SIREN FROM THE CHRISTIANS OF IRAQ

The Diocesan Committee for Justice and Human Rights Call for Action

It is a well established fact that the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, and the Syriacs, are the descendents of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, heirs of Iraq’s ancient civilization, the preservers of its Aramaic language, the children of its Christian martyrs since the apostolic era, the loyal contributors to every collective achievement through the different Iraqi epochs until the present time. Nevertheless, the fact is that they are leaving Iraq by the hundreds of thousands. Why? These are the facts:

a) Lacking any sort of security apparatus, they have been treated lately with sustained brutality, in their ancestral land, before the eyes of the Iraqi government, the Regional Government of Kurdistan, and the whole civilized world.

b) They have seen the Constitution of the new Iraq depriving them from what is recognized for Arabs and Kurds, i.e. concrete nationalistic and religious equal rights, denying them any share in national revenues, making them effectively second-class citizens. 

c) The Plain of Nineveh, where they still have a substantial presence, is coveted by opposing contenders, i.e., the Arabs and the Kurds, using every means, including barbarous murders--as it is happening openly in Mosul--to impose their futuristic selfish agenda.

d) An open Kurdish policy to dilute the nationalistic rights of Christians, most of all the Chaldeans, by denying them recognition of their particular nationalistic identity in the Constitution of the Region of Kurdistan. This policy is made evident through the fabrication of a bizarre formula "Chaldean Syriac Assyrian people" to substitute the historic and millennial continuous expression of particular nationalistic identities.

                To divulge and implement this policy, the Kurdish government instituted political Christian parties with subservient boards, heavily funded and endorsed by the Kurdish Government. One important component of this policy is to lure the Christian inhabitants of the Plain of Nineveh with a prospect of local Autonomy, i.e. an autonomy within the Kurdish Autonomy, provided that the Plain will merge in the Kurdish Region.  For the whole world to see, the concrete everyday's reality is no other than increasing hardship and misery, including a forced alteration of local demographics, unsustainable conditions of life, and unbearable persecution.

What is incumbent on us ?  All of the above are solid facts, witnessed to and announced by international institutions such as: The Human Rights Watch Report (November 2009).  After losing half of its people, and with them all hope in the will or the ability of Iraqi politicians for providing justice to the Christians of the Land, Christianity of Iraq is in urgent need for immediate support.  The American Catholic diocese of St. Peter the Apostle (Western USA), comprising Chaldeans and Assyrians most of them of Iraqi origin, must bear a special responsibility of defending the basic human rights of that peaceful and innocent people, their own brothers and sisters. 

                Therefore, the Eparchial Bishop of this diocese has established a Diocesan Committee for Justice and Human Rights, to promote and implement a formerly published Manifesto, adopted by an elite of Chaldeans and Assyrians, charting a balanced road-map for their relationships and their future.  This Committee is hereby presenting itself for immediate action, and declaring its commitment to formulate and defend the human rights of our people, as well as the rights of all Christians of Iraq, before the US government and the International Institutions, being aware that the only good solution for all contentions in Iraq is of political character, to be reached with the agreement of all concerned.

Co-Chairmen: Dr. Noori Barka & Dr. Lincoln Malik