Waiting For the Other Shoe To Drop in Burma

I’ve been trying to keep up with all of the press coverage of the monks protesting in Burma over the past week. The images alone have been striking - hundreds of monks flooding the streets of the capital Rangoon like a saffron colored river. At first, there was no public reaction from Burma’s ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The monks continued to march each day, their numbers growing from the hundreds to the tens of thousands, as scores of civilians joined in as well. Local people formed human chains around the monks to protect them from security forces. In the past few days however, analysts have speculated that the SPDC won’t allow the demonstrations to go on for much longer. And today, on the 9th day of protests led by the monks, the regime finally did react with tear gas and riot shields. Reports indicate that at least two monks and one civilian are dead, while several others have been injured and many arrested.

A lot of the news stories I’ve read describe how the demonstrations led by the monks echo the early days of the 1988 nationwide uprising, where 3000 civilians were killed after the regime ultimately suppressed the pro-democracy movement. Since that time, the political and humanitarian situation in Burma has certainly deteriorated further, particularly in the eastern part of the country, where ethnic Burmese groups continue to clash with military troops who forcibly displace civilians and use rape as a weapon of war.

The ongoing insecurity in eastern Burma, and the needs of the more than 500,000 displaced people, many of whom are hiding in the jungles without access to basic services like health care, must not be forgotten in the broader push by governments like the US to democratize Burma. While international political pressure is taking the form of increased sanctions, the US and other donors must also commit to aiding the most vulnerable populations in the country through humanitarian assistance - by cross-border assistance from Thailand, as well as an increase in humanitarian assistance to nongovernmental organizations and international agencies that are working in the country. This aid not only offers important assistance to people in need, it also supports the work of civil society and community based organizations that are able to function despite the SPDC's repressive policies.

As the protests continue, and NGOs in neighboring countries like Thailand prepare for possible refugee outflows from Burma, I find myself waiting for the other shoe to drop. Are today’s actions against the monks an indication of a larger crackdown to come? Or will all of the current scrutiny and international outcry actually make a dent in Burma’s ruling junta? While it is probably too soon for anyone to speculate on what the ultimate results of the protests in Burma will be, the growing international attention and the high level discussions such as the one taking place today at the United Nations Security Council are certainly a positive side effect.

-- Camilla Olson

President’s Corner: More Administration Delay on Iraqi Refugees

Last week I reported that Stephen Hadley, the president’s National Security Adviser, conceded that the Bush administration was not doing a good enough job in protecting Iraqi refugees. “We have got to do better,” he told a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations on Sept. 17, 2007.

In light of that pledge, it is outrageous that the Bush administration is opposing a Senate bill designed to sharply expand resettlement opportunities in the U.S. for Iraqis who have worked for—and frequently risked their lives for—American soldiers and diplomats in Iraq. As a result, many of those who worked as translators, purchasing agents, and administrators have faced threats against their lives and had to flee Iraq.

The bill, S. 1651, the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, was introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- Mass.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). It has gathered support from both pro-war and anti-war senators, all of whom believe that the U.S. has an obligation to protect Iraqis who took risks for the U.S. Last week Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined Senators Kennedy and Smith in speaking on behalf of the bill.

The Senate bill would require the government to expand the processing of so-called Iraqi allies for resettlement in the U.S. While the administration says it supports the goal of the legislation, the bill is unnecessary because “existing authorities provide the requisite funding and programmatic flexibility to respond to the current situation.” This is a very puzzling statement considering that the U.S. has admitted fewer than 1,000 Iraqis for resettlement in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

The administration’s stance is just another sign of its unwillingness to show loyalty and gratitude to Iraqis who have taken huge risks for the U.S. If you think the Bush administration should do more to protect Iraqis who helped protect our troops, let your senator know or sign this petition and tell President Bush that the current policy is simply unacceptable.

--Ken Bacon

For more information about RI's work with Iraqi refugees and updates on upcoming missions, visit our website.

September 21st: International Day of Peace

Today has been declared the International Day of Peace. In 2001, the UN General Assembly unanimously supported a resolution declaring September 21st to be a “day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the day.” This was done in the hope that this small political opening might allow for aid to be delivered, for communities to re-unite and for a spirit of reconciliation to take hold.

It is easy enough to be skeptical of symbolic gestures like these. After all, on this, the sixth International Day of Peace, the world still faces headlines screaming out about the renewal of pitched violence in Eastern DR Congo, the displacement of over four million people in Iraq and an ongoing humanitarian nightmare in Darfur.

