Wrap-Up

Over the course of this semester, I have learned more about the world then I ever have before. I knew that there were problems that need fixing, people that need homes, and conflicts that need resolution, but I never thought that it would be at such a grand scale. There are millions of refugees around the world, living in a state of poverty, need, and fear that I could never comprehend. I don’t know how it feels to think that my home and my country aren’t safe. I have never not had a place to live and had to know that someone else had either destroyed or stolen my home. Never have there been people who wanted me destroyed just because of where I lived, the color of my skin, or the God that I pray to. These issues feel so foreign to me, since I have never had to deal with any of them. I feel so privileged to have grown up in luxury and stability compared to so many people around the world. As disheartening as the current world situation is, I have never looked at the world with as much hope as I do now though. There is so much potential for positive change all around the world. People are stepping up and making changes, making a difference. We in America have the opportunity to shape our policies and decisions to help in whatever way we can, and also do our best to cause no more harm then we already have. As long as we focus on fixing the problems we have caused, and doing our part to help create a safer world for everyone, hopefully we will see a better future on the horizon.

Barack Obama - How Will You Help?

Here’s a very touching video that I saw for the first time a few weeks ago. In it, there are clips from a message Barack Obama put together for refugees in Darfur, interspersed with clips from people in Darfur sending their congratulations and support to President-Elect Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-hLhjXJyk

I’m very interested to see the way that Barack Obama deals with refugee crises during his time as president. We haven’t had a very good track record over the last two presidents when it comes to this area (President Bush has caused some of the largest refugee crises in the world in Iraq and Afghanistan, and President Clinton refused to step in during the genocide in Rwanda, calling that the biggest mistake of his presidency). One of the first things that President-Elect Obama can do is to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and start reallocating some of the funds being spent on military to helping move the refugees back to their homes, rebuilding the infrastructure so that they can actually live in their country. Also, he can use his position to help bring attention to the problems in the Congo and Darfur, and use diplomacy to help bring about solutions involving the governments of those nations. A HUGE move that would help end the refugee problem in Colombia would be for him to end the “War on Drugs” which has caused so much fighting among drug lords in South America resulting in the millions of refugees that are internally and internationally displaced in the South. Another way that he can have a huge impact would be to change the US’s policy on Israel (which isn’t really a policy, rather a blank check with no restrictions or accountability and unlimited arms supplies to perpetuate the genocide of another people). These steps would all go a long way to help better the world as a whole and help end refugee crises that don’t have to exist.

Website Focus: UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency

One great resource that I have used throughout my blog this semester is the UNHCR website on refugees, found here:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

This is the homepage for all UN work dealing with refugees, all commissions that they do, all the surveys and statistics that they find, and all of their proposed policy changes to help deal with refugee crises. Some of the best parts of the webpage are the continually updated news stories about refugees around the world, and also the “Major Operations” pages that they put up, which are full of resources and statistics that can be used when discussing some of the large refugee crises around the world, specifically Iraq, Southern Sudan, Chad/Darfur, and Afghanistan. Another great aspect of the site is the multimedia presented, including photo galleries of different areas of the world.

Major Operations: http://www.unhcr.org/afghan.html

This link is for the specific Major Operations page on Afghanistan. All of these pages are great for finding information about specific conflicts, including news stories, photos, statistics, and reports put out by both the UN and other organizations. If you need briefing notes to give a presentation or talk about a situation, these webpages are the best place to go for that. It’s good to give you an overview of why a conflict is happening, and what the current situation is.

Photo galleries: http://www.unhcr.org/static/home/photosets.htm

I love this section of the webpage because it gives an amazing visual to go along with the stories and news about refugees around the world. While some of the galleries focus on sad aspects of refugee life, others highlight positive things happening around the world. One such gallery shows how girls/women in Afghanistan went from begging on the street to working in a beauty salon, making an income and not having to beg any more. Some others of the best photo galleries are the ones showing people returning home in Chad and Afghanistan, and the education system being set up for refugees in Columbia.

Over 250 Dead in Fighting in Darfur Over Last Week

Over 250 people have died in fighting in remote areas of Darfur over the last week as a result of disputes over “native administration positions.” These attacks have happened on two main tribes, the Gimir tribe which has internal conflicts (killing over 100), and attacks from other tribal fighters on the Habbaniya tribe. The full story can be found here:
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnJOE4BE0AQ.html

Over 500 fighters attacked the Habbaniya tribe last week, causing 5,000 villagers to flee for their lives and resulting in the deaths of around 150 civilians and 6 peacekeeping officers. These attacks are not new, and are a part of a long string of attacks and counter attacks, adding to the already complex struggle happening in Sudan. Experts guess that the five year conflict has killed over 200,000 people and displaced over 2 million.

