ADO-WORLD.ORG - Assyrian Democratic Organisation

While Syria Burns

George Stifo — 2012-05-01T14:31:20Z

By Charles Krauthammer
ADO-World.org
26-April-2012

Last year President Obama ordered U.S. intervention in Libya under the grand new doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect.” Moammar Gaddafi was threatening a massacre in Benghazi. To stand by and do nothing “would have been a betrayal of who we are,” explained the president.

In the year since, the government of Syria has more than threatened massacres. It has carried them out. Nothing hypothetical about the disappearances, executions, indiscriminate shelling of populated neighborhoods. More than 9,000 are dead.

Obama has said that we cannot stand idly by. And what has he done? Stand idly by.

Yes, we've imposed economic sanctions. But as with Iran, the economic squeeze has not altered the regime's behavior. Monday's announced travel and financial restrictions on those who use social media to track down dissidents is a pinprick. No Disney World trips for the chiefs of the Iranian and Syrian security agencies. And they might now have to park their money in Dubai instead of New York. That'll stop 'em.

Obama's other major announcement — at Washington's Holocaust Museum, no less — was the creation of an Atrocities Prevention Board.

I kid you not. A board. Russia flies planeloads of weapons to Damascus. Iran supplies money, trainers, agents, more weapons. And what does America do? Support a feckless U.N. peace mission that does nothing to stop the killing. (Indeed, some of the civilians who met with the U.N. observers were summarily executed.) And establish an Atrocities Prevention Board.

With multiagency participation, mind you. The liberal faith in the power of bureaucracy and flowcharts, of committees and reports, is legend. But this is parody.

Now, there's an argument to be made that we do not have a duty to protect. That foreign policy is not social work. That you risk American lives only when national security and/or strategic interests are at stake, not merely to satisfy the humanitarian impulses of some of our leaders.

But Obama does not make this argument. On the contrary. He goes to the Holocaust Museum to commit himself and his country to defend the innocent, to affirm the moral imperative of rescue. And then does nothing of any consequence.

His case for passivity is buttressed by the implication that the only alternative to inaction is military intervention — bombing, boots on the ground.

But that's false. It's not the only alternative. Why aren't we organizing, training and arming the Syrian rebels in their sanctuaries in Turkey? Nothing unilateral here. Saudi Arabia is already planning to do so. Turkey has turned decisively against Bashar al-Assad. And the French are pushing for even more direct intervention.

Instead, Obama insists that we can act only with support of the “international community,” meaning the U.N. Security Council — where Russia and China have a permanent veto. By what logic does the moral legitimacy of U.S. action require the blessing of a thug like Vladimir Putin and the butchers of Tiananmen Square?

Our slavish, mindless self-subordination to “international legitimacy” does nothing but allow Russia — a pretend post-Soviet superpower — to extend a protective umbrella over whichever murderous client it chooses. Obama has all but announced that Russia (or China) has merely to veto international actions — sanctions, military assistance, direct intervention — and America will back off.

For what reason? Not even President Clinton, a confirmed internationalist, would acquiesce to such restraints. With Russia prepared to block U.N. intervention against its client, Serbia, Clinton saved Kosovo by summoning NATO to bomb the hell out of Serbia, the Russians be damned.

If Obama wants to stay out of Syria, fine. Make the case that it's none of our business. That it's too hard. That we have no security/national interests there.

In my view, the evidence argues against that, but at least a coherent case for hands-off could be made. That would be an honest, straightforward policy. Instead, the president, basking in the sanctity of the Holocaust Museum, proclaims his solemn allegiance to a doctrine of responsibility — even as he stands by and watches Syria burn.

If we are not prepared to intervene, even indirectly by arming and training Syrians who want to liberate themselves, be candid. And then be quiet. Don't pretend the U.N. is doing anything. Don't pretend the U.S. is doing anything. And don't embarrass the nation with an Atrocities Prevention Board. The tragedies of Rwanda, Darfur and now Syria did not result from lack of information or lack of interagency coordination, but from lack of will.

