More boat people on the way

Pakistan faces biggest refugee crisis since 1947:

Aid groups have warned of a human tide of up to 500,000 people fleeing their homes. The UN said an estimated 200,000 have fled the Swat valley and its main town, Mingora, in the past few days alone, while another 300,000 are poised to flee if they get the chance. This would create a total of one million people forced from their homes by fighting in the past 12 months. It represents the biggest internal displacement of people in Pakistan since independence more than 60 years ago.

In addition to the refugees primarily from the ruined countries of Iraq and Afghanistan that have made the desperate journey by boat to our shores in recent years, it seems likely there will now be a bunch more.

If Howard were still in power we know what to expect: the ugly and racist demonization of regugees as terrorists, sleepers, child-drowners leading to the cruel abandonment at sea or imprisonment in concentration camps. With Rudd it is slightly more civilized, Rudd will only blame it on people-smugglers.

But Rudd just like Howard cannot dare speak the awful truth: that the direct cause of the massive refugee crises in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is the Whitepowers' military assault on those countries, an aggression in which Australia has shamefully taken and is taking a direct part.

Pakistan faces biggest refugee crisis since 1947:

Aid groups have warned of a human tide of up to 500,000 people fleeing their homes. The UN said an estimated 200,000 have fled the Swat valley and its main town, Mingora, in the past few days alone, while another 300,000 are poised to flee if they get the chance. This would create a total of one million people forced from their homes by fighting in the past 12 months. It represents the biggest internal displacement of people in Pakistan since independence more than 60 years ago.

In addition to the refugees primarily from the ruined countries of Iraq and Afghanistan that have made the desperate journey by boat to our shores in recent years, it seems likely there will now be a bunch more.

If Howard were still in power we know what to expect: the ugly and racist demonization of regugees as terrorists, sleepers, child-drowners leading to the cruel abandonment at sea or imprisonment in concentration camps. With Rudd it is slightly more civilized, Rudd will only blame it on people-smugglers.

But Rudd just like Howard cannot dare speak the awful truth: that the direct cause of the massive refugee crises in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is the Whitepowers' military assault on those countries, an aggression in which Australia has shamefully taken and is taking a direct part.

More boat people on the way