This is some of the first news coverage being given to the tribal conflicts that have arisen out of the greater fight happening in Darfur, the fighting between the Government and rebel militias. While at first, the problems in Darfur were due to rebels rising up against perceived wrongdoings by the government, the influx of arms into the area has turned traditionally small tribal rivalries over things such as grazing lands and traditional rights into armed conflicts. Both the rebels and the government have been arming tribes, in the hopes that they will fight amongst themselves to weaken the tribal system, and also using the weapons to “buy” the loyalty of some of the tribes so that they will help in the fight against the government or be a counter-insurgency against the rebels. Both of these groups need to stop this practice, because it is hurting the people of Darfur even more then they already have been, causing them to become even more inextricably linked to the fighting. While the “buzz” over Darfur has died down over the last year, we must not forget what is happening and keep putting pressure on our government to do something to help the real victims of this fighting - the people of Darfur.

World Focus: Iraq

Since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, over 4.7 million Iraqis have fled their homes, with 2.7 million internally displaced, finding shelter either in other parts of Iraq, and the rest fleeing to other countries. Most of these internationally displaced refugees are heading to Syria and Jordan, and many are also going to Europe (Iraqis now make up the largest ethnic group of people seeking asylum in Europe). This is causing significant problems for these countries, who want to open their borders and take care of their neighbors but face internal problems as a result. One issue in particular is that of public schools, particularly in Jordan, where the most Iraqi refugees have settled. Public schools are overflowing with children, and there aren’t enough teachers or supplies to teach them all. Should refugee children be denied an education, or should Jordanian children receive a sub-par education since they have to cater to all of the students? UNHCR has been delivering food and supplies to countries that have been taking care of refugees in an effort to help ease the burden, but even then these host countries are in great need of help. A UNHCR-commissioned survey of nearly 1,000 Iraqis currently staying in Syria done in April of this year has shown that 95 percent had fled their homeland because of direct threats or general insecurity, and that only 4 percent currently had plans to return to Iraq. If you take four percent of 4.7 million Iraqis, you have only 188,000 people planning on returning in the near future. Remember, this is just plans to return, not actually returning, leaving millions internally or internationally displaced with not even a plan or hope of returning home soon. Even if they did go home, many would find that their homes were being occupied and would face the challenges of having their property restored to them, if it was left at all.

While there are always negative side effects to war, we need to re-look at the War in Iraq and decide if it is truly worth the cost, both monetary and physical. The 4.7 million displaced Iraqis are a huge cost in and of itself, but it does not even count the millions dead as a result of collateral damage and fighting. In my opinion, no moral justification for war is worth the cost in lives that this has caused.

Paramilitary groups spread terror in Colombia

Even after the government-mandated demobolization of all paramilitary groups in 2006, Colombia is again facing problems with armed gangs running unchecked through the country, exploiting businesses, siezing land, and protecting drug traffikers. While the government continues to say that these gangs do not exist, over 100,000 fighters are estimated in over 100 new gangs. The full story can be read here:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2008/12/05/paramilitary_groups_still_spread_terror_among_colombias_people/?page=1


This return of gangs is problematic for many reasons. Not only is it encouraging the drug trafficking problem in Colombia, but it is extremely detrimental for the people of Colombia. Over an estimated 270,000 people have been internally displaced because of these fighters, which is over 40% more then the amount of people displaced last year. Colombia has the second highest number of internally displaced people, estimated around 3 million, beat out only by Sudan (due to the situation in Darfur). Fighters will take their lands to use for growing and traffiking drugs, beating and killing people who don't leave fast enough when told. They are especially focusing on taking the costline since its very rugged and good for hiding shipments of drugs in all of the small coves. Rural states are being overrun (over 1 in 5 of the rural states in Colombia have a paramilitary presence in them), forcing the larger cities such as Tumaco to have to help with this huge influx of refugees. This increase in fighters, and thereore refugees, is being caused because with the removal of the armed military in 2006, there was a huge power vaccum that many groups are now trying to fill, at the expense of the peoples of Colombia.

