THE WAR -- The Money [Part 24]

Sometimes “The Money” is not about the endless bundles of death cash we snake through the alleys of Baghdad, or send out into the desert never to be seen again, or line the pockets of the few, the well-placed and the brutally powerful.

Sometimes it’s about:

“Omar, a 69-year-old refugee from Baghdad, interviewed by UNHCR, said that he will die a “slow death” if assistance is stopped. His family has depended on food and medical aid since arriving in Syria in 2006, and pay rent out of remittances from Iraq which he described as “our only way to survive.”

And it’s about “The Money” we refuse to spend.


Money running out for Iraqi refugee crisis, warns UN agency

9 May 2008 –The United Nations refugee said today that it could soon be forced to reduce or even halt assistance to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees unless donors provide more funds.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said there was a $127 shortfall for health, education and food assistance for Iraqi refugees. “We will not be able to help hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and internally displaced if we do not receive funding for the remainder of 2008,” said High Commissioner António Guterres. “Without this support, the humanitarian crisis we have faced over the past two years may grow even larger,” he added.

A total of 4.7 million Iraqis have been uprooted as a result of the crisis in their country. Of these over 2 million are living as refugees in neighbouring countries – mostly Syria and Jordan – while 2.7 million are internally displaced inside Iraq. . . .

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26614&Cr=iraq&Cr1=