UN seeks $543M in aid for Swat refugees

The United Nations appealed to the international community on Friday to contribute$543 million US to ease the suffering of nearlytwo million refugeesdisplaced by fighting in Pakistan's volatile Swat valley.

Officials say 1.9 million people have fled the fighting in the northwestern region. More than 160,000 are staying in sweltering camps just south of the battle zone. The rest have been taken in by relatives.

The United Nations said its appeal would help provide food, schooling and health care to the multitude displaced from the Swat area and by fighting in other border regions last year.

"The scale of this displacement is extraordinary in terms of size and speed and has caused incredible suffering," said Martin Mogwanja, acting UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan. "We are calling for generous support from the international community."

$8.5M in Canadian aid

The Pakistani government said Thursday that international donors had pledged a total of $224 million. That includes about $8.5 million Cdnin aid from the Canadian government and $110 million in emergency aid from the United States.

Pakistan, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid, has pledged $100 million of its own.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has declared eliminating militant havens in Pakistan vital to its goals of defeating al-Qaeda and winning the war in Afghanistan.

But an army failure or a botched relief effort in Swat would further undermine Pakistani enthusiasm for tough military action inside its own borders.

Unable to verify accounts

The army claims to have won back swaths of territory in Swat, which was popular with tourists before the Taliban took over, enforcing a hardline brand of Islamic law and beheading opponents.

However, it faces stiff resistance from thousands more fighters and has ventured no prediction of when the Taliban will be defeated.

Maj.-Gen. Sajad Ghani, the commander of military operations in the upper portion of the Swat valley, sought Friday to counter allegations that many civilians had died in army shelling. Reporters are unable to work in the war zone, making it difficult to verify accounts of the fighting.

Only ground troops were operating in residential areas and the number of innocents killed in the area under his responsibility had "not reached double figures," he said.

Violence is also rising in the tribal regions along the Afghan border from where Taliban and al-Qaeda militants launch attacks on both sides of the frontier.