The United States was in strong support of the demobilization of the armed militants in 2006, since it seemed this would help support us in our "War on Drugs." 14 top leaders were even extradited to the US to face drug traffiking charges. Our pressure on Colombia to control the drug traffiking and militants is just an added part of the many aspects which caused this refugee crisis to happen in Colombia. If we hadn't put such a big emphasis on other countries catching their drug lords, do you think that perhaps the demobolization, and therefore these power struggles wouldn't be happening, and Colombian people could be living their lives in peace? I am not suggesting that it is a good thing for people to live in countries run by drug lords, but perhaps having a home and life with drug lords in the country would be a bit better then being forced out of your home and sent as a refugee to the city, just because it was important a criminal was caught.

PBS Documentary "People and the Land" shows real side of Palestinian conflict.

So, for some reason YouTube won't give me the code to embed this video for all of you, so here is the link that you can see it at!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDCrBxQL4U


People and the Land is a documentary put out by the PBS filmmaker Tom Hayes in 1997, detailing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. A good portion of the footage that they got while in Israel and Palestine was taken by the Israeli police when the reporters tried to leave the country. When leaving to make the documentary, Hayes was hoping to get an unbiased view of what was going on in Israel, and after visiting and seeing firsthand the atrocities that are happening, such as buildings being bulldozed and ambulances being stopped at the border just because their injured passengers were Palestinian. The resulting hour long documentary (the above link is to the first 10 minutes - if interested, you can find the other 5 parts on youtube as well) has been played on some PBS stations and at some universities, but the majority of stations refused to play the film, caving into pressure from Pro-Israel and Pro-Zionist lobbyists. For an unedited and uncensored look, you can read in Tom Hayes' own words, the story of making this documentary ( http://www.adc.org/thelink.pdf ). If you haven't learned a lot about both sides of the story, I strongly suggest you watch this documentary. It's shocking to see even a glimpse of the way Palestinians living in the occupied territories live. Take the time - its an eye opener.

Website Focus: The Electronic Intifada

If you are looking for information about refugee crisises, there are many webpages that you can use. One in particular that follows the plight of the Palestinian people is http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml . Split up into different sections that cover different aspects of Palestinian life, you can read about Palestinian refugees, arts and culture, activism news, a human rights watch, and also opinion/editorial pieces about the current conflict. They present news stories and editorials from a Palestinian perspective, which is a rare thing to find if you are living in the United States, where most news is presented with a very heavy Pro-Israel slant.

Book review: Abdel Bari Atwan's "Country of Words" - http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9954.shtml

"A Country of Words: from the Refugee Camps to the Front Page is a remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility. Its author is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Quds al-Arabi who also wrote The Secret History of al-Qa'ida. Individuals have their own lives and create their own narratives, and for Atwan, his story begins in Palestine. Born in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Deir al-Balah in Gaza in 1950, Atwan's life has been marred by tragic incidents, including the premature death of his father and later his brother, who supported his education."

One thing I love about The Electronic Intifada is that it shows Palestinians as real, human people. By presenting different parts of Palestinian culture, they let people see the real, hidden side of Palestinian life. They are more then just numbers and statistics, they are people trying to live their lives and still engage in their passions, from writing to music, poetry to painting. This specific post was a book review about "A Country of Words," a memoir about Atef Alshaer, a Palestinian journalist and activist, and how he lived through the multipule Intifadas and even spent time in refugee camps in multipule countries, from Egypt to Lybia to Saudi Arabia. This review goes to show the softer, more real side of Palestinians and the struggle that is an everyday part of their lives.


"Shimon Peres, you're a war criminal!" say Oxford students - http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9983.shtml

"Silent women in black, shouting students, small babies in prams, university lecturers and a local elected official were just some of the crowd gathered to voice their protest against an Oxford college's decision to honor Peres on Tuesday, 18 November as he gave the inaugural lecture in a series to be named after him. Some handed out leaflets and many were carrying signs, one of which read "Globalization of Apartheid," a pun on the title of the lecture, "Globalization of Peace.""

This article discusses the student protests surrounding Shimon Peres's speech which was the kickoff of a lecture series named after him happening at Oxford University. Students who were able to get inside and hear Peres speak continually interrupted him, calling out that he was a war criminal and should be ashamed of the way that he was treating the Palestinian people. The rest of the students and faculty who were present but unable to get into the hall stood outside, chanting louder then Peres' speech. I love how articles like this are always on the webpage. Sometimes it feels like issues including the Palestinian/Israeli conflict get pushed to the side. For those of us in the US who feel strongly about this, many times it is not the popular or common viewpoint, so being able to read about other students around the world who are also taking a stand can be very gratifying.


All in all, if you want a snapshot into the lives of Palestinians, The Electronic Intifada is a great website to get a real look at what is going on, free from the censorship and skewing that US media always does in regards to this conflict.

