Toronto Star
Refugee crisis rattles Iraq

As war enters fifth year, escalating humanitarian woes remain unnoticed by much of world
Mar 20, 2007 04:30 AM
Tim Harper
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON–Americans enter the fifth year of the Iraq war today amid renewed warnings that the 2003 invasion is sparking a humanitarian crisis unnoticed by much of the world.

"I don't think anyone has a good grasp of the breadth of the problem we are facing here," said Dana Graber, who is working with displaced Iraqis in Jordan for the International Organization for Migration.

As the violence in Iraq continues unabated, Graber predicted yesterday another million Iraqis will be uprooted by a war that has already forced 2 million from their homes to neighbouring countries, putting particular strain on services in Syria and Jordan.

Another 1.7 million have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Those dealing with this burgeoning crisis say more and more Iraqis are fleeing their country without the means to support themselves, with some 40,000 pouring into Syria each month, according to the UN.

In Jordan's capital Amman, the population has been swollen by 30 per cent by the Iraqi influx, pushing up rents and food costs, straining health care and educational resources and courting a backlash from Jordanians.

The UN World Food Program last week launched an appeal for $1.7 million (U.S.) to feed Iraqis in Syria and the UNHCR is seeking $60 million in aid to deal with the displaced in Damascus and Amman, as well as Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

Iraqi refugees are expected to double to 40,000 in Europe this year and the U.S. has agreed to admit 7,000 this year, up from a mere 466 last year.

Ottawa has not yet responded to an appeal from Washington to open its door to the displaced.

"They are arriving here with the most basic of needs, food and shelter," Graber said from Amman. "More and more are living without proper health care or proper sanitation."

The UNHCR, in appealing for funding earlier this year, said it had planned to help resettled refugees after some stability returned to Iraq.

"In 2006, however, spiralling violence led to increasing displacement," it said in a statement, "necessitating a reassessment of UNHCR's work and its priorities throughout the region ... providing more help to the thousands who are fleeing every month."

In remarks to the nation yesterday, U.S. President George W. Bush again appealed to Americans to show patience, but there is precious little patience among a restive U.S. electorate.

The war has already claimed 3,220 U.S. lives and estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 60,000 to 650,000, according to one study. More than 24,000 Americans have been wounded.

By the end of this year, the price of the war in the U.S. is expected to hit $500 billion.

Polls released to mark the anniversary painted a black picture of life for war-weary Iraqis.

More than six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly according to a poll done for ABC News, the Washington Post, USA Today, the BBC and ARD, a German television network. That is double the percentage who characterized their lives that way in November 2005.

The poll of more than 2,200 Iraqis also found about half believed the Bush surge of some 30,000 U.S. troops will only worsen the security situation.

For the first time, more than half said they did not believe they were better off now than they were before the invasion.

Against this grim backdrop, Bush is promising to veto any legislation that comes out of the Democrat-led Congress which would set a "date certain" for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Debate on a Democrat resolution which would withdraw U.S. troops by the end of August 2008 is set to begin Thursday.

"It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home," Bush said.

"That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating."

He said these are early days of his troop surge plan aimed at securing Baghdad and success will take months but first there will be "good days and ... bad days."

His spokesperson, Tony Snow, said the Democratic bill will be vetoed so the House leadership should just sit down and negotiate something palatable to the White House.

"It is a withdraw-the-troops bill, not a fund-the-troops bill," Snow said. "It would also force failure of the mission in Iraq and forfeit the sacrifices made by our troops."

But Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha, a leading proponent of setting a "date certain" for U.S. withdrawal, said there is no reason to believe the White House when it says chaos will follow a U.S. departure from Iraq.

"What has the White House said all this time?" he said on MSNBC. "The White House said there's weapons of mass destruction, the White House says we can do this with less troops, the White House says mission accomplished.

"Why would I believe what the White House says?"