The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

Spotlight on Iraq Refugee Crisis A March 26 hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia threw a spotlight on the Iraq refugee situation, described as “the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world” and one of the gravest ( http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/h earing_notice.asp?id=792 ). The issue was first brought to lawmakers’ attention in January, when Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., led Sen- ate Judiciary Committee hearings on the subject ( http://judiciary.senate. gov/hearing.cfm?id=2470 ). By most accounts, at least two mil- lion refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan alone. According to Refugees International ( www.refugeesinter national.org ) , Iraqis were leaving the country at the rate of 100,000 a month until Jordan recently moved to shut its borders. Another 1.9 million Iraqis have been internally displaced. Among this vast assemblage — which some anticipate will include more than 20 percent of the Iraqi population by the end of the year — there is a particular group of individu- als who are uniquely vulnerable: those Iraqis who have worked for the U.S. as translators, guides and in other capacities and who are now the spe- cial targets of the anti-American mili- tants. With the help of military officers and Foreign Service personnel, pres- sure is being stepped up on the U.S. government to honor the moral oblig- ation to assist these individuals. Arab- ist Kirk Johnson, a USAID regional coordinator in Baghdad and then Fal- luja in 2005, was one of the first to publicize the issue. In a Dec. 15 arti- cle in the Los Angeles Times , Johnson painted a vivid picture of what “local- ly employed staff” face, and argued that assistance was not only a moral but strategic imperative as well. More recently, the efforts of Angela “Khadija” Williams, an FSO posted as public diplomacy officer at PRT Anbar, to help a 34-year-old female Iraqi translator gain asylum have been covered in the press ( www. realcities.com/mld/krwashington /news/special_packages/iraq/169 47889.htm ). Ansam, who has lost her entire family in the war, is one of hundreds of Iraqis who have put their lives on the line for U.S. forces —only to be denied or blocked from immi- grating to the U.S., despite recom- mendations from a Marine brigadier general and other officers with whom she has worked. Finally she was approved for a pro- gram to resettle at-risk interpre- ters, only to be told that the 50 slots were already filled. “Six groups have left her behind,” Williams says. 8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 7 C YBERNOTES Introducing The Vanguard On April 3, AFSA/USAID released the first issue of The Vanguard ( www. afsa.org/usaid/040307afsanetvanguard.pdf ), an electronic newsletter that aims to fill the void created by suspension of the agency’s FrontLines . Produced by the AFSA office staff at USAID, The Vanguard will be pub- lished every few months in an effort to keep USAID active-duty and retired employees connected. An unofficial, informal publication, the inaugural issue contains a story on the new employees sworn in Feb. 5 and the celebration of International Women’s Day in Dhaka, a report on replacing coca cultivation in Peru and a former FrontLines favorite — information on personnel changes at the agency. Though editors Francisco Zamora, AFSA vice president for USAID, and Ásgeir Sifgússon acknowledge that they have neither the funding nor resources to completely replace FrontLines , they were spurred to action by a steady stream of e-mails and comments from members upset over its termination. The last FrontLines issue was May 2006. In response to AFSA/USAID’s inquiries in November, officials in the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs stated that USAID Administrator Randall Tobias had directed that publications in general were to be “reviewed to determine the adequacy of their purpose, message, consistency, audience and cost issues.” By all accounts, The Vanguard has been well-received. Zamora received more than a dozen congratulatory e-mails and phone calls within several days of its release. Interestingly, sources also say that the re-launching of FrontLines is now under “active” consideration at USAID. — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor