KurdishMedia.com
18/06/2004

No Financial help to the Christians of Iraq.

New York (KurdishMedia.com) 18 June 2004: Christian Democrat MEP Albert Jan Maat has asked the European Commission questions about the distribution of 160 million euro in funds approved for the distribution in Iraq by the European Commission. These questions, which pretain to the Assyrian Christians of Iraq, were as follows:

"The Commission has decided that 160 million EUR can be devoted to the reconstruction of
Iraq. What guarantees can the Commission give that religious minorities can benefit from these funds on the basis of proportionality?"

"Is the Commission aware that Assyrian Christians are systematically excluded from the distribution of aid by local leaders?"

MEP Maat cited an element of religious favoritism as a root cause of the lack of aid being received by the Assyrians, stating, "International aid is mainly distributed through regional, agencies dominated by Muslim leaders and seldom or never reaches the Assyrians."

The Christians of Iraq formerly had one representative on the Iraqi Governing Council, Younadam Kanna of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) but are not represented in the new council. Previous to the war, the United States recognized the ADM as one of the eight significant parties in opposition to Iraq's Ba'athist dictatorship.

The fall of Saddam's regime and the construction of a democratic Iraq seemed to offer new opportunities for the fate of Iraqi Christians, particularly the Assyrians. Unfortunately, international aid seldom reaches them and there are still problems about the restitution of property and particularly of church buildings. The European Commission has recently decided that 160 million EUR can be devoted to the reconstruction of Iraq. Christian Democrat MEP Albert Jan Maat has asked the European Commission questions about the distribution of these funds.

Those who watch television can see that restirciton of freedom of expression too often goes hand in hand with violence. In the current unstable situation, the fate of the Iraqi Christians after the fall of Saddam Hussein is again uncertain. Most of the Iraqi Christians are Assyrians. About one million of them live in that country.

As early as in the first century AD, Assyrians converted to Christianity. Until 1100, the majority population of Iraq was Christian . Islam progressively became the dominant religion. Between 1914 and 1919, half a million Assyrian Christians were
massacred by Turks and Kurds. After 1918, the Allies promised the Assyrians a state of their own. This promise was however broken. In 1933 at the end of the British mandate over Iraq, five thousands defenseless Assyrian Christians were murdered by the Iraqi army.

When, after the Gulf War, North Iraq became an autonomous region with a Kurdish majority, better times seemed to break. The Assyrians were officially recognized as a minority. However, discrimination was now the issue. It was also obvious that international help sent to this region hardly reached the Christian minority.

The fall of Saddam's regime and the establishment of a democracy in Iraq offered new hope to the Assyrians of a better future but Representative Albert Jan Maat: in his contacts with the representatives of the Assyrian communities in the US and Iraq, finds that such is not the case.

International aid is mainly distributed through regional, institutions dominated by Muslim, leaders who seldom allow any of it to reach the Assyrians.There are also ongoing problems about the restitution of property such as confiscated villages and church buildings.

Now that the European Union has decided to grant aid for an amount of 160 million EUR to the Iraqi people, there is an opportunities to do justice to the Christian minority of Iraq. In this
regard, on behalf of the European Christian Democrats I have contacted the European Commission and
asked them with insistence to supervise the distribution of help.

Maat sees a second danger. In the first draft of the new constitution for Iraq, the Assyrians are not named as
minority. A good reason for taking up the issue with US senator McCain as well in Europe as in the US. Its importance goes well beyond Iraq. Assyrian minorities also live in neighboring countries (Iran, Turkey, Syria, Central Asia). A recognition in Iraq can improve their situation there too. Otherwise, their exodus will from the Middle East will continue.
At the present, three times more Assyrian Christians already live outside Iraq than in Iraq itself. Europe and the US would better keep a more vigilant eye on Assyrian Christians. More supervision over the distribution of aid and a targeted contribution to the constitutional discussions in Iraq can bring some improvement. For the European Union who consider themselves guardians of democracy and human rights, this is a unique opportunity to insure that part of their contributions to Iraq should benefit the Iraqi Christians.