http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/26/news/edcohen.php
Roger Cohen: Closing the door to an Iraqi Mandela By Roger Cohen Published: September 26, 2007 MALMO, Sweden: A 16-day overland odyssey has brought Mokaled Gamil, a former Iraqi Army officer, to this southern Swedish town and what he fears now more than anything is resettlement north of the Arctic Circle in some snow-bound place that will turn his Mesopotamian blood to ice. "Please, not far north, too cold," he says in passable English, addressing Oskar Ekblad, an official from the Swedish Migration Board. "Somewhere in the south or middle O.K." Even by the fantastic standards of the Iraq war, the scene is bizarre: Gamil, a swarthy 45-year-old ex-colonel from an ex-army, stands outside a shabby hostel full of stained mattresses begging a decent Swede not to be dispatched into some reindeer-rich nightmare. "Iraqis are destined to begin their lives again at 45," Gamil, a Sunni who has fled Baghdad for his life, says with a gloomy matter-of-factness worthy of Strindberg. Many are restarting in Sweden. Between January and August this year, Sweden took in 12,259 Iraqis fleeing their decomposing country. It expects 20,000 for all of 2007. By contrast, in the same January-August period, the United States admitted 685 refugees, according to State Department figures. The numbers bear closer scrutiny. In January, Sweden admitted 1,500 Iraqis, compared to 15 entering the United States. In March, the respective numbers were 1,367 and 8. In April, they were 1,421 and 1; in May, 1367 and 1; and in August 1,469 and 529. Swedes are moderate folk disinclined to scream. But when Tobias Billstrom, the migration minister, says "Yes, of course the United States should do more," you can feel his indignation about to erupt like milk boiling over. He notes that, given the huge population difference, Sweden's intake of Iraqis "is the equivalent of the U.S. taking in about 500,000 refugees." Of all the scandals of the Iraq war, America's failure to do more for refugees, including thousands who put their lives at risk working for the United States, stands out for its moral bankruptcy. To state the obvious, Sweden did not invade Iraq. Yet it has demonstrated a largeness of spirit alien to George W. Bush's fear-infused nation. I know, the United States is showering aid (more than $122 million in 2007) on Iraq's neighbors to help the more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled there. It set up a special refugee Task Force in February and appointed two refugee czars this month. It committed to process 7,000 refugees in the fiscal year through Sept. 30. Visas for 500 Iraqis a year who worked for the U.S. military or embassy have been promised. But these are velleities. Professions of concern have been unmatched by results. Bush has never addressed the issue, an example of his Green-Zone politics: Shut out nasty reality and with luck it will go away. An aggressive American intake of refugees would suggest their quick return to Iraq is improbable: that smacks too much of failure for Bush. Then there's security: You have to be careful with refugees from countries "infiltrated by large numbers of terrorists," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff opined recently. The result has been "major bottlenecks," in the words of a recent leaked cable from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Instead of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees supposed to get here this fiscal year, about 1,200 will. Years may be needed to process thousands of refugee referrals from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "The numbers are totally embarrassing," says Kirk Johnson, a former regional coordinator for reconstruction in Falluja for the United States Agency for International Development. "We can't recognize a moral imperative anymore." Imperative is right. People who risked their lives for America are dying or being terrorized because of craven U.S. lethargy. Others simply uprooted by the U.S. invasion are in desperate limbo. Bush now says "Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas." On the contrary, one may be waiting to be saved. The I-told-you-so phase of the Iraq invasion is thankfully drawing to a close; what is needed now is consensus on American responsibility. That starts with a more open door to Iraqis in flight. Mr. President, say something. Gamil lost his job when the army was disbanded. He worked sporadically as a translator. But when Shiite militias started threatening him - as a Sunni ex-officer he was an obvious target - "I had to save my life and my wife's." The Swedish state will give him a lawyer to argue his case for asylum. Ekblad says the "overwhelming majority" of cases are approved. Refugees then get a permanent resident permit with the possibility of citizenship in five years. "Our costs are huge and we'd like to see more burden sharing," he says. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
