pipe that runs
underneath the road and out one side. At the camp, the water is used for
drinking and washing. It happens to run over a pile of trash and
directly down into the makeshift toilets, which are two holes in the
ground. Taj tells us the obvious: Typhoid will come to this camp -- the
conditions are ripe.
Other countries of course deal with religious strife; minorities all
over the world face an uphill struggle. But here, with the addition of
poverty, in the oppressive heat -- in an over-crowed camp on the side of
the road in downtown Islamabad -- it seems that much worse.
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A little girl stares into our camera and rhythmically says, "Hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelujah." Her religion teaches her that "the poor" will
inherit "the kingdom of heaven."
Heaven seems a long way off.