The report notes that "the top five source countries of refugees at the end of 2012" were: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic and Sudan. That order is -- from highest to lowest -- the top five refugee producing countries. When all five countries are combined, they account for 55% of 2012 refugees worldwide. For Iraq, 2012 saw 746,400 Iraqis become external refugees (refer to Figure Four on page 13 of the report). Table one on page 39 shows that Iraq has 1,131810 internally displaced persons (IDPs).
BBC World Service was the first news outlet to note that the Iraqi refugee crisis was again on the uptick. Matthew Woodcraft (BBC World Service -- link is audio) reported on this development June 5th.
Today BBC World Service's Sarah Montague interviews Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi. Excerpt.
Sarah Montague: Now you have said that Iraq is slipping back into the clutches of a dangerous, new, one-man rule which inevitably will lead to full dictatorship. Do you think Nouri al-Maliki is trying to create his own dictatorship?
Ayad Allawi: The way he's behaving is certainly leading to a full blown dictatorship. He is the prime minister. He is the Minister of Defense. He is the Minister of Interior. He is the head of intelligence. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces. And he listens to nobody. He does not have any respect to what he has signed on the issue of power-sharing. So definately this kind of behavior will lead to a full blown dictatorship.
Sarah Montague: Sorry and -- and you are suggesting that he is intent on doing that?
Ayad Allawi: Yes, definitely.
Sarah Montague: But he is a man who was elected by the people -- twice now -- by the people of Iraq. He has popular support.
Ayad Allawi: He was elected by -- The last time, he was not elected. We won the elections, --
Sarah Montague: Just --
Ayad Allawi: Iraqiya won the elections. "Just" but still won the elections. And unfortunately Iran had an attitude declaring that it was unacceptable for me or Iraqiya members to lead the government. And they emphasized the issue of forming a new coalition in Iraq which the coalition elected Maliki again.
Sarah Montague: Okay, and a coalition that you signed up to at the time. And we'll come back to that in a minute.
[. . .]
Ayad Allawi: We give him the time to embark on the power-sharing agreement -- which he signed, I signed and Mr. [Massoud] Barzani [KRG President] signed. But unfortunately nothing happened.
Sarah Montague: But your ministers are --
Ayad Allawi: No, we -- They were pulled out. Those who stayed on [Saleh al-Mutlaq, for example] stayed on their own merits.
Sarah Montague: Yes, but you have -- The party that you lead, Iraqiya, has Cabinet posts and has people in those posts --
Ayad Allawi: Yes, but they don't represent Iraqiya anymore because we have issued orders that members of the Cabinet of Iraqiya should withdraw from the Cabinet.
Sarah Montague: So how many disobeyed you?
Ayad Allawi: Three.
We'll note more in the snapshot.
First off though, confrontational? Good for Sarah Montague and BBC World Service on that.
But there's a line. And confrontational is a problem when the listener has no idea what you're talking about.
Montague needed to ask guided questions or to be quiet and let Allawi speak.
For the bulk of the interview, it appears she doesn't know about The Erbil Agreement. Until she badgers Allawi to say "United States."
Allawi's mistake is his refusal to say the words. Instead, he keeps saying "international community" when he means the United States. Reality, the White House screwed Iraqiya over. They buttered up Allawi and played like they were his friend -- the way they're doing again now. It's useless. The same White House that betrayed the Iraqi people in 2010 will do so again.
There is no honor in refusing to name the US. He is very clear about Iran's role and names names.
Sarah Montague badgers him and gets him to say US. Good for her. But The Erbil Agreement is key and most people don't understand what it is and listening to her they won't understand any better.
Equally true, there's a period where Montague is just being stupid. When Allawi's talking about the obstacles to democracy and notes the 18 Iraqiya candidates in the provincial elections who were assassinated, she's just being stupid.
If the UK saw 18 Labour candidates assassinated while running for office, you better believe that Montague would grasp that Labour was facing a hostile climate.
And no one was arrested in those 18 assassinations.
National Iraqi News Agency reports a Mosul suicide bomber killed political candidate Sheikh Younis al-Rammah today, as well as "four of his brothers and cousins" and left six more injured and, last night, an armed attack on the Tikrit home of former MP Wisam al-Bayati left 1 enginer and 1 police officer dead and four more people injured.
It's one day before Anbar and Nineveh Province is scheduled to vote. Politicians are being targeted for assassination and most are lucky to be surviving. In the snapshot, we'll address that and more including the press day 'celebration' that's supposed to take place.
The following community sites -- plus Marc Lynch, The Diane Rehm Show, Dissident Voice, Susan's On the Edge, Cindy Sheehan, Pacifica Evening News, Ms. magazine's blog and Antiwar.com -- updated last night and this morning:
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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