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| Iraq |
| No Refugee Exodus From Iraq Yet |
| 2003-03-22 |
| The expected exodus of refugees from Iraq has yet to materialize, U.N. officials said Friday, but cautioned that it may be too early in the 2-day-old U.S.-led invasion to tell how bad things may become. "Come on, people, you're not trying!" International relief agencies predicted that a large-scale humanitarian crisis could develop inside Iraq, however, because of shortages of food, health care and other basic needs in the coming days and weeks. "How can we have a humanitarian crisis without refugees?" "It is clear that Iraq is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and that UNICEF is facing possibly the largest and most complex humanitarian operation we've ever undertaken," United Nations Children's Fund spokeswoman Wivina Belmonte "Then again, maybe we aren't. We really have no clue, you understand, we're from the UN!" Military operations in the western Iraqi desert may be one reason few people are venturing toward the Iraq-Jordan border, said Peter Kessler, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He cited an unconfirmed report of a bridge bombed along the lone westbound highway through the desert as possibly hindering westward movement. The U.N. agency had no reports of Iraqi refugees crossing the Jordanian, Syrian, Turkish or Iranian frontiers. Sorta blows the previous theory. However, thousands of Iraqi Muslim Shiites have crossed into Syria in the past four weeks, ostensibly as pilgrims, said Syrian government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Of course we're on a pilgrimage. We always bring our household goods, goats and chickens on a pilgrimage!" The Iraqis came to pay homage at Shiite shrines for the feast of Ashoura last week, but many decided to stay on, saying they would return to Iraq only when the war ends. "Fatima, bad news." "Yes, Achmed dear?" "Allah wills that we stay in Syria." "You mean we can't go back home to Basra?" "No, dove, Allah and the US Marines think we should stay here." "Inshallah, husband, but what if the Marines come here next?" "I guess we set a few extra places at the table." In Amman, refugee officials said that almost 500 third-country nationals, most of them workers or students from Sudan, had entered Jordan from Iraq since Wednesday. A group of 140 was scheduled to fly home to Sudan on a chartered plane, said Chris Lom, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. I dunno, I almost think I'd stay in Basra as opposed to going "home" to Sudan. UNICEF, meanwhile, said the dangerous situation inside Iraq kept it from getting two truckloads of food to hundreds of handicapped and orphaned children® in the Iraqi capital on Friday. "In 1991, many children® in institutions died," UNICEF spokesman Geoff Keele said in Amman, referring to the 1991 Gulf War. Aid officials say millions of Iraqis, most of them children®, may soon face food shortages because of the collapse of the U.N.-supervised, government-operated food rationing system in Iraq. The Marines the the Airborne can fix this. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Let's go Iraqi people! Humanitarianism Inc. needs that funding! Start hitting the road, will ya! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-03-22 22:12:05 |
| #3 leave and the bad guys getting justice done to them will loot and vandalize just like they always have... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-22 18:57:36 |
| #2 They're not leaving because we're killing the bad folks and not them. Why leave just when the joint's gettin' cleaned up at long last? |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-03-22 18:15:31 |
| #1 They're not leaving because we're killing the bad folks and not them. Why leave just when the joint's gettin' cleaned up at long last? |
| Posted by: mojo 3/22/2003 6:15:31 PM |