Stories about Refugees from July, 2009
Pakistan: Handling The Return Of Refugees
The Government of Pakistan has finally announced a schedule for the Swat refugees outlining their return to home. Pakistani bloggers feel that a lot more needs to be done to ensure their safety and for their rehabilitation.
Sri Lanka: The Detained Refugees
Indi.ca comments: “Sri Lankan IDPs are not displaced as much as detained. They’re being held until LTTE cadres are ‘weeded out’ or screened or whatever, which has a logic, but there’s no particular legal basis for it. That’s why I’m interested in the Fundamental Rights case filed by the family...
Bermuda, Haiti: Standing Up
“In the 1980s Bermudians participated in the global anti-Apartheid anti-imperialist movement”: Catch a fire thinks “it is time that our new generation continue this tradition and pick up the mantle of fighting injustices” such the ones in Haiti.
Sri Lanka: Deaths In IDP Camps
Indrajit Samarajiva at Indi.ca criticizes the mention of a large number of deaths in Sri Lankan IDP camps by some International media and comments: “making up very serious numbers doesn’t help anyone. It riles up some hard line diaspora elements, but it’s fundamentally a political missive, not a journalistic one.”
Russia: Politkovskaya laureate murdered
Just another death, just another obituary. That seems to be the general sentiment as news of today's murder of Russian Human Rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, broke. However, there are still people out there, in the Russian blogosphere, who challenge disillusion as yet another voice of conscience and tolerance is silenced by violent death.
Only Pakistan can help Pakistan
While discussing the problem of the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), Mosharraf Zaidi at All Things Pakistan comments: “Pakistan is in this mess because this is a state that does not deal with small problems until they become big problems,” and “in the long run, only Pakistan can...
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Making people out of numbers
Srebrenica Genocide Blog posts a list of 534 people with birth dates killed during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, recently identified by modern DNA-technique, restoring some dignity to the victims, and making people out of numbers.
IDPs Are Also Sri Lankan And Have Their Rights
Indi.ca contradicts the idea that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka need to be kept in camps for their own good. The blogger opines that: “they are Sri Lankan and they have rights, including the right to movement.”
Czech Republic-Canada: Reintroducing a visa regime?
CzechFolks.com reports that Canada is considering reimposing visa requirements for Czech citizens, following a surge in the number of Czech refugee seekers to Canada over the last year.
Bosnia-Serbia: Leak of secret Srebrenica documents
Srebrenica Genocide Blog reports that classified documents, implicating deeper involvement of Serbia-Montenegro in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, have been leaked from the Hague Tribunal.
Pakistan: Public Opinion About Talibans
CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan informs that according to the recent polls most Pakistanis view Talibans as critical threat to them.
Sri Lanka: Eye-witness Account From An IDP Camp
Groundviews publishes an eye-witness account from an IDP camp in Sri Lanka describing the conditions of the refugees in a post-war situation. Separation of family members, no freedom of movement, corruption, bad hygiene conditions, diseases and epidemic are some of the problems cited in that report.
