Picture of the Day - 3
A young girl plays in a displacement camp Monday April 3, 2006 in Diwaniyah, Iraq about 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad. Some 33,000 Iraqis, mainly Shiites, were displaced in Iraq following the Feb. 22 attack on an important Shiite shrine north of Baghdad, IOM (International Organisation for Migration) officials said. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)This is the first I've heard of "displacement camps." Certainly, there have been several reports of refugees, but this is the first I've heard of camps.
Who is servicing these with food, water, cooking fuel, etc? Who is protecting them? US? Iraqi army? Militias?
In previous civil conflicts of this sort, these camps became some of the most dangerous ground in the war. Civilians suffer deprivation, disease and criminal gangs thrive, and government, paramilitary, and militia groups attack them. This is not a good development.
Has anyone seen any other information on "displacement camps" in Iraq, or whatever other euphemism they want to use for refugee camps?
(And again, I credit this revelation to the use of local Iraqi cameramen and reporters, rather than westerners, by the wire services. As I've said several times before (Part I, Part II), it really has made a difference in the presentation of the war. I mean, Western photographers were not taking this picture of a dying child for the AP. (VERY GRAPHIC))
posted by mikevotes at
1:56 PM
2 Comments:
I too had not heard of displacement camps. But as I've said, the American media is almost embarrassingly shallow in it's coverage.
While W. and his toadies would have us believe the MSM is biased toward negative news, I think it's fair to say they actually hold back on reporting the true breadth of the disaster. I realize it's dangerous to cover Iraq now than it was immediately after the fall of Baghdad (and that's a story in itself), but they're really only giving us a daily tally of death and not shedding any light on the circumstances and political realities on the ground.
By
-epm, at 3:44 PM
That's one of the reasons I think the more truthful(?) pictures coming out from Iraqi photographers is important. It shows real people and the ugly side of war.
And, again, I'd heard of the "migrations" but I hadn't heard of tent camps. I'm wondering if they're big or if that was one row of tents.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 3:55 PM
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