For this years World Refugee Day on June 20th UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador actress Angelina Jolie recorded a public service announcement (PSA) to draw attention to the plight of the millions of people who have been forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution.
World Refugee Day 20 June For years, many countries and regions have been holding their own Refugee Days and even Weeks. One of the most widespread is Africa Refugee Day, which is celebrated on 20 June in several countries.
President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."
Than yesterday we get this:
The Pentagon is projecting that when the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq ends in July there will be about 8,000 more troops on the ground than when it began in January 2007, a senior general said Monday.
Rolling Stone has a great report, From Iraq, that's online now and out in next months mag.
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq NIR ROSEN Posted Mar 06, 2008
It's abit of a long read, but a truth to word and opening ones mind to imagine the reality as if there, opening:
It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the city's no-go zones. Devastated by five years of clashes between American forces, Shiite militias, Sunni resistance groups and Al Qaeda, much of Dora is now a ghost town. This is what "victory" looks like in a once upscale neighborhood of Iraq: Lakes of mud and sewage fill the streets. Mountains of trash stagnate in the pungent liquid. Most of the windows in the sand-colored homes are broken, and the wind blows through them, whistling eerily. House after house is deserted, bullet holes pockmarking their walls, their doors open and unguarded, many emptied of furniture. What few furnishings remain are covered by a thick layer of the fine dust that invades every space in Iraq. Looming over the homes are twelve-foot-high security walls built by the Americans to separate warring factions and confine people to their own neighborhood. Emptied and destroyed by civil war, walled off by President Bush's much-heralded "surge," Dora feels more like a desolate, post-apocalyptic maze of concrete tunnels than a living, inhabited neighborhood. Apart from our footsteps, there is complete silence.
We have created a Huge Refugee Crisis that may be ready to explode, creating more danger to them and the already unstable conditions of Iraq and the region.
A top U.N. refugee official warned on Tuesday of the possibility that Iraqi refugees might be expelled from their sanctuaries unless the United States, Iraq and other countries act quickly to help them.
One of the reasons for the curb in violence, besides the ceasefire by Sadr and paying former insurgent personal to not fight U.S. troops but the so called al Qaeda of Iraq, are the Blast Walls seperating the now mostly ethnically cleansed neighborhoods of Baghdad.
And any Iraq refugees, returning, voluntarily or forced because of lack of money or forced out of safer neighboring countries, return to the ethnically cleansed neighborhoods, most with others now living in their homes, and all living behind Walls of Concrete seperating neighborhood from neighborhood!
Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation.
Child beggars are a common sight in the streets of Baghdad
Ahmed said he would rather beg than steal and that he had started begging before his parents died because they were a poor family. He said his mother died in Fallujah in August 2004. She was visiting her parents when their house was bombed by US-led coalition forces.
His father fell ill and could not work so he sent his children out to beg. If they did not come home with enough money, he would beat them, Ahmed said. His father died of kidney failure in April 2005
Only four years ago, the vast majority of these children were living at home with their families.
Many of those we are have been fighting, since we invaded, are the children who have grown since the first Gulf War and through the years of Sanctions, the ones who survived!
Azhar al Haidari, 47, center, is an Iraqi refugee in Damascus, Syria. While her two daughters, Inam, left, and Mary, are excelling in school, their older brothers are illiterate because they've been out of class for so long
Illiteracy is spreading rapidly among refugee children from Iraq, with at least 300,000 young Iraqis not attending school in the countries where their families have sought safety.
"The last time my kids were in school was 2003, right before the American invasion," said Hanaa Majeed, 32, an Iraqi refugee in Damascus who can't afford to send her two sons to school. "They can barely read. I buy books and try to teach them at home, but it's not the same. My boys see other kids with backpacks on, going off to school, and they ask why they can't go, too." Education is a point of pride for Iraqis, the descendants of civilizations that invented cuneiform, one of the world's first writing systems.
Over 1.6 million children under the age of 12 have become homeless in Iraq, according to the country's Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. That's almost 70 percent of the estimated 2.5 million Iraqis who are homeless inside the country.
