Iraqi Refugees need U.S. help, advocates say

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

America must invest more time, money, and human resources to help those displaced by the ongoing Iraq War, according to human rights advocates from the Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International.

The presence of 2.6 million displaced Iraqis persons is overwhelming to neighboring Middle East countries and is “undermining” to the social fabric of Iraq, said Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International, at a speech made today at the National Press Club.

President Barack Obama talked about displacement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.

Bacon is happy at what is being seen as a distinct change from the “little attention” that the Bush Administration paid to Iraqi displacement.

It is estimated that since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, 2.6 million Iraqi’s have lost their homes and have fled other parts of the country. An additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, including Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Bacon said that greater American and international support in receiving refugees and providing financial-aid can help stop the crisis.

Displacement of that many people “affects the whole region”, said Bacon, which results in educated citizens and specialized workers fleeing the country.

There are only 18,000 practicing doctors in Iraq, down from 32,000 doctors in 2002. There are more Iraqi doctors in Jordan than in Iraq’s capitol city of Baghdad, Bacon said.

Last year Democratic Senators Robert Casey (PA) and Benjamin Cardin (MD) introduced a bill to increase aid to Iraqi refugees and allow more of them to enter the United States. Since the FY2010 Budget has been approved by Congress, any appropriated funds to help Iraqi citizens would have to come through additional legislation, Bacon said.

A spokesman for Senator Cardin said it has not been decided yet if similar legislation would be introduced in this Congress.

Refugee International’s Field Report on the Iraqi refugee situation said that the Iraqi government is trying to keep more of its citizens from fleeing their homeland. It is feared by the Iraqi government that the existence of so many refugees tarnishes the image of overall security within the country.

The report also said Iraq violated international refugee laws in 2007 by asking Syria not to accept any more Iraqi refugees.

Many refugees have fears of returning home, the report says, because many of those that returned already have been killed.

Kristele Younes, an advocate with Refugees International, says that security is a major issue in Iraqi neighborhoods, with each little borough acting as its own walled off “fiefdom”.

Younes said that the United Nations is trying to place a tourniquet on the flow of persons out of the country by the end of the year, but significant challenges remain in Iraq, including budgetary shortcomings due to low oil prices, corruption within the government and sectarianism.

The Refugees International’s report on Iraq can be found here.

McGovern calls for military options in Darfur

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

One week after thirteen international aid organizations were expelled from Darfur, and one day after President Obama named Former General J. Scott Gration as a special envoy to Sudan, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said that military options to stop the genocide should not be ruled out. These military options could come to fruition as a no-fly zone. McGovern hopes the Obama administration’s diplomacy can prevail, but went on to say that time is running out and that Obama should work with NATO, the African Union, and the Arab League to stop the violence immediately, since more people are dying each day.

The Congressman said, “What we have done up to this point has not worked.” He said that genocide, violence, and rape are continuing, and now the government is “going to starve people to death.” McGovern went on to say that the Sudanese government is “determined to kill the people of Darfur” and drew similarities between the situation and the Holocaust

The Save Darfur Coalition said that since the aid organizations were expelled by President Omar al-Bashir, approximately 1.1 million civilians have been left without food aid, 1.5 million without health care, and almost 1 million without drinking water. In the crisis at large, the United Nations states that since 2003 over 200,000 people have been killed, and over 2 million people have been displaced.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled the aid organizations after being indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Congressman Jim Moran (D-Va.) charged, “this expulsion of aid workers further confirms the legitimacy of the indictment,” and that the president is guilty as charged.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) continued that he thinks there is no “political will” right now to send more troops into harm’s way considering America’s presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and feels that African Union forces should be left to do the job. African Union troops have unsuccessfully tried to quell the violence in the past. Smith said he believes a renewed effort by the African Union forces will yield better results.

Using culture as groundwork for development

Today, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released The State of World Population 2008. The UNFPA held a discussion on how to use culturally sensitive approaches that are essential to understanding legal, political, economic and social power relations instrumental to development.

According to a UNFPA press release, the report suggests that partnerships—for example between UNFPA and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—can create effective strategies to promote human rights, such as women’s empowerment and gender equality, and end human rights abuses like female genital mutilation or cutting. The press release said power relations mold gender dynamics and underlie practices such as child marriage (a leading cause of obstetric fistula and maternal death) and female genital mutilation or cutting.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said “UNFPA will be funded. The president doesn’t have to do anything. He just has to let the will of congress go through.” Maloney was a very strong supporter of this new report that believes by “embracing cultural realities, you can reveal the most effective ways to challenge harmful cultural practices and strengthen beneficial ones.”

Azza Karam, Ph.D., Senior Culture Adviser at UNFPA, brought up an example of this cultural development integration in Ethiopia. International aid organizations spend thousands to millions of dollars on medical clinics in Ethiopia, especially for safeguarding childbirth methods. Yet many NGOs find that the clinics are rarely used. By using what UNFPA calls a “cultural lens,” an NGO would find that many women are choosing to perform home births instead because “they believe it’s a part of their culture.” If the NGO uses UNFPA’s cultural lens method, they could work with a religious leader who performs the teen-marriages that lead to young pregnancy to prevent the marriages from happening in the first place. This is a way of what Pauline Muchina, Ph.D., Senior Partnership Adviser at UNAIDS, called using culture as the fundamental groundwork for development.

The criminal underground's aid in the Siege of Sarajevo

Have United Nations workers and other NGO volunteers always maintained peace, or have they been the central piece to a war economy?

Scholar and author Peter Andreas of “Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo” portrays in his new book the double-sided affects of the international involvement during the Siege of Sarajevo. Andreas stressed that the Unites Nations was a main player in the siege’s peacekeeping, but it also allowed an underground criminal economy to facilitate positive and negative forces in Sarajevo.

Andreas said, “criminality involved looting the city, but also saving it. It involved perpetuating the siege, but also ending the war. And it involved state deformation and formation at the same time”. Andreas said the criminal underground emerged in the absence of an organized army in Sarajevo, and became “overnight patriotic heroes.” In a secret tunnel beneath the Sarajevo Airport, these criminals served as profiteers---selling cigarettes, alcohol, and arms---as well as a lifeline, providing money, medical supplies and an escape for civilians.

The UN controlled the airport during the siege. It was through the airport that civilians and criminal leaders ran their market of aid and corruption. Although he recognized that NATO air strikes were significant in the siege’s conclusion, he says most of the war’s conclusion was due to the shifting military balance in the arms embargo under the UN controlled airport. International aid was significant in publicizing and aiding the siege, but Andreas’ “backstage” conclusions may be the reason there is now a new criminalized elite in Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia.