Plight of refugees worsens as Syria, Jordan impose restrictions
Report, IRIN, Jun 18, 2007
BAGHDAD (IRIN) – Scores of Iraqi men, women and children gathered on the pavement of Baghdad’s central Salihiyah area waiting for the big grey bus to take them to neighboring Syria and help them flee their country’s violence.
“Staying in Iraq is like committing suicide,” said Hala Numan Jabre, a 41-year-old mother of three girls as she threw her six colored bags onto the bus.
“There is no safe life in Iraq, it’s like a jungle. There are no public services, there is no rule of law, and everywhere there is killing and kidnapping. That is why we’ve decided to take our daughters away until things get better, God willing,” Hala, a teacher of English, said.
Every month, tens of thousands of Iraqis flee to Jordan and Syria – the only two neighboring countries which have opened their borders to Iraqi refugees.
Lebanese Gov’t Accused of Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Democracy NOW! 19 June 2007
In Lebanon, the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp remains under siege as fighting continues for a fifth week between Lebanese troops and militants from the group Fatah al-Islam. The fighting is Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the civil war ended in 1990. At least 162 people, including 32 civilians, have been killed so far. Meanwhile human rights organizations have accused the Lebanese government of abusing Palestinian refugees rounded up at the Nahr al-Bared camp.
- Caoimhe Butterly, of Voices in the Wilderness: “The patterns that emerged in the gathered testimonies indicate both physical and psychological abuse. In a number of cases, detainees have been told that they would be killed or tortured. Detainees have been told for example that their toes would be cut off or that they would be electrocuted. Most detainees have reported being hooded or blindfolded during the beatings, and being handcuffed and forced to kneel in pressured positions for up to a day.”
Letter from a Palestinian Camp
Dr. Marcy Newman, Beirut, Live from Lebanon, 18 June 2007
On 16 April 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed white American clergymen who were opposed to his civil resistance campaign that fought against racist, segregationist policies and practices in the US. Writing from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, he responded particularly to people who would have preferred that African Americans be patient and wait for those rights to come to them rather than to resist:
“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.'”
[ Read the report ]
It is depressing to see what is happening in the Middle East. Even more depressing is that a Government i helped to vote in is thick in the middle of it.
It’s a maniacal plot unfolding there. IOF troops and tanks are amassing against defenceless, half-starved Gazans. What big strong men they grow in the West, eh? What moral titans. What a bloody tragedy it will be for all involved.