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PRESS RELEASE FROM JUBILEE
CAMPAIGN
For immediate release
October 22nd 2004
PARLIAMENTARY MEETING CALLS
FOR ADMINISTRATIVE REGION FOR IRAQI CHRISTIANS
At a meeting chaired by Stephen Pound
MP in the House of Commons on October 21st, the UK branch of
Iraq's leading Christian political party, the Assyrian Democratic
Movement and the Christian human rights organisation, Jubilee
Campaign, called for an Administrative Region for the ChaldoAssyrian
Christians of Iraq, which they can administer for themselves.
Article 53 (D) of Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law guarantees
the ChaldoAssyrians the right to administer their own region.
It states, "This law shall guarantee the administrative,
cultural and political rights of the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians,
and all other citizens."
Stephen Pound MP and other speakers
at the meeting, jointly organised by the Assyrian Democratic
Movement (UK branch) and Jubilee Campaign, stressed that the
British Government should support the creation of an Administrative
Region in the ChaldoAssyrian heartland in the Nineveh Plains.
The escalating attacks perpetrated against the ChaldoAssyrians
by extremist and fanatical Islamic groups warrants the creation
of such a region. The meeting also called on the British Government
to strongly support the return of ChaldoAssyrian villages in
the provinces of Nineveh and Dohuk, which the ChaldoAssyrian's
Arab and Kurdish neighbours have encroached on. ChaldoAssyrians,
who feel threatened, especially in Mosul and parts of Baghdad,
could then move to the regions of Nineveh and Dohuk, rather than
flee their ancestral homeland in Iraq.
Christians have been subjected to escalