Flight or displacement is a time-tested coping strategy for escaping the effects of conflict. When people do not feel safe in their communities and when other coping strategies (such as hiding or negotiating with warring groups) do not work, they flee.10 There are three basic ways in which conflicts displace people. First, civilians may be ‘caught in the crossfire’ of disputes between insurgent groups and government forces (or sometimes conflicts between insurgent groups.) They may flee their communities once the bombs start to fall or armed groups attack their village. Or they may flee in anticipation of such conflicts. Thus in May 2009, 2 million Pakistanis fled the NWFP area of Pakistan where the government carried out a major counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban. Some of them left in anticipation of the attack, some were told to leave, and some did not leave until the attacks began.
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