World Focus: Union of Myanmar

Since 1962, Myanmar (also known as Burma) has been under the control of a military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Situated in East Asia, Myanmar has been in and out of the news for various reasons, most notably widespread political protests in 2007 and the devestation caused by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, both of which contributed greatly to the refugee crisis in the area.

Starting in August 2007, there was a string of political protests throughout Myanmar that ilicited increasingly violent responses from the military junta. These protests stemmed from the junta's decision to remove all government fuel subsidies, causing some fuel prices to increase up to five-fold over the span of a week. Led by thousands of monks, the protests came to be known as the "Saffron Revolution" due to the colors of the monks' robes. In the first wave of protests, many demonstrators were beaten and arrested, including 13 of the nation's most prominent dissidents. Tens of thousands of monks marched in towns around Myanmar, and by the end of September, there had been a protest with an estimated 100,000 participants, the largest anti-government protest in Myanmar in over 20 years. Following that protest, the government started cracking down on the protestors, killing multipule monks, civilians, and even removing internet access from an entire town. By the end of the protests, over 130 people had died and thousands had been beaten or detained.

On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar. The cyclone was so strong, over 130,000 were missing or dead after it hit. The United Nations estimated over one million civilians were left homeless after the natural disaster, giving Myanmar one of the largest refugee crisises in the world. In the areas worst hit by the cyclone, reports of malaria outbreaks were common. This situation was further complicated when the military junta refused to let United Nations aid workers enter the country to administer aid to the suffering public. The government claimed that it was adequately taking care of its people, hence not taking outside aid, but reports sent back to America from journalists within the country showed unprecedented amounts of need. Weeks later the government finally started allowing aid to enter the country, but then disguised the aid so it appeared to the people that it was being provided by the government, and withheld aid from certain communitites.

Before both of these events, over 140,000 refugees had already fled Myanmar for political reasons. After the protests and cyclone, that number swelled to over 1.2 million. What can we do about this situation? How can we, as a first world country, help? Many Americans helped by donating aid, but there is little information about how much of this aid actually made it to the people of Burma, not just the government and their families. If the United States is going to sanction Myanmar in response to the way that the government has acted, they need to do so in a way that affects the government, not the people. Collaboration with the United Nations and other countries in Asia is necessary. Hopefully Barack Obama will approach the situation with the best interest of the people of Myanmar as his number one priority.

More Fighting in Congo, Kivu

Even though there was a call for a cease-fire last week in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fighting continues to plague aid workers trying to bring food and medical supplies into the war-torn region. The full story can be found here:

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL8561770.html

Over 5 million people have died from fighting in the Congo, making it the most deadly war since WWII. Even so, many Americans don't really know what is happening there, and when they think of conflicts in Africa, only think of Darfur and Rwanda. In the last two years, over 1,000,000 people have been displaced, but there isn't even a good estimate of how many refugees there are from this conflict as a whole, since it is so widespread throughout the region and heavily rooted in the Rwandan genocide and multipule Civil Wars in Congo following that. While a peace deal had been reached back in January, fighting erupted again 3 weeks ago when rebels siezed a military camp outside of Goma. Conflicts erupted between the rebels and UN Peacekeeping troops, and the rebels ended up taking the city. Widespread looting and fighting has continued over the last week, and just now talk about a humanitarian corridor has begun.

How should America approach this? We sent our Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jedayi Frazier to the area to help assess the current situation, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in constant contact with the Presidents of neighboring countries. If we wanted to send aid, doing it through a political vessel (State Department, sending troops to deliver aid, etc.) might not be the best idea, since the rebels have said multipule times they view UN troops as the enemy and will fight them on sight, and would probably extend that view to cover US troops as well. At the same time, we can not sit by and let people be shot dead for supporting their own government, or for being a part of a specific ethnic group (the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda has crossed the border, and Tutsi and Hutu rebels are heavily involved in the fighting in Congo.) Talks of a regional summit to help promote the peace proccess in the near future put on by the African Union and European Union have started, and hopefully a better way of keeping aid workers safe will be discussed. If aid workers are not able to get to help the refugees that need it most, the humanitarian crisis in the area can only get worse.

US Politicians Speak Out About Israel

In light of the upcoming elections, I figured that I would highlight the way our current presidential candidates feel in regards to the Israel, the Israel Lobby, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Do you think that perhaps we have an issue if all of our candidates want to continue unprecedented and UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT for a nation that is the cause of over 4.25 million refugees worldwide??

