First U.N. convoys take refugees home

TORKHAM, Pakistan -- Excited Afghans crowded the first U.N. convoys taking Afghanistan's 5 million refugees home Friday to a war-ruined land some have not seen in decades, some never.

In cold and rain, refugees loaded everything from fans to bicycles to infants in their embroidered best -- for journeys over the Khyber Pass.

Nearly 200 Afghans left Friday from western Pakistan's Torkham crossing on the eastern end of the pass.

"Now there is hope. We can go to our country," said Khaistapibbi, jostling for space on a U.N.-funded van to return to a land whose wars she fled in the 1980s.

Khaistapibbi brought her 18-month-old son, who was born in Pakistan. The boy's father returned home too soon, and died in fighting during the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

"I have some relatives there," Khaistapibbi, who goes by one name, said confidently. "I'm sure they'll help me."

"We hope there will be peace and security inside Afghanistan," said 65-year-old Abdul Qadir, who lost 11 sons and brothers and other family in Afghanistan's wars. He was shepherding home the 12 relatives he had left.

Iran and Pakistan hold up to 5 million Afghans who have fled drought, poverty and 23 years of war. Many have settled permanently, and are unlikely to go back -- at least not soon.

The United Nations has signed accords with both countries stipulating that none will be forced to go. It expects to help up to 800,000 return this year.

U.N. officials had expected to see up to 1,000 leave through Pakistan's Torkham crossing on Friday. But only a fraction of that number left.

Rain discouraged some. Crowds at registration tables delayed many others.

Male heads of families clustered around tables to sign up for their rides and for U.N. packages of sugar, tea and other staples, along with $20 each to see them home.

After crossing the border, the convoy was to break up to start refugees on their way to homes across Afghanistan.

Apprehension over the future dampened the excitement for mothers and fathers, but not for children.

"I'm going back, and I'm very happy," cried Mujtaba, a 5-year-old born a refugee in Pakistan, waving a toy gun as he and his mother crowded into the back of a truck.

"I'll join the army," the boy cried. "And I'll study, and go to school."

"Now, I'm happy. I am in a very good mood," said Nizakat, 11, going back home to Kabul, where her father is a brigadier in Afghanistan's new military.

"There are no more restrictions, and we can move around in the bazaars and markets," the girl said, ticking off post-Taliban freedoms awaiting her in Afghanistan's capital. "We can be independent, live and celebrate."

Similar convoys are to leave throughout the year from crossings elsewhere on the Iran and Pakistan borders.

Afghan leaders and some aid agencies have expressed worry about returning refugees too quickly to a country still sorely short of jobs, stability and rain.

Even as some refugees return, thousands more new ones are heading out. Most are ethnic Pashtuns fleeing what they say is persecution by the ethnic Uzbeks now ascendant in the country's north.

Another 1 million Afghans are believed displaced inside the country. They are not considered refugees according to internationally accepted definitions.

Thursday saw the first trip home for some of the displaced Afghans, with aid agencies sending out 269 men, women and children among 118,000 at Afghanistan's largest camp for the internally displaced, near the western city of Herat.

In Kandahar, the first U.N. aid flights for the displaced touched down at the city's U.S. military-held airport.