Source: The Washington Post

Syria 'In Contravention' of Peace Plan

George Stifo — 2012-04-27T12:13:57Z

UN chief voices "grave alarm" after reports of shelling of populated areas amid demands for Security Council meeting.

ADO-World.org
27-April-2012

The Syrian government is "in contravention" of an internationally agreed peace plan by keeping troops and heavy weapons in cities, Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, has said.

He also said he was "gravely alarmed" by reports of shelling of populated areas in Syria, in a statement released after a deadly explosion on Thursday in the flashpoint city of Hama.

Activists blamed the government for the blast and put the death toll at 69, including 16 children. Syrian state media said 16 people were killed when a bomb that "terrorists" were building exploded prematurely inside a house.

An unverified video posted on YouTube showed the collapsed remains of the building, as ash-covered men dug through piles of masonry looking for bodies amid the cries of onlookers.

Abu Ghazi, an activist and Hama resident told Al Jazeera: "People are dying because we don't have the necessary medical equipment or expertise to save those injured."

According to reports, an unexplained explosion was heard by residents in Damascus on Friday following overnight fighting in Douma, a suburb of the Syrian capital.

Al Jazeera cannot independently verify accounts of violence due to restrictions imposed on international media.

'Deeply troubled'

More than 9,000 people have died since a revolt erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's government in March last year, the UN says, while non-government groups put the figure at more than 11,100.

Under strong international pressure, Assad's government has agreed a troop withdrawal from cities as part of a six-point peace plan for Syria agreed with Kofi Annan, UN-Arab League envoy.

The truce, which officially started on April 12 but has barely held, is to be monitored by 300 UN observers due to arrive in Syria in coming weeks.

A small advance team is already on the ground.

Ban "remains deeply troubled by the continued presence of heavy weapons, military equipment and army personnel in population centres, as reported by United Nations Military Observers", the UN statement said.

This was "in contravention of the Syrian government's commitments to withdraw its troops and heavy weapons from these areas," Ban said, while demanding that Assad's government "comply with its commitments without delay".

Meanwhile, Annan's spokesperson has told the Reuters news agency in Geneva that 15 more ceasefire monitors of a total advance team of 30 are expected to be in Syria by Monday.

"We expect the 30 will be on the ground by the end of April, on Monday," Ahmad Fawzi said. "There is no delay... It is a whole process... They are deploying at remarkable speed."

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in the capital of neighbouring Lebanon, said Annan "would like as many ears and eyes on the ground as possible".

Western nations have expressed strong doubts that the UN observers will be able to work. The United States has already warned it may not renew the mission's initial three month mandate.

'Emergency meeting'

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said on Thursday the Security Council must be ready to order sanctions if Syria flouts commitments to halt violence.

"We condemn what remains the government's refusal to abide by its commitments, its continued intense use of heavy weaponry in Hama and elsewhere, which continues to result in large numbers of civilian deaths every day," she said.

In a statement, Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Congress, said: "We are calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians in Syria.

"Hama in recent days, and following a visit by UN observers, witnessed a series of crimes that left more than 100 people dead and hundreds wounded because of heavy shelling."

In recent violence, at least 40 people were also reportedly killed in Hama on Monday, including nine activists "summarily executed" after meeting UN monitors, a rights group said.

The reports cannot be verified because of restrictions on international media.

The Arab League, for its part, said in a statement it would ask the UN to ensure the immediate protection of civilians in Syria, without however going as far as demanding the use of force.

Nabil Elaraby, the Arab League secretary-general, called for observers to be deployed rapidly.

"The entire world is waiting for a truce and the observers to be deployed, but unfortunately the fighting has not stopped and every day new victims die," he told a ministerial meeting of the regional bloc in Cairo on Thursday.

