Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
against Muslim confl ict in Darfur demonstrates that
political confl ict is not just religious; it is also ethnic
and political.
Mixed into this extremely local confl ict are regional
and global-scale debates about what to do. Regionally,
the African Union, an organization committed to fi nd-
ing African solutions to African problems, has com-
mitted Nigerian and Rwandan troops to Darfur to try
to solve the crisis. The African Union is supported with
American and European monies and military strategiz-
ing. Regionally, neighboring countries have not helped
create stability for the country. Since 1998, over 5.4
million people have died in violence in neighboring
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Violence in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo was partially spurred
by the instability created as a result of refugee fl ows from
the 1994 war in neighboring Rwanda. The situation in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo is certainly bleak.
In 2009, attacks by the rebel group Lord's Resistance
Army in the northeastern portion of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo have generated over 1 million
refugees. The refugees have fl ed to South Sudan, a new
country that recently experienced civil war and humani-
tarian crisis, to escape their own oppressive government.
in the aftermath of the long war that ended in 1975.
In the early 1990s, Cambodia produced an exodus of
300,000 refugees escaping from their country's seem-
ingly endless cycle of violence, ending up in refugee
camps on the Thailand side of the border. Today, the
largest camps in this realm are for IDPs in Myanmar
(formerly Burma). Victims of the 2004 tsunami, the
2008 cyclone, and the repressive rule of generals who
are seeking to subjugate the country's minorities seek
refuge in the camps. The UNHCR explains that esti-
mating the number of IDPs in Myanmar is diffi cult
because securing information from Myanmar's closed
society is diffi cult.
Europe
In the 1990s, the collapse of Yugoslavia and its associated
confl icts created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since
the end of World War II. In 1995, the UNHCR reported
the staggering total of 6,056,600 refugees, a number that
some observers felt was infl ated by the Europeans' unusu-
ally liberal interpretations of the United Nations' rules for
refugee recognition. Nevertheless, even after the cessa-
tion of armed confl ict and the implementation of a peace
agreement known as the Dayton Accords, the UNHCR
still reports over 100,000 IDPs in the area.
South Asia
In terms of refugee numbers, South Asia is the third-rank-
ing geographic realm, mainly because of Pakistan's role
in accommodating Afghanistan's refugees. During the
Soviet intrusion in the 1980s, the UNHCR counted more
than 3 million refugees; during the 1990s, the total aver-
aged between 1.2 and 1.5 million. That number rose when
Allied retaliation against terrorist bases began in October
2001. Today, Afghanistan has an enormous refugee cri-
sis with 3 million refugees living outside of Afghanistan,
mostly in Pakistan and Iran.
The other major refugee problem in South Asia
stems from a civil war in Sri Lanka. This confl ict, aris-
ing from demands by minority Tamils for an indepen-
dent state on the Sinhalese-dominated and -controlled
island, has cost tens of thousands of lives and has severely
damaged the economy. The United Nations reports
that about 200,000 people are internally displaced. The
United Nations, European Union, and the Canadian
government are working to repatriate the IDPs, particu-
larly in the northern provinces of Sri Lanka. An estimated
100,000 internally displaced persons are uprooted in Sri
Lanka today.
Other Regions
The number of refugees and internally displaced per-
sons in other geographic realms is much smaller. In the
Western Hemisphere, only Colombia has a serious inter-
nally displaced person problem, numbering between 3.4
and 4.9 million people, caused by the country's chronic
instability associated with its struggle against narcotics.
Large areas of Colombia's countryside are vulnerable to
armed attack by “narcoterrorists” and paramilitary units;
these rural areas are essentially beyond government con-
trol, and thousands of villagers have died in the crossfi re.
Hundreds of thousands more have left their homes to
seek protection.
People who abandon their familiar surroundings
because conditions have become unlivable perform an
ultimate act of desperation. In the process, the habits of
civilization vanish as survival becomes the sole imperative.
Refugee and internally displaced person populations are a
barometer of the world's future.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is a reminder that refugee problems can
change quickly. Indochina was the scene of one of the
twentieth century's most desperate refugee crises when
a stream of between 1 and 2 million people fl ed Vietnam
Imagine you are from an extremely poor country, and
you earn less than $1 a day. Choose a country to be from,
and look for it on a map. Assume you are a voluntarily
