The Forsaken People

The coerced displacement of people within the borders of their own countries by armed conflicts, internal strife, and systematic violations of human rights has become a pervasive feature of the post Cold War era. The plight of the displaced poses a challenge that is not only humanitarian but a threat to the security and stability of countries, regions, and, through a chain effect, the international system. This book contains case studies of ten countries that have suffered severe problems of internal displacement: Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, and the Sudan in Africa; the former Yugoslavia and the Caucasus in Europe; Tajikistan and Sri Lanka in Asia; and Colombia and Peru in the Americas. The contributors are Thomas Greene, Randolph C. Kent, Jennifer McLean, Larry Minear, Liliana Obregón, Amir Pasic, Hiram A. Ruiz, Colin Scott, H.L. Seneviratne, Maria Stavropoulou, and Thomas G. Weiss. Additionally, the contributors and editors offer recommendations for further action.

Roberta Cohen is a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and serves as codirector of its Project on Internal Displacement. Francis M. Deng is a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement. He has served as the Sudan's minister of state and foreign affairs; as its ambassador to Canada, the United States, and Scandinavia; and as special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for internally displaced persons.