"The important thing now is the ceasefire, and this will only happen if a sufficient number of observers is deployed."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

UN Names Norwegian General to Lead Syria Observer Mission

George Stifo — 2012-04-27T01:01:26Z

On top of dangers, Major General Robert Mood faces challenge of helping UN peacekeeping department get monitors into Syria.

ADO-World.org
26-April-2012

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations on Friday will name Major General Robert Mood to head the Syria ceasefire observer mission that is struggling to get monitors into the country, diplomats said.

UN member states have so far offered only 100 military officers for the unarmed force given the risky mission of checking a cessation of hostilities that has barely held in Syria since April 12. A total of 300 observers has been proposed, accompanied by about 90 civilian support staff and experts.

But Syria has blocked one proposed monitor and threatened to refuse any who come from a Western-Arab coalition of countries that has backed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Mood is expected to be in Damascus as early as this weekend. Diplomats said no objections were expected before a formal announcement on Friday after UN leader Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council he plans to name the Norwegian general.

The 54-year-old general negotiated sending of the advanced party of monitors with the Damascus government.

Mood attended a Security Council meeting on Tuesday during which UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said that Assad's forces had still not ended violence that has killed over 9,000 people over the past 13 months.

The general has not spoken publicly in New York but highlighted the "abyss of suspicion and violence between the Syrian regime and the opposition" in a recent interview with the Norwegian news agency NTB.

On top of the dangers in Syria, Mood also faces the challenge of helping the UN peacekeeping department get monitors into the country.

Security Council powers on Tuesday called on UN peacekeeping chiefs to speed up the deployment after being told that it would take a month to get a third of the officers in place.

France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the monitors should be there "within a fortnight, not in three months."

A meeting of troop contributing countries produced only 100 pledges, diplomats said. Finland offered at least seven observers, but it would still have to get formal government approval before they could leave.

The peacekeeping department is "working rapidly and efficiently to ensure the deployment by the quickest possible means, said deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

The UN has to persuade countries to make monitors available, give training in human rights and other topics and then tackle the Syrian bureaucracy, officials said.

Assad's government has already blocked one potential observer based in Damascus with the UN Truce Supervision Organization, which acts as an intermediary between Arab states and Israel.

"That may have been the problem — they know him and for some reason don't like him," said one diplomat.

According to UN officials, Syria is also refusing to accept monitors from the Friends of Syria group, which includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Damascus calls the group the "Enemies of Syria."

But the current advanced mission in Syria is being led by a colonel from Morocco, which has attended the Friends' meetings.

Russia has agreed to lobby the Syrians to stop blocking observers, diplomats said.

Western nations have expressed strong doubts about the dangers and poor prospects for the observer mission. The United States, Britain and France have all said UN sanctions will have to be considered if violence does not halt.

"Everything we have seen suggests that the Syrians are wanting to play for time and they don't have any real intention to start a political process and transition. But we need to call their bluff and test that out," a senior UN diplomat said.

Source: Middle East Online

France Issues Stark Warning to Syria Regime

George Stifo — 2012-04-27T00:58:36Z

French FM hopes Russia will draw right conclusions from Syria's efforts to block monitors' deployment.

ADO-World.org
26-April-2012

DAMASCUS - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Wednesday labelled the UN-backed peace plan for Syria "seriously compromised" and held out the threat of seeking military action to end the year-long crackdown.

UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan had urged a rapid deployment of the full, 300-strong observer team agreed by the UN Security Council, and Juppe said they should be on the ground in a fortnight, not three months.

Without quick progress, Juppe said the international community would have "to move on to another step which we have already started raising with our partners, under Chapter Seven of the United Nations charter."

A Chapter Seven resolution, which can be imposed by the Security Council if member states think peace is threatened by an act of aggression, authorises foreign powers to take measures including military options.

Juppe pointed out however that such a resolution, which was also mooted by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, was unlikely to pass, alluding to previous Security Council vetoes from Russia and China.

"The Damascus regime does not respect the commitments it made. Repression is continuing. Monitors cannot work on the ground. This cannot last indefinitely," he said after meeting Syrian opposition members in Paris.