For the more optimistic among us, however, it is also quite possible to find reasons to be hopeful. There is, for instance, the nearly forgotten triumph in southern Sudan. In 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to return home after a 26-year long civil war that the world had deemed unresolvable.

In Sierra Leone, after a long and brutal civil war, massive civilian displacement, and rebel tactics that left thousands of people with crudely amputated limbs, a democratically elected President has just been sworn into office.

Furthermore, in 15 countries around the world, over 100,000 UN peacekeepers are working to promote stability in an unprecedented demonstration of the international political will to defend the right to live without fear.

We live in an imperfect world to be sure, but that doesn’t have to mean that days like today necessarily ring hollow. Today, lets remember that ‘peace’ is not an end state; not an absolute. It is a condition that demands constant attention and cultivation. So while we take stock of all the tragedies and all of the work that remains to be done, let's also use this day to celebrate and support all of the people working hard to rebuild lives, families and communities, and appreciate the accomplishment of their hard won peace.

RI's Peace Primary Update

The Peace Primary, now three weeks old, is an exciting online campaign centered around key peace issues for the 2008 campaign season. Just twelve organizations were chosen nation-wide and Refugees International was one of them. Only one can win a $100,000 grant from the Ploughshares Fund to promote their peace agenda to candidates. This could be huge for us.

So how do we get there?

Essentially, every dollar donated through the Peace Primary for Refugees International is a “vote.” If you donate $100, that’s 100 votes for us. The organization with the most votes at the finish line (that’s October 31st) wins.

Clearly this campaign relies heavily on a wide network of supporters – the more voters you have, the better your chances are. We have incredibly passionate, dedicated supporters, but in terms of sheer volume, I realized at the very beginning of this all that our contact lists are greatly overshadowed by some of the other participating organizations. Their lists number in the tens of thousands…ours, not so much.

And so as we began planning, I couldn’t shake this frighteningly cartoonish vision of us trudging along toward the finish line in our little Flintstones car (a.k.a. “The Flintmobile”), as we watch the Jetsons go zooming past us (followed by a drawn out, exasperated “noooooo!”). I mean, can we really even compete?

The short answer is yes. After all, the winner of a similar campaign that Amazon.com ran was one of the smallest organizations involved.

The long answer is that not only can we compete, but we have to compete. Even in our little Flintmobile, Refugees International has a history of being able to do work that others can’t. And this grant would help us to have an even greater impact on an even wider scale; it would be a considerable boost to our ability to demand greater attention to refugee crises, which, if ignored, are a serious threat to peace and stability worldwide. For our work on Iraqi refugees, in Darfur, the DRC, and everywhere we focus – it’s major.

So, how can we compete, you might ask? Well, if you vote for Refugees International, and then tell each of your friends to vote, and if each of your friends tell all of their friends, and if all of those people tell everyone they know, I don’t see how we can fail! By building that kind of grassroots momentum, I have a great vision of leaving everyone in our dust.

--Sara Fusco

Assistant Director of Development

President’s Corner: A Turn Around on Iraqi Refugees?

After months of delay and disappointments the Bush administration appears to be on the brink of taking the Iraqi refugee crisis seriously.

Stephen Hadley, the President’s National Security Adviser, told a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations last night that “we have got to do better” in helping Iraqi refugees and the countries that are hosting them. There are currently 2.5 million Iraqis, mostly in Jordan and Syria, creating a refugee surge that risks destabilizing the region.

Mr. Hadley said the first thing President Bush had asked him about on Monday morning was a front page Washington Post story headlined: Crocker Blasts Refugee Process: Iraqis Could Wait 2 Years for Entry. The story was based on a Sept. 7 cable from Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to the State Department complaining about the difficulties that Iraqis face when they attempt to resettle in the U.S.

The cable noted that the U.S. government, particularly the Department of Homeland Security, hasn’t sent enough people to screen Iraqis who want to resettle in the U.S.

What’s more Amb. Crocker pointed out that the U.S., Iraq, and other countries must do more to help the countries hosting refugees. “They and the host countries need assistance, as the refugees are putting a huge strain on state-provided services such as health care, education, and water” in Jordan and Syria. The U.S. is spending about $300 million a day on military operations in Iraq, but it has spent only $183 million to help 2.5 million Iraqi refugees. “More money will be needed,” Amb. Crocker said.

Mr. Hadley said that “we’re doing better on those Iraqis who were employees” of the U.S. The inability of so-called “Iraqi allies”—those who worked for U.S. forces as translators, for example—to get refuge in the U.S. is hugely frustrating to soldiers and diplomats who have served in Iraq. Earlier today, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D, MA) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R, OR) held a press conference to announce growing bipartisan support for a bill they have introduced to help Iraqis who worked for the U.S. get to the U.S. Many Iraqis who work for the U.S. are attacked as “collaborators” and leave the country to save their lives.

“Regardless of where we stand on the war with Iraq, we are united in our belief that America has a fundamental obligation to assist the Iraqis who have courageously supported our forces and our effort in Iraq and whose lives are in peril as a result,” Sen. Kennedy said. Sen. Sam Brownback (R, KS) and Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent, also echoed this statement. Two leaders of the American conservative movement, David Keene and Grover Norquist, also spoke on behalf of the bill.

At the end of the press conference, Joe Seemiller, who served for a year in Iraq as an Army sergeant, spoke about the lives his translator had saved, the loyalty he had shown to American soldiers and the difficulty the translator, now a refugee in Syria, is having getting into the U.S.

With the Kennedy-Smith bill gathering bi-partisan support and the White House more concerned about helping Iraqi refugees, the stage is set for improvement. In the first 11 months of the current fiscal year the U.S. admitted only 719 Iraqis refugees for resettlement. Mr. Hadley says the numbers should rise sharply, in part because the departments of State and Homeland Security, which manage the refugee admissions program, have devised new policies of cooperation and expedited processing.

In addition, Mr. Hadley said, the administration is beginning to ask: “What can we do to help those countries that are doing the right thing by taking in those refugees?” It’s the right question—a question the administration should have started asking a year ago.

--Ken Bacon

RI in the News

Lately we’ve been able to draw a lot of attention to Iraqi refugees seeking resettlement in the United States. Kristele Younes, one of our Iraqi refugee experts, was interviewed by National Public Radio’s All Things Considered earlier this week. Matt Lee from the Associated Press continued to report on the numbers of Iraqi refugees that the U.S. has allowed to resettle here. There was a significant increase in Iraqis allowed in last month -- 529 compared to 57 in July -- bringing our total for this year to 719. Slowly but surely, as they say.

In similar news, Baghdad Burning, one of the more prominent Iraq bloggers, has had to escape Iraq with her family. She’s been tossing the decision back and forth the last several weeks, but the new limitations with Syria’s visa policies expedited her decision making process. It may just be one story out of many, but it’s easy to overlook what the experience must be like for Iraqis facing regular violence and threats. The post on her escape is harrowing and touching, highlighting the life of one of the many people who didn’t want to leave their homes but had seemingly no other choice. Let’s hope that she is now safe.

Also in the press this week was Ban Ki-Moon’s visit to Darfur and the new peace talks scheduled for October 27. Ken Bacon was a panelist on the Diane Rehm show, discussing the visit and the future of Darfur with several other guests.

Looking for the law in Liberia

A few weeks ago in Liberia, I met with several women’s groups who told me about the new “rape law” which had come into force last year. The passing of this law is a great achievement for the people who had campaigned hard to seek justice for victims of sexual violence in Liberia. The victims are many. A 2005 survey in 4 counties indicated that 91.7% of 1,216 women and girls interviewed had been subjected to multiple violent acts during Liberia’s conflict.

So the women’s groups were understandably proud of the new law, but were disappointed by its lack of enforcement. The Rape Amendment Act has had little, if any, effect on stemming the high incidence of sexual violence so far. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told me that in just one hospital in the capital, Monrovia, there were 513 cases of rape reported in the first 6 months of 2007, 174 of them involving victims under 12 years of age. The cases reported to MSF are probably only the tip of the iceberg, because of the stigma attached to reporting rape in this society. Aid groups and other non-governmental organizations feel that the police, lawyers and judges do not understand the law, and that rape cases are not being dealt with properly by the courts.

Having heard so much about the rape law, and since I am a lawyer, I decided that I wanted to see a copy of it. So I asked the next organization I visited for a copy, but they didn’t have one. I asked a number of other organizations, with the same reply. Even groups who were running awareness-raising programs with communities about the rape law didn’t have a copy of it! By this time I was beginning to question whether or not a new rape law had really been enacted.

Finally, while visiting Lofa county in the north-west of Liberia one organization gave me a summary of the new rape law, which was a good start. Later, I had the opportunity to sit in on a child protection meeting – where representatives of government, UN agencies and NGOs meet to discuss issues affecting children in the county. Someone talked about a rape case where the victim was a 9-year-old girl and the alleged perpetrator was a 15-year-old boy. The magistrate had thrown the case out of court because he said that this situation was not covered by the rape law, as the boy was under 18 and there was no evidence that the girl had not consented (despite her young age). The magistrate had apparently told the families that they should just talk to the boy and girl and tell them not to do this again.

