The New York Times (Dec. 7) finally takes note of the refugee crisis the occupation of Iraq has created:
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in a report released last month that more than 1.6 million Iraqis have left since March 2003, nearly 7 percent of the population. Jordanian security officials say more than 750,000 are in and around Amman, a city of 2.5 million. Syrian officials estimate that up to one million have gone to the suburbs of Damascus, a city of three million. An additional 150,000 have landed in Cairo. Every month, 100,000 more join them in Syria and Jordan, the report said.
In a report released this week, Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group, put the total at close to two million and called their flight “the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in the world.” Its president, Kenneth Bacon, said, “The United States and its allies sparked the current chaos in Iraq, but they are doing little to ease the humanitarian crisis caused by the current exodus.”
One thing the US isn't ready to do is to acknowledge the crisis, or to talk to Syria, which Bush (in a joint press conference with Blair) admonished in the following terms: "Stop allowing
money and arms to cross your border into Iraq. Don’t provide safe haven
for terrorist groups." In other words: don't let Iraqis come in, and don't let them go back?
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