UN High Commissioner blasts US for lack of help for Iraqi refugees

[NNN0LHI]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hysZ8Us4hibA1Euv6zKbNotfRHPg

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Current US efforts to help resettle Iraqi refugees are slow, poorly funded and ignore Syria which hosts the largest number of displaced people, refugee and human rights advocates said on Tuesday.

Around 2.4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their country since the US-led invasion in 2003, creating massive crises in neighboring Syria, which has 1.4 million refugees, and Jordan which has up to 750,000.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that another two million people have been displaced inside Iraq.

Sarnata Reynolds, refugee program director for Amnesty International, told reporters that given those numbers, the US vow to host as many as 12,000 Iraqi refugees by next year is "a token gesture."

Washington announced last week its plans for the fiscal year 2008 "include processing enough Iraqi refugees to admit 12,000."

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an official memorandum that the United States looked to welcome a maximum of 80,000 refugees over the next 12 months.

[malaise]

1. I hope you're not surprised

Bushco doesn't give a flying fugg.

[Selatius]

2. I suspect a great many Americans could give a crap about 1,000,000 dead Iraqi civilians

So it seems logical the same sense of disdain or simple thoughtlessness also affects the issue of Iraqi refugees.