The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., introduced legislation outlining a comprehensive approach to the spiraling Iraq refugee crisis ( www.theirc.org/news/senate-bill- iraqi-refugee-crisis-0621.html ). The measure is addressed, in particu- lar, to the plight of those Iraqis who work or have worked with the U.S. in Iraq. Another reminder of their uni- que vulnerability came in late May, when an Iraqi couple working for the U.S. embassy were kidnapped and murdered. “America has a special obligation to keep faith with the Iraqis who now have a bulls-eye on their back because of their association with our govern- ment,” said Kennedy, chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. The bill, S. 1651, would create a new special category of applicants for refugee status for those who have helped the U.S. in Iraq and set up a mechanism for processing applications in Iraq and the surrounding countries. The measure also directs the Secretary of State to place a “Minister Counselor for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons” in Embassy Baghdad, with authority to refer people directly to the U.S. refugee resettlement program. A month earlier, on May 24, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation, S 1104, to increase the number of special immigrant visas allotted in the next two years to Iraqi and Afghan nationals who have served as translators or interpreters for the U.S. effort. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. A similar measure passed the House ear- lier. It authorizes 500 visas per year for 2007 and 2008. To date, the limit has been 50 per year, and there is a nine- year backlog of cases. In a statement welcoming passage of the measure, Sen. Lugar reported that he had written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last July, “en- couraging her to develop a policy to address these various situations” ( http://lugar.senate.gov/ ) . In Janu- ary, Sen. Kennedy organized the first set of congressional hearings on the subject. As we reported recently in this col- umn (May 2007), some FS and mili- tary personnel in Iraq have been in the forefront of trying to get action on Iraqi refugee issue. And in June, AFSA News featured a story on a little- known department cable giving guid- ance on assisting Iraqis with U.S. gov- ernment ties (p. 53). Of course, the predicament faced by FSN employees is but a subset of the broader humanitarian crisis sur- rounding Iraq. By the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ official count, as of June 6 the total number of refugees and displaced persons is 4.4 million. Half of them are internally displaced, and the rest have fled to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. Though the administration an- nounced that 7,000 refugees would be resettled in the U.S. this year, to date only 69 have been admitted, according to Refugees International. 2007 Declared “Year of the Pacific” At the Eighth Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, convened at the Department of State on May 7, Secretary of State Rice declared 2007 the “Year of the Pacific” and promised a governmentwide effort to increase the U.S. role in support of regional stability, good governance and eco- nomic development in the Pacific region ( www.state.gov ). It was the first time the triennial meeting orga- nized by the Honolulu-based East- West Center had taken place in Washington, D.C. Besides a meeting with Sec. Rice, the 20 leaders from Pacific countries and territories, including Hawaii and the U.S. territories, heard from Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes. Hughes announced the U.S. C YBERNOTES A merican Realism is an approach to the world that arises not only from the realities of global politics but from the nature of America’s character: From the fact that we are all united as a people not by a narrow nationalism of blood and soil, but by universal ideals of human freedom and human rights. We believe that our principles are the greatest sources of our power. And we are led into the world as much by our moral ideas as by our material interests. – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Economic Club of New York, June 7, www.state.gov .