Amnesty says plight of millions of Iraqi refugees is being ignored

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL yesterday accused the international community of doing nothing while Iraqi refugees are facing hardship in exile and dire threats to their lives at home.

In a 68-page report, Rhetoric and Reality: the Iraqi Refugee Crisis, Amnesty said that more than 4.7 million Iraqis have been uprooted by the violence which followed the 2003 US war. At least 2.7 million are displaced within Iraq, while 1.4 million have sought refuge in Syria, 650,000 in Jordan, up to 100,000 in Egypt, and 40-50,000 in Lebanon.

"Many refugees are finding it difficult to survive," said Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East programme.

"They are banned from working and unable to pay rents, buy adequate food for themselves and their families, or obtain medical treatment. Those lucky enough to escape Iraq rely on savings which, for many, are rapidly running out."

Destitute refugees resort to prostituting their children or putting them to work at menial jobs. Humanitarian agencies cannot cope and are being forced to reduce assistance programmes to the 150,000 receiving aid and drop plans to double that number.

Only 1 per cent of the refugees have gained entry to "the industrialised world", said Amnesty. The US and UK, which waged the war, have accepted fewer than those states that did not participate, like Sweden and Norway. Some host countries are putting pressure on Iraqis to return home.

Amnesty believes "the time is not right for returns of any kind to Iraq, whether they are explicitly forcible or effective forcible but disguised as 'voluntary'." Amnesty says host states "must ensure that Iraqi refugees are not forced into a situation where they have no real option but to return". This means donors must provide the funds to enable refugees and internally displaced persons to secure shelter, food, health care and education. Amnesty says the Iraqi government's response has been inadequate.

In Iraq, the struggle between the government, under prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, and the faction of dissident Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is escalating both politically and militarily. Sadrist spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi announced: "We will not take part in the coming [local] elections under the name of the Sadr bloc list. We will tell our candidates to participate in joint lists [with other parties] and we will call upon our followers to vote for them."

The Sadrists had been expected to do well against Mr Maliki's Dawa party and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, his coalition partner in the October polls. To counter this threat Mr Maliki tabled a law prohibiting parties with militias from contesting elections and waged war on the Sadrist Mahdi army militia in its strongholds in Basra and Baghdad.

On Saturday, US and Iraqi forces began operations against the Sadrists in the southern city of Amara. Mr Maliki is demanding the Mahdi army surrender heavy weapons within days or face attack.

Mr Sadr has ordered most of his 10,000 militiamen to stand down.

While he intends to transform the Mahdi army into a social service organisation, he has told seasoned fighters to form "special companies" and prepare for battle shortly. Fearing these units could try to capture the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala, thousands of Iraqi government troops have been deployed there.

Mr Maliki has been emboldened by successful military campaigns against the Sadrists that have driven them from Basra and contained them in Baghdad. He has also boosted his political credibility by voicing opposition to agreements providing for a long-term US presence in Iraq.

Washington has demanded freedom of military action, immunity for US troops, 58 permanent bases, and the right to intervene in Iraqi political and economic affairs.

When Iraqi lawmakers and citizens vehemently stated their opposition to these terms, Mr Maliki declared that Iraq has the option of telling the UN, which granted foreign forces a mandate to remain in Iraq until the end of 2008, that it should "terminate the presence of international forces on sovereign Iraqi soil".

While many Iraqis want US troops to remain until security is re-established, most also insist on a timetable for full withdrawal of foreign forces and reject permanent US bases and interference in Iraq's governance.