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“WHY ARE CHRISTIANS KILLED AND DENIED THEIR RIGHTS?”

Cold-blooded murders and Christians terrorised in Mosul, the repeal of art. 50 which deprives the minorities of their representatives within the provincial councils. Why, we ask the world, do the Iraqi Christians have to suffer such attacks? Why are they killing us and denying us our rights?”. This is the heart-felt appeal received by SIR and been made today by father Philip Najim, Chaldean procurator to the Holy See, as he commented the serious state in which the local Christian communities are. ”Over the last few weeks – he says – ,we are witnessing a new, the umpteenth, wave of violence that is affecting the Christian community of Mosul, where armed groups enter the districts where the Christians live and kill anyone they find on their way. These are cold-blooded murders made in daylight, in front of dozens of witnesses, as if these groups wanted to prove they can do what they like scot-free, that they have control over the city. Dozens of families have left Mosul, either because they had been directly threatened or because they were scared, and the few that decided to stay live barricaded in their houses and do not dare go out, not even to take their children to school. The purpose is clearly to spread terror to drive the ancient Christian component out of the city, to complete a work that began years ago”.
Add to this violence the repeal of article 50 of the electoral law, a move, this one, that, according to Najim, “would deprive the minorities of their rights, as they are composed of Iraqi citizens who have always been loyal to the state and are an essential part of it”. Hence the appeal to the international community “to listen to our voice, defend our rights, break the wall of silence that surrounds this issue. We ask the international institutions and organisations to lobby the Iraqi government into reinstating article 50 as soon as possible, unchanged”. The Chaldean procurator reminds the Iraqi government “of the huge responsibility it has: to lay the conditions for the reconciliation of the state to bring back the peace and security that are essential for development and for the enforcement of the democratic principles that cannot exist without respecting the rights of the minorities. We are just asking what we are entitled to: the rights that must be naturally guaranteed to us, as Iraqi citizens”. Only by guaranteeing such rights and putting an end to violence – concludes Najim – can the Iraqi government show it is really determined to turn the country into a democratic nation. May words turn into facts. Stop killing Iraqis and respect their rights”.

News by SIR