Joseph Stalin is once said to have remarked that a single death is a tragedy. but 1 million deaths is a statistic. We need to send a message to the dispossessed and the threatened that they will not become a statistic in this horrible accounting of human disaster. Refugee situations. if they are allowed to fester. not only remain as burdens on our collective conscience for decades and centuries. They also pose threats to human wellbeing. to political stability. and to a fundamental sense of peace. not only in former Yugoslavia. but. as we have heard earlier. in Afghanistan. in Kashmir. and. most recently. in Liberia. This provision lays the groundwork for the restitution of refugees. By keeping an eye out for population movements and displacements. it can also serve as a key element in an early warning mechanism that the world urgently needs. I would urge my colleagues not only to support the legislation before us. but to join in formulating other new initiatives to improve international responses to the many new unfamiliar challenges that we face in the postcold war era.
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refugees Refugee