Thursday, December 20, 2007

A Million Refugees from Iraq Since Surge Started

Juan Cole reports through a link to McClatchy that a million refugees have fled Iraq since the surge began, with 500,000 leaving during the July to October period of greatest troop runup, a fifth of these having experienced torture or other violence. This rather offsets the happy talk stories about people dribbling back recently, most of them because they have run out of money and the Syrians want them to leave.
Link is http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/23159.html.

While we are at it, after a meeting this past weekend in Baghdad, the Kurdish leaders are threatening to leave the Maliki government. Remains ongoing differences over oil laws and contracts, aggravated by invasion from Turkey of Kurdistan, apparently supported by the US. While still denouncing the Kurdish oil contracts as illegal, the Iraqi oil minister is now negotiating contracts with big majors like BP and Shell under the old Saddam-era oil law (see iraqioilreport.com).

1 comment:

Myrtle Blackwood said...

So many developments today lead me to think there is a deliberate campaign of genocide going on amongst Western governments - the ones I am familiar with (at least).

The unnecessary violence against the Iraqi and other peoples. The use of depleted uranium weapons. The proliferation of biofuel crops replacing food crops. The international pesticide aerial spraying campaigns. The failure to provide adequate health services. The refusal to address peak oil and other environmental catastrophes.