"There are no reliable estimates of how many orphans and abandoned children are in Iraq today but we believe, according to some data collected by local NGOs, that over 8,000 children are in the same or a similar situation to that of Faleh," Mayada said.
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than two million Iraqis have fled to neighbouring countries, with Jordan (500,000-750,000) and Syria (1.2-1.4 million) hosting the greatest numbers.
Demanding of our attention and action today is the terrible plight of Iraqi refugees, both those outside the country and internally displaced persons (IDPs). They number to date a fifth of the Iraqi population.
This tragic human dislocation has been created by the active violation of the UN Charter and other aspects of international law. This violation was demonstrated during the American terrorism of "Shock and Awe", and the invasion of sovereignty, disruption of culture, destruction of civilian infrastructure that it entailed and epitomised. Irreparable damage to society and fundamental human rights has ensued. This outrageous unprovoked act of aggression brought to Iraq yet again the horrors of war. Bush and Blair's pre-emptive strike has led to the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Current credible estimations put the figure at over one million since 2003.
Over and above massive loss of civilian life, is the tragic consequence of refugees. It is estimated some 4.7 million children, women and men have been forced from their homes and have fled -- some displaced within and some outside Iraq. More that 20 per cent of the entire population have been brutally uprooted by the violence of this war of aggression -- a war crime for which the US-UK, along with others, must be held responsible.
Of these refugees, and those who haven't fled, many are the children, the children who we have stripped of their childhood! Those that are still in the War Ravaged Country of Iraq will try and maintain some semblance of chilhood activities, but their games of pretend are carried out amoung the devestation and destruction around them. And much of their pretend activities are the acting out of the forces of destruction they have witnessed, the only thing they know.
The Iraqi government, eager to claim credit for the decline in violence, offers returnees free transportation to Iraq, provides protection to the bus convoys and gives families $800 each to help with resettling.
But American and U.N. officials warn that a big return of refugees could rekindle sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites and that some returnees have found their homes occupied by members of the other Muslim sect. Even the Iraqi government acknowledges it cannot handle a huge influx.
Most returnees did so because they were running out of money or because their visas had expired, states the report, with less than 15 per cent found to be returning because they believed the security situation had improved.
Recent visa restrictions in both Syria and Jordan have made it virtually impossible for new refugees to gain access to either country, and in Syria in particular, Iraqi refugees now find it hard to remain. By being denied work permits, Iraqis across the region are rapidly depleting their savings and are facing ever-worsening economic conditions.
More than 4.5 million Iraqis — a fifth of the population — have been displaced inside and outside their country due to the sectarian policies of the occupation and the governments it has installed since the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003
The international community, the occupation powers, and the government in Iraq are legally required to support and protect Iraqi refugees
Iraqi refugees are Iraqi citizens who have a full right to live in dignity, a right to benefit equally from national resources, and a right to return to their homes
The UN Security Council, as the highest body of the UN, has the power and legal duty to ensure that the needs of Iraqi refugees are met by passing a resolution to require that the Iraqi state allocate proportionate revenue to responsible agencies and hosting countries
Visit above site and sign their Petition: Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our moral responsibility is to save it. Join us.
Most of those who led the charge to War, and their supporters, try and lay the blame for what some of these children will, or already have, do on others who they say entice these children into violence and violent acts. These children don't need to be pushed nor taught, their anger and the life forced on them shapes what many will become, and it only takes a few, but there will be more than just a few. Those who lay the blame on others fear their own guilt that eventually will catch up to them!
And this is only about the Children of Iraq. How about the Children of Afganistan, or Darfur, or Palestine, or the many many other troubled spots on this planet! The disenfranchised have been rising up from the failed policies practiced by the powerful, leaving legacies of destruction to come!
Talk of the Nation, September 3, 2007 · Retired Gen. Joseph Hoar talks about his op-ed that appeared in The New York Times on Friday {8-31-07}, in which he argues that the United States needs to open its doors to more Iraqi refugees.
Retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Hoar, is the former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command.
In the Generals op-ed he writes:
FOR more than a year, men and women in our armed forces have been urging the United States to bring to safety the Iraqi translators and others who have worked beside them and are now the victims of retaliation.