"Things are not going well," Juppe said. "The Annan plan is seriously compromised but there is still a chance for this mediation, on the condition of the rapid deployment of the 300 monitors."

At the moment, there are only 15 observers in the country.

Juppe said that May 5, when Annan is to present his next report on the peace process, would be "a moment of truth."

If the UN mission "is not working, we cannot continue to accept the defiance of the regime" and the international community will have "to move on to other things to stop the tragedy."

He said he hoped Russia would draw the right conclusions from Syria's efforts to block the monitors' deployment.

At least 27 civilians were killed across the country on Wednesday, including in cities visited by monitors, taking to around 300 the number of people who have died since a ceasefire technically went into effect on April 12, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Twelve of them died in government shelling of the Mashaa al-Tayaran district in the central city of Hama, the London-based Observatory said.

Elsewhere, two civilians were killed by sniper fire in Douma, a northeastern suburb of the capital.

It was unclear whether UN monitors, who visited Douma on Wednesday, were present before or afterwards.

Three soldiers died in clashes with armed rebel groups in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Addressing the UN Security Council via teleconference on Tuesday, Annan said he was "concerned" about the violence surging after observers visit individual cities.

The former UN chief said Assad has still not fulfilled a promise to end violence and said the situation was "bleak" and "unacceptable."

Annan said he was "particularly alarmed" at reports that government forces had entered Hama after a visit by UN monitors and killed "a significant" number of people.

"If confirmed this is totally unacceptable and reprehensible," he told the council.

Neeraj Singh, spokesman for the advance team of UN monitors, said two were based in Hama and two in Homs — cities that have both witnessed fierce fighting between government and rebel forces — and the rest in Damascus.

Singh said the observers, who are set to number 30 in the coming days, report back to Annan daily on what they have seen.

Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi acknowledged that the truce aimed at ending 13 months of violence that the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people remained "extremely fragile".

He said satellite imagery showed the regime had not fully withdrawn all of its heavy armour from population centres as required by the Annan plan.

Fawzi added that in areas visited by the observers, the guns were falling silent but credible reports indicated the violence resumes once they leave.

Meanwhile, diplomats said the United Nations will name Major General Robert Mood to head the ceasefire observer mission, and that he is expected to be in Damascus as early as this weekend.

UN member states have so far offered only 100 military officers for the unarmed force given the risky mission.

Source: Middle East Online

French FM Warns Syria to Comply with Peace Plan

George Stifo — 2012-04-26T04:04:21Z

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said Wednesday that his nation wanted to see "at least 300" United Nations observers deployed in Syria by May 5. Juppé cautioned he would push for a UN peacekeeping intervention if the deadline was not met.

ADO-World.org - News Wires
25-April-2012

France wants to see at least 300 U.N. observers on the ground in Syria within two weeks and would push for a Chapter 7 resolution at the United Nations if Damascus does not comply by early May, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.

“This cannot continue indefinitely. We want to see observers in sufficient numbers, at least 300 ... deployed as quickly as possible,” Juppe said.

The minister said that May 5, when international envoy Kofi Annan is due to present a report to the Security Council on Syria, would be the “moment of truth”.

“If that does not work, we cannot allow the regime (in Syria) to defy us. We would have to move to a new stage with a Chapter 7 resolution at the United Nations to take a new step to stop this tragedy,” Juppe said.

Source: AFP

ADO's Seyfo Genocide Commemoration in Qamishly

George Stifo — 2012-04-25T22:36:13Z

On 24-April-2012, the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) held an event in its headquarters in Qamishly, Syria to commemorate the 97th anniversary of the Armenian and Assyrian Genocide (Seyfo)

صور من احتفالات المنظمة بمجازر السيفو عام 1915 في مقرها بمدينة القامشلي

SAFFO — 2012-04-25T19:56:24Z

Assyrian Genocide Monument Unveiled in Yerevan

George Stifo — 2012-04-25T17:55:14Z

ADO-World.org
25-April-2012

A monument to the innocent victims of Assyrian Genocide was unveiled at the crossroads of Moskovyan and Nalbandyan streets in Yerevan.

