The Common Ills: Amnesty continues its shameful silence

Monday, June 15, 2015

Amnesty continues its shameful silence

Reuters notes a Siniya battle ("a town close to the country's biggest refinery") has left 17 people dead. As the violence continues, it creates even more refugees.

During the early stages of the Iraq War, through 2008, there were an estimated 4.6 million refugees. The bulk of those never returned. Then prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki repeatedly attempted to insist they were returning but that was not the case as the work of various organizations demonstrated.

In the last 12 months, it's estimated that another 2 million refugees have been created.

Amnesty International issued a statement today which includes:

World leaders are condemning millions of refugees to an unbearable existence and thousands to death by failing to provide essential humanitarian protection, said Amnesty International as it published a new briefing in Beirut today, ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June.
The Global Refugee Crisis: A conspiracy of neglect explores the startling suffering of millions of refugees, from Lebanon to Kenya, the Andaman Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and calls for a radical change in the way the world deals with refugees.

“We are witnessing the worst refugee crisis of our era, with millions of women, men and children struggling to survive amidst brutal wars, networks of people traffickers and governments who pursue selfish political interests instead of showing basic human compassion,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

In the release and in the report they hector about the "forgotten crisis" but they're the ones forgetting Iraq. Yes, they've done a report on refugees that ignores Iraq except as a country receiving refugees from Syria.

If you click here, you can find a listing of all the New York Times' reporting on Iraqi refugees and you'll note the most recent reports -- ones Amnesty can't seem to find.

Maybe someone can send the link to Amnesty?

Or you can provide them the link to the UNHCR's page on Iraqi refugees.

Or maybe you can just point out that throughout Nouri's second term, Amnesty's silence on Iraq was shameful and it appears they are continuing it.

Amnesty really has strayed from its original intent. It became a joke a long time ago. (Francis A. Boyle could address that far better than I could.) But on Iraq, it's been one immense failure after another.

Meanwhile Shi'ite militias -- not called out by Amnesty -- continue to seek vengeance.