Many meeting participants were understandably outraged by this decision of the court – surely this situation must be covered by the rape law? Surely the magistrate’s ruling was not a legal one? While a heated discussion raged, it became apparent that, of the gathering of 25 people responsible for child protection in the county, no one had a copy of the rape law. I was a researcher who had just come to observe the meeting, but I ended up sharing my copy of the summary of the rape law with these well-meaning people.

However, it soon became clear that having the “rape law” alone – in full or in summary - was not sufficient to determine legality in any event - since it is an amendment to another law (which does deal with children’s legal incapacity to give consent), and none of us had a copy of that law.

I was puzzled by this difficulty in obtaining the laws of Liberia; there is no Government gazette, and – unsurprisingly in a country that had no electricity for 15 years – no website on which they are posted. So I asked a member of the American Bar Association in Monrovia if he could explain why the law is so inaccessible. He told me that, a while ago, the Liberian government had sought assistance to codify the laws of Liberia. US funding was granted for this undertaking, and the contract had gone to one private company, which had subcontracted to another private company – a Liberian-owned company registered in the US. This company claims to have copyrighted the laws and law reports of Liberia, and is charging US$5,000 for copies of the compilations of the laws. The Rape Amendment Act is not even included in the compilation. So with the puzzle partially solved – I certainly did not have $5,000 to spare -- I left Liberia without fully understanding or analyzing the Liberian laws on rape (although I did at least find an organization with a copy of the rape law amendment).

And I was further perplexed by another piece that my friend from the American Bar Association added to the puzzle. He informed me that one of the directors of the company that claims to have copyrighted Liberia’s laws has been nominated to become the country’s new Minister of Justice! There ought to be a Liberian law on conflict of interest - but how to afford a compilation of the laws of the country?

What does this strange story say about the situation in Liberia? Well, it’s just one example of the many areas in which the Liberian government has taken bold steps forward to try to address injustices, but where the resources and expertise are just not yet there to back up their initiatives. And there are idiosyncracies – like the copyrighting and commercial sale of copies of Liberia’s laws – that compound the problem. Passing the rape law was a very progressive move for which the Liberian government should be congratulated, but it will not translate into greater protection for survivors of rape if the law is not widely disseminated and if the people who have to implement the law are not trained to understand it.

The good news is that the American Bar Association has come up with a proposal to post all Liberian laws on the internet – and at least the international agencies in the country have generators and access to the web. Of course, this proposal will have to be approved by the Liberian government – specifically, the new Minster of Justice…

--Melanie Teff

Advocates Melanie Teff and Mark Malan recently returned from a mission to Liberia

President’s Corner: Slow Progress on Iraqi Resettlement

America’s allies in Iraq must think that the U.S. is inefficient, ungrateful or both. According to the State Department’s latest figures, in August, the U.S. admitted 529 Iraqis for resettlement. That was a sharp increase from the 57 we admitted for resettlement in July, but still way off the resettlement pace the U.S. would have to achieve to meet its own goals.

In February, the State Department announced that it was prepared to process 7,000 Iraqi refugees for resettlement in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That would have required a resettlement pace of 875 Iraqis a month on average from February to the end of September. Instead, we have resettled only 719 Iraqis so far this year.

The slow resettlement process has been particularly frustrating for the tens of thousands of Iraqis who had to flee the country after being threatened because they worked for the U.S. in such jobs as translators, purchasing agents, or drivers. Many of them believe that the U.S. is turning its back on them after they risked their lives for us.

Even U.S. officials admit that it has taken the U.S. too long to get the resettlement process going. “It has taken time, and we are the first to admit that this has been a slow, cumbersome process…,” Ellen Sauerbrey, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration said in Amman, Jordan last week. “I have to admit my own frustration; we have not been able to move larger numbers more quickly.” Now, she says, “the pieces are in place, and over the coming months we will see a much faster movement.”

I hope she is right. Iraqis comprise the world’s fastest growing displaced population. There are more than 2.2 million Iraqi refugees, and almost as many displaced internally. Internal displacement is likely to rise faster, now that both Syria and Jordan, the two primary destinations for Iraqis, are beginning to make it more difficult for Iraqis to enter. Displacement will increase as long as violence in Iraq continues.

Although the State Department established a special task force in February to deal with Iraqi refugees, there is little sign that the administration as a whole is taking the displacement crisis seriously. Today, Iraqi displacement is a humanitarian problem. The fear is that tomorrow it could be a regional security crisis.

Even if the resettlement numbers rise sharply, only a small portion of the 2.2 million Iraqis can be resettled. We need to do much more to help Jordan, Syria and other countries absorb the refugees.

--Ken Bacon