According to Arsen Mikhaylov, the Chapter Secretary of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) in Armenia, Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks have not forgotten the pain of Genocide, “therefore we should demand that Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide and make up for Genocide losses to these nations.”

Mr. Mikhaylov stressed that President Serzh Sargsyan assisted them in erecting the monument and RPA provided moral and financial support.

Thousands of Assyrians, Greeks and Arabs were massacred by the Young Turk regime during World War I.

Source: Panorama.am & NEWS.am

Prime Minister of Armenia Receives Representatives of Assyrian Communities of Different Countries

George Stifo — 2012-04-25T17:50:31Z

ADO-World.org
25-April-2012

YEREVAN: On April 25, PM of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan received representatives of Assyrian communities of different countries, government's press service told Armenpress. Welcoming the guests, the PM said: "I want to assure that the government will do everything possible enabling the Assyrian community to feel at ease in Armenia. All the issues of the community will be in the focus of our attention so that you manage to arrange your spiritual and cultural life in our country without any obstacle." Tigran Sargsyan said that in the running year the government has doubled the financial support provided to the Assyrian community every year.

The representatives of the Assyrian communities expressed gratitude to Armenia's authorities for assisting in opening of a monument to innocent victims of Assyrian people in Yerevan and keeping the issues of the Assyrian community in the center of its attention.

Assyrian community representatives asked for the Prime Minister's support for organization of the congress of the Assyrian Universal Alliance in Yerevan in autumn, and received the affirmation of the head of the government.

Source: ARMENPRESS

Syria's Forgotten Refugees

George Stifo — 2012-04-25T17:17:55Z

Devaluation of Syrian currency, sanctions, rising food prices, deepening economic crisis in Syria have affected Iraqi refugees.

ADO-World.org
25-April-2012

DUBAI - It was 21 February 2006. The date is etched in Samia's* mind.

She was in her kitchen making tea for her brother's family, who was visiting her at her home in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, when gunfire broke out in the sitting room.

“It was as if there was a war in my home,” she recounted.

She could not move; could not breathe; could not do anything. Militias killed nine members of her family that day, while she stood in the other room, effectively paralysed.

Those were the early days of sectarian warfare in Iraq. Tens of thousands of other deaths would follow over the course of the next two years.

Samia told IRIN her story years later from the rural suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, where she now lives as a refugee with her husband and two of her children.

She is desperate to get out of Syria, where she says she continues to receive threats from across the border in Iraq.

“Until now, I get calls saying if you come back, we will kill you,” she said.

The current unrest in Syria has only made things worse - food prices have risen, she is reliving memories of war, and worst of all, her family's resettlement in the USA has been indefinitely stalled, with limited alternatives for leaving Syria if the situation there continues to deteriorate.

While the world focuses on the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing an increasingly violent conflict between the government and opposition forces, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in Syria - the largest Iraqi refugee population in the world - have been all but forgotten. The 102,000 registered refugees, amid a government estimate of 1 million Iraqis in total, now face a more uncertain future than ever - and some of them are crying out for help.

“Please,” Samia begged this IRIN reporter, “Consider me your mother. Do something to help me. Let our voices reach America…Why can't they just take us out of here?”

Flight from Syria

Until now, there has been no mass departure of Iraqi refugees from Syria. But according to government figures, in 2011, 67,000 Iraqis in Syria returned to an Iraq which, while significantly safer than in 2006-7, is still one of the most dangerous places in the world. That number is a significant jump from previous years: In 2009 and 2010 combined, the number of returns from Syria was less than half that, according to statistics recorded by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration.

The number of Iraqi refugees in Syria is expected to keep dropping, with the overall registered refugee population expected to be 90,000 in the course of 2012, down from 127,859 in January 2011, according to international community's 2012 Response Plan for Iraq.

