The world has forgotten Palestine's refugees, said Brigham Young University professor J. Bonner Ritchie.
"I don't know what's with the press. The Western press and Western governments have not given full coverage to the whole refugee story since one year ago," Ritchie said in a recent interview.As a professor of organizational behavior, Ritchie spent one year in the Middle East training Arabs and Israelis about leadership and management skills. He was in Jordan when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait last August.
Ritchie returned to the Middle East again this August as an adviser and consultant for Rep. Bill Orton, D-Utah, on a tour of the Middle East.
"What really bothered me most was the refugees - especially the children," Rit-chie said.
The woman in charge of Save the Children in Jordan has several stories about the desperate fears for the future that children have in refugee camps, Ritchie said.
"They see no future, no where to go and no opportunity for a state of Palestine," he said. "The children have a look of fear and hoping somebody will love them instead of beating them and driving them on somewhere else."
At least the Palestinian refugees aren't still being hunted like the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq, he added.
The only aid Ritchie saw came from local Jordanian residents, churches and organizations, while little support came from the United Nations. And Jordan is in no condition to extensively maintain more refugee camps, he added.
"A substantial number have been refugees since the 1947 and 1948 wars. There are also refugees from the wars in 1967. There are literally generations of refugees living and dying in those camps. "Now add (those) from the war in Iraq."
Jordan has a population of 3.5 million people, and 70 percent of its economy was dependent on trade with Iraq. Now Jordan's economy is not only being hit hard by embargoes, but 1 million refugees have crowded the country.
"It would be like having 75 million refugees suddenly coming to the United States," Ritchie said.