And adds the obvious:
It is shameful that more than four years into this war, Iraqis working at our embassy cannot count on the United States to protect them or to help them find a new home when their work with us has made it impossible to survive in their own country.
And another obvious:
Similarly, it is both cruel and foolish for the United States to ignore the plight of more than two million others who have fled and are struggling to survive in Syria and Jordan.
Shown in this video, from the UNHCR, found at their site:
Iraq's Exodus of Pain
As well as this video:
And a few of the reports posted there as well:
Iraq: Rate of displacement rising This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis -- to whom quoted text may be attributed -- at the press briefing, on 28 August 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR and UNICEF issue joint appeal to get Iraqi children back to school Friday 27 July, 2007 GENEVA -- UNICEF and the UN refugee agency today issued a $129 million joint appeal aimed at getting tens of thousands of uprooted Iraqi children back in school. Warning that a generation of Iraqis could grow up uneducated and alienated.
More can be found on the plight of the Iraqi refugees at the UNHCR Website.
The General goes on to add this obvious as well:
Dealing with the refugee crisis is vital to the national security of the United States. Continuing indifference to suffering that we had a strong hand in causing will turn our Muslim supporters against us. More important, it repudiates the fundamental values of our country and costs Iraqis their lives.
For those that just don't seem to get those points what more can one say to convince you of the already known facts of what has been happening, in the present, and what occurred in the past, and not the past of just that region, but the meddleing of the so called powerful in that and other regions of this planet!
The general ends with this:
As a key part of that strategy, the United States must reach out to Iraq’s neighbors — including Syria — and demonstrate a willingness to help support and take in refugees, starting with those who risked their lives to stand with us.
We must not only reach out to Iraq's neighbors on the issue of the refugee's, which must start Now, but also all the region to help stem the growing sectarian violence that is occurring in Iraq. We, for we created this destructive mess, must sit down with the leaders, political and religious, and ask for their help in attempting to quiet the growing hatreds within Iraq, this should have been started Long Ago!
We broke it and the only way to attempt to bring about the stability needed can be found Only with the help of the Entire Region!
There is nothing we can do for the estimated 1,028,907 Iraqi's who have died since the U.S. invasion, and we will never completely know exactly how many have been killed, one never does when one invades and destroys a country!
But there is Plenty we can, and should, do for those who survive the hell on earth we forced on an innocent people. It is our Overwelming Responsibility!
With Extremely Strong Apologies to the World Community, for what is now and probably coming, we may be able to garner some help in fulfilling that Responsibility!
Recently Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador to UNHCR visited displaced Iraqi refugee's inside Iraq and in Syria.
Below is a report from Newsweeks Christopher Dicky on the extraordinary imagery released after that UNHCR recent trip.
A. Jolie - Iraq's Exodus of Pain
And here's a few reports from the UNHCR's website of that visit.
Angelina Jolie visits Iraq and Iraqi refugees 28 August 2007 UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador witnesses humanitarian crisis DAMASCUS – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has visited Iraq and Syria to see first-hand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
There is an estimated, well over, 1.9million displaced Iraqi refugee's within the country, and growing!
The following is an UNHCR video report about their plight, in their own words.
Iraq's Exodus of Pain 2
And on top of that 1.9million Iraq refugee's there's an estimated over 2million who have fled the country and now live in the surrounding neighbors countries, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey as well as those with the ability to have moved to other countries.
Iraq's Exodus of Pain 3
Here are afew reports on the plight of those refugees.
Iraq: Rate of displacement rising This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 28 August 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR and UNICEF issue joint appeal to get Iraqi children back to school Friday 27 July, 2007 GENEVA – UNICEF and the UN refugee agency today issued a $129 million joint appeal aimed at getting tens of thousands of uprooted Iraqi children back in school. Warning that a generation of Iraqis could grow up uneducated and alienated.
More can be found on the plight of the Iraqi refugees at the UNHCR Website
This is an extremly huge problem, that we've created, and it's only going to grow and grow!
This from above
Warning that a generation of Iraqis could grow up uneducated and alienated.
are what we are leaving the next couple of generations, Worldwide, to contend with because of the hatreds we have instilled!