One senior aid worker told IRIN most of these returns have been willing, voluntary and ultimately “the best solution”.

But the Brookings Institution calls their return “premature” and a survey by UNHCR just before the unrest in Syria started found that most refugees in Syria were still unwilling to return home permanently.

“In situations like this, often, refugees have to decide between two difficult situations and they will have to decide which is the least problematic,” Panos Moumtzis, UNHCR's newly-appointed regional coordinator for the Syria crisis, told IRIN last month.

Much smaller numbers of Iraqis in Syria have fled a second time - into Turkey, and to a lesser extent Lebanon and Jordan, where entry poses some challenges.

Struggling to survive economically

Most Iraqis in Syria live in Damascus and the business capital, Aleppo, relatively unaffected by the violence in Syria, which has killed an estimated 9,000 Syrians since March 2011. Thus “they have continued to enjoy relative stability and peace,” Moumtzis said.

Until now, UNHCR has been able to continue its regular assistance programmes for Iraqi refugees, even in places as far as Hassakah, in the northeast.

But the devaluation of the Syrian currency, sanctions and a deepening economic crisis in Syria have affected everyone, including refugees who were economically vulnerable to begin with and who are forbidden from legal work as refugees in Syria.

The vast majority of the Iraqi refugee population in Syria gets food assistance, which UNHCR says has helped to stave off negative coping mechanisms and keep malnutrition at bay, but refugees say they are eating less and even selling food to make ends meet.

Mohamed*, an Iraqi refugee in the northern Syrian city of Halab, receives 10,500 Syrian pounds a month (about $183) for his family of seven as a food allowance from UNHCR; but the bill for rent, water and electricity is higher. And as food and gas prices have more than doubled in some cases, his family has been forced to change their eating habits, eating one loaf of bread per day instead of two, for example.

His family depends on remittances - now affected by the devaluation of the Syrian currency - from family in Iraq to survive. UNHCR recently increased the food allowance from 1,100 to 1,500 pounds per person per month ($19 to $26); and intends to increase cash assistance for the most vulnerable by 40 percent to compensate for the increase in prices.

Samia, in rural Damascus, says her family sells the food they receive from the World Food Programme in order to pay rent and carry them over until the end of the month.

“I try to manage, scraping a bit from here, a bit from there to make ends. Only God knows how much I'm suffering,” she said.

Her daughter has lost significant weight, she said, and the family has reduced its food intake to basics like bread, tomatoes and oil, refraining from fruit, chicken, cheese and other perceived luxuries.

Forbidden from formal employment in Syria, most Iraqis work in the informal sector - in hotels or in tourism - an industry hard-hit by the unrest. During a UNHCR survey of more than 800 refugees in February, 40 percent of respondents reported a decrease in their monthly income, and 13 percent had lost their employment altogether, Helene Daubelcour, UNHCR spokesperson in Syria, told IRIN. Ninety percent of them said they had higher food expenditures.

According to UNHCR, about 10,000 Iraqi refugees were living in hot spots like Homs, Dera'a and areas of rural Damascus (Harasta, Zabadani, Duma) when the Syrian conflict began. About half of them have since moved to other areas of the country, displaced once again and in need of more assistance.

Their secondary displacement has also driven up rent prices, as the pressure on the availability of accommodation increase.

“You see the domino effect,” Daubelcour said.

At a roundtable discussion hosted by the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement and the International Rescue Committee in February, participants pointed to tensions between Iraqi refugees and displaced Syrians as they compete for diminishing resources.

Re-traumatization

More than direct violence, refugees in Syria are at risk of re-traumatization, with 78 percent of refugees surveyed by UNHCR saying the current situation had had a negative impact on their mental and physical well-being, including nightmares and recollections of the past. The anxiety has led to an increase in domestic violence, Daubelcour said.