Barack Obama speaks to AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cOJNC2EuJw

John McCain speaks to AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmdXkc9cuRk

World Focus: Palestine

Every so often, I will post about a specific refugee crisis around the world. These "World Focus" posts will cover the history of conflict, current refugee situations, and how the US is contributing to the conflict, either positively or negatively. While I will cover some of the more well-known conflicts, I do hope to raise awareness about situations that most Americans aren't as knowledgeable on. For my first World Focus, let's shift our attention to the Middle East...

While it would take me much more then a short blog post to explain the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I do feel that this is something that Americans MUST become educated on. Palestinian refugees are unique since the term covers not just Palestinians that were originally from the British Mandate of Palestine but then were forced to relocate as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the creation of the state of Israel, but also their descendants. According to UN information about the conflict, there are over 4.25 million Palestinian refugees who have been forced to relocate and are currently living mostly in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. These numbers don't even include the rest of the Palestinians who have always lived in Gaza and the West Bank and are living in refugee-like situations due to the Israeli occupation. The reason that there are so many refugees is because of Israel's official stance on displaced Palestinians - they feel that a solution to the problem must include relocation to other states, and they refuse to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland within the state of Israel, even though many have illegally tried to return. Because of this, the surrounding countries have become homes to HUGE refugee camps - Jordan is housing 1.8 million refugees, and both Syria and Lebanon have over 400,000 refugees. Even if they were able to return though, they would find nothing the same. Israel has confiscated all of the property of refugees who have fled, and continues to practice removing Palestinians from their homes only to bulldoze the land and then build homes for Israeli citizens there.

One of the main issues that is perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is disputes over Palestinian refugee's "Right of Return." The United Nations has always supported the belief that a displaced person should be allowed to return to their home country, or if they choose not to, be compensated for their lost land and property. The most commonly quoted source of this belief is the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed right after the end of the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. The Resolution calls for protection and free access to the holy places in Israel and the demilitarization and UN Control of Jerusalem, among other things, but most notably is Article 11, which calls for the return of Palestinian refugees.

"Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible. "

Israel refuses to do this. They are in direct violation of this and many other UN Resolutions, and yet the United States still gives Israel more aid then any other country. In fact, over 1/3 of the US's foreign aid budget goes to Israel. Even though all recent US administrations have dissaproved of Israel's settling of Palestinian property, they still increase the aid given to Israel every year, with less and less oversight. Should our government be giving unprecedented amounts of money to a country that goes against UN resolutions and is systematically removing a population from their country? I am not in any way trying to be anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic or claiming that the violence on the part of the Palestinians is acceptable, since I feel that violence in any way, shape, or form only hinders the peace process, but I do think that we, as the American people, need to start asking our government why they are giving so much money to a country that is responsible for one of the largest humanitarian and refugee crisis in the world.

Interested in learning more? Check out these websites...

http://www.un.org/unrwa/

http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

http://www.mideastweb.org/refugees1.htm

What is a refugee?

As far back as we can go in history, there has been conflict. Sometimes, this conflict is justified and other times it is not, but regardless of the reasons, every conflict ends up hurting and displacing people. The silent victims of these conflicts are the refugees, the men, women, and children who face horrible conditions around the world as they try and flee violence and persecution. According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), as of the end of 2007, there are over 67 million people in the world who are either international refugees or internally displaced as a result of war and armed conflicts or natural disasters. That is over 20% of the population of the United States. With such a large number of refugees around the world, it can seem like a problem too huge to tackle, but many organizations are working to help the plight of refugees worldwide.

It seems like in the news people are talking about "refugee crisises" all the time, but what exactly is a refugee? The current meaning of the term was officially defined at the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. They decided that a refugee would be anyone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country." This definition was expanded to include people who were fleeing war or violence in their home country, or who were displaced by natural disasters making their home country unsafe to live in.

Currently, there are many conflicts causing large numbers of refugees. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fighting in Sudan, and the current situation in Myanmar are the largest sources of refugees in the world. As Americans, we have contributed to the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine - 3 of the 5 largest sources of refugees. Even so, the aid we give to refugees is dwarfed by the amount of funding the US spends every month promoting war abroad in these places. We have an obligation to help these people return to the lives they had been leading before our soldiers or weapons or aid and support caused them to be displaced, losing their homes, safety, security, and many times, their lives. No longer can we sit by idly, while our government supports policy that is detrimental to the lives of millions abroad, mostly women and children. Before we can help though, we must understand why and how these conflicts came about, and what the United States has done to contribute to the conflicts. That is what my intention is for this blog - to spread information, raise awareness, and be a voice for the silenced.