US embassy cable - 04AMMAN5090

UNCLAS AMMAN 005090 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR PRM/A AND PRM/ANE, DHS FOR CIS, GENEVA FOR RMA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, IZ, JO, UNHCR 
SUBJECT: IRAQI REFUGEES TURN WORLD REFUGEE DAY CELEBRATION 
INTO RESETTLEMENT RALLY 
 
1.  (U) UNHCR's June 20 World Refugee Day celebration -- 
titled "A Place to Call Home" -- took an unexpectedly 
political turn when Iraqi refugees turned a speech and poetry 
reading into a fiery rejection of voluntary repatriation and 
an emotional call for resettlement outside the region. 
UNHCR's celebration began with carefully worded speeches by 
the Jordan and Iraq Heads of Mission that focused on the High 
Commissioner's "Four R's" Program:  repatriation, 
reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction.  The 
subtext of both speeches was that, although Iraq remains a 
troubled place, voluntary repatriation is emerging as the 
only durable solution for Iraqi refugees and one that UNHCR 
will promote once security conditions warrant. 
 
2.  (U) UNHCR's volrep message did not go over well with the 
100 or so Iraqi refugees present at the celebration.  In 
remarks following the UNHCR officials' speeches, Iraqi 
refugee Muslim Al Taan flatly rejected UNHCR's "Four R's." 
For Iraqi refugees, Al Taan proclaimed, there are four very 
different R's:  resettlement, resettlement, resettlement, 
resettlement!  By name, Al Taan called upon the nine 
resettlement countries to do their part and accept for 
resettlement the Iraqi refugees who have been languishing in 
limbo since September 2001. With an angry plea for "God's 
justice," Taan cried "Let us live in freedom!  No to 
voluntary repatriation!"  Refugees throughout the audience 
picked up the refrain, jumping to their feet to shout and 
raise their fists along with Taan.  One refugee rushed to the 
stage and began pounding his head on the floor before being 
restrained by an official from the cultural center. 
 
3.  (U) After five emotional minutes of angry protests 
rocking the cultural center, the refugees quieted down and 
shifted their attention to a poetry reading that, somewhat 
ironically, celebrated the beauty and wonder of the very 
country to which the refugees refuse to return.  Uneasy 
representatives from the UN, GOJ and resettlement countries 
(including the Canadian ambassador, U.S. refcoord and refugee 
admissions specialists) took the opportunity to slip out of 
the event.  UNHCR officials later expressed anger at the 
refugees and community services implementing partner CARE for 
letting the event spiral out of control, never acknowledging 
that UNHCR itself should have taken greater responsibility 
for the celebration. 
 
4.  (SBU) Comment:  The refugee day event highlights the 
growing frustration felt by both Iraqi refugees and UNHCR 
officials over this caseload's continuing uncertainties. 
Resettlement countries have kept Iraqis on hold since 
September 2001, as they reviewed post-9/11 security practices 
and then changing conditions in Iraq itself.  Since the fall 
of Saddam's regime, deteriorating security conditions have 
prevented UNHCR from lifting the voluntary protection order 
or promoting voluntary repatriation to Iraq, while 
resettlement countries continue to keep their programs on 
hold. The result is an increasingly angry refugee population 
that desperately wants to call any place but Iraq home and 
blames UNHCR for its uncertain future.  Decisions from major 
resettlement countries, including the U.S., regarding the 
Iraqis already in the pipeline, would help ease these 
pressures.  Iraqis constitute the vast majority of UNHCR's 
caseload in Jordan; 73 cases remain candidates for the U.S. 
resettlement program. 
 
5.  (U) CPA Baghdad minimize considered. 
GNEHM