“We feel that what happened in Iraq could happen again,” said Mohamed, who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the Mahdi Army, a Shia militant group, in May 2006.

“I'm afraid of everything around me,” said Samia, the Iraqi who was in the other room when her family was killed.

In response, UNHCR has further developed its psychosocial support and counselling.

Of the 1,600 Iraqis from Syria who registered with UNHCR in Turkey, most said they did not feel safe.

“[They said] they already went through this once in Iraq and they have no intention whatsoever of waiting for it to hit them more particularly,” one senior aid worker in Turkey told IRIN. “It seems to be that they are leaving pre-emptively.”

Stuck in Syria

The problem is that many of them cannot do so.

Some 18,000 Iraqi refugees who had already been accepted for resettlement to a third country or were awaiting interviews, have had their files frozen. Initially delayed due to new US security procedures, the cases have now been put on indefinite hold because resettlement countries have had more difficulty conducting interviews amid the unrest.

Both Samia and Mohamed's families have had their suitcases ready for months, believing they were to travel any day; others were reportedly turned back at the airport. They are now “stuck” in Syria until a solution is found.

“There are a lot who had the expectation of resettlement and will not be resettled any time soon,” said Andrew Harper, UNHCR representative in Jordan.

Refugee advocates have called for completing the process by video conference, but UNHCR representatives say that option, as well as the possibility of processing them in another country, is simply not manageable for such a large number of people.

“Frankly speaking,” said the aid worker based in Turkey, “I don't think it is realistically doable.”

Nor would it necessarily be welcomed in neighbouring countries, which are themselves hosting Iraqi refugees and have resettlement processes of their own.

“Whether they jump the cue or not, that's quite a sensitive issue,” the aid worker pointed out.

This has left people like Samia and Mohamed “between a rock and no place”, as the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project put it - unwilling to return to Iraq's continued violence, uncomfortable with the rising insecurity and economic challenges in Syria, but unable to leave for fear of losing their chance at permanent resettlement elsewhere.

Mohamed said he was told that if he left for Jordan or Turkey, his case could be closed. UNHCR says there is no guarantee resettlement cases will be taken up at the same stage if refugees leave for another country.

“I don't want to waste these years that I invested here and throw them away for nothing,” he told IRIN. “I spent six years here. There's no way I'm going to start over again.”

Freedom of movement

Others don't have the financial means to leave Syria in the first place.

“If we had any way of going elsewhere, we would have left,” Samia's daughter, Zeinab*, told IRIN.

But the doors would not necessarily be open to them. Iraqis can get a visa for Turkey at the border, and have been able to enter Lebanon on tourist visas (about 100 have done so). But Jordan, which has opened its doors to fleeing Syrians, has all but closed the border to Iraqis, observers say, out of a fear that a mass influx of Iraqis would overrun the already strained infrastructure in their small country, already hosting many Iraqis from 2003 onwards.

“Of course, there are different considerations [for Iraqis],” Jordanian government spokesperson Rakan al-Majali recently told IRIN. “There are specific rules and regulations governing the entry of Iraqis which existed before the crisis in Syria and continue to exist.

“A humanitarian situation does not justify breaking rules that apply to a specific group.”

UNHCR acknowledges that this could lead to a situation in which it becomes too violent for Iraqis to stay in Syria, too dangerous to go back to Iraq and impossible to enter Jordan. It would then be up to the international community to lobby other countries to take these refugees in.

In addition to the Iraqis, there are around half a million Palestinians and some 8,000 refugees from other countries - Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, even Afghanistan - who can't necessarily go back to their countries of origin.

“At the moment, we would like to see the borders remain open,” regional refugee coordinator Moumtzis said. “Of course, the final decision is on the neighbouring countries to make sure that this is implemented.”

“With 45% of registered Iraqi refugees having been in Syria for over five years, and decreasing opportunities for resettlement, the character of the refugee situation will become protracted in nature,” says the response plan.

*Names changed to protect identities of refugees

Source: IRIN