Refugees Magazine Issue 146 ("Iraq Bleeds: Millions displaced by conflict, persecution and violence") - Editorial: Silent exodus

When choosing the photographs for this magazine, we came across an extraordinary number of pictures featuring blood. Not just blood-covered faces, hands and clothes, but streams of blood running through market places, along sidewalks. Large pools of blood with people standing beside them, sometimes even standing in them.

People behaving strangely. A small girl looking, without visible emotion, at a pool of blood with an upturned sandal perched in the middle like a small island. A well-dressed elderly man with a briefcase, walking briskly past another pool of blood, looking as if he is on his way to work on a normal day in a normal city. And many other pictures, too gruesome to mention.

Look at these pictures (only the least ghastly have made it into the world's press) and it is easy to understand why so many Iraqis have fled their homes, and so many more would if they could - and maybe still will, if security does not improve substantially and fast.

A sizeable proportion of the close to four million displaced Iraqis (1.9 million inside the country, and as many as 2 million outside) were already displaced when the most recent war began in March 2003. They had slipped out quietly over the previous decade or two, escaping individual and mass persecution by the Saddam Hussein regime, escaping conscription for the murderous eight-year war with Iran and the 1991 Gulf War, escaping the sanctions which followed during much of the 1990s - or escaping all these things.

Then came another war, more bombing, foreign troops, more displacement - and the subsequent opening of the Pandora's box of sectarianism that so many had feared could accompany any major destabilization in Iraq. The past two years have seen a sustained, ruthless and all too successful attempt by extremists to trigger large-scale sectarian violence, to make Iraqi society turn in on itself and tear itself apart. And, in response, continuing combat operations by military forces have also contributed to the cycle of destruction and displacement.

Iraqis have had to endure three decades of almost ceaseless torment of one sort or another. It is scarcely surprising so many have left. It is perhaps more surprising that so many have stayed. If they are to continue to do so, they will need a huge improvement in security, and more aid inside the country.

The socio-economic and security indicators coming out of Iraq make stark reading. The average number killed each day was - at least up until February - believed to be around 100. Two out of five adults are traumatized. Fifty percent of the working population is unemployed. Many schools have closed because of insecurity. Thousands of doctors, teachers and other professionals have been murdered. Many of the rest have fled.

The problems facing Iraq's neighbours are daunting: during 2006, the quiet but constant stream of people leaving Iraq turned into a steady torrent, with tens of thousands per month crossing the borders into Syria and Jordan.

By early 2007, two million Iraqis on top of some four million long-term Palestinian refugees had made the Middle East easily the biggest refugee-hosting region in the world. Add in the nearly 2 million displaced people inside Iraq, and the problem becomes gigantic.

For this reason, the UN refugee agency and others began to speak out with increasing urgency during the latter part of 2006: Jordan, Syria and the other countries in the region need help and they need it fast. The Iraqi refugees are rapidly plunging deeper into poverty and despair. The pressures are building inexorably across the board.

A huge international effort is required to focus on these problems, and for that reason, after talks with the most affected countries, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres convened a high-level conference in Geneva on 17-18 April. It is one of the most important humanitarian events that city has seen since the big conferences that galvanized attention on the Balkans in the 1990s - and a great deal depends on its outcome, and on whether the international community does indeed rally round as it has done in the past in times of major crises.

To end this editorial on a more upbeat note - and as a welcome reminder that all wars do, one day, come to an end, we would like to draw your attention to an uplifting story that emerged from the war and eventual peace in Sierra Leone. The extraordinary tale of the band known as the Refugee All Stars begins on page 25. It is a remarkable example of how determined people can, with a little help from benevolent outsiders, spin great success out of deepest adversity.

Iraqis have had to endure three decades of almost ceaseless torment of one sort or another. It is scarcely surprising so many have left. It is perhaps more surprising that so many have stayed. If they are to continue to do so, they will need a huge improvement in security, and more aid inside the country.

The socio-economic and security indicators coming out of Iraq make stark reading. The average number killed each day was - at least up until February - believed to be around 100.Two out of five adults are traumatized. Fifty percent of the working population is unemployed. Many schools have closed because of insecurity. Thousands of doctors, teachers and other professionals have been murdered. Many of the rest have fled.

The problems facing Iraq's neighbours are daunting: during 2006, the quiet but constant stream of people leaving Iraq turned into a steady torrent, with tens of thousands per month crossing the borders into Syria and Jordan.

By early 2007, two million Iraqis on top of some four million long-term Palestinian refugees had made the Middle East easily the biggest refugee-hosting region in the world. Add in the nearly 2 million displaced people inside Iraq, and the problem becomes gigantic.

For this reason, the UN refugee agency and others began to speak out with increasing urgency during the latter part of 2006: Jordan, Syria and the other countries in the region need help and they need it fast. The Iraqi refugees are rapidly plunging deeper into poverty and despair. The pressures are building inexorably across the board.

A huge international effort is required to focus on these problems, and for that reason, after talks with the most affected countries, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres convened a high-level conference in Geneva on 17-18 April. It is one of the most important humanitarian events that city has seen since the big conferences that galvanized attention on the Balkans in the 1990s - and a great deal depends on its outcome, and on whether the international community does indeed rally round as it has done in the past in times of major crises.

To end this editorial on a more upbeat note - and as a welcome reminder that all wars do, one day, come to an end, we would like to draw your attention to an uplifting story that emerged from the war and eventual peace in Sierra Leone. The extraordinary tale of the band known as the Refugee All Stars begins on page 25. It is a remarkable example of how determined people can, with a little help from benevolent outsiders, spin great success out of deepest adversity.

Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 146: "Iraq Bleeds: Millions displaced by conflict, persecution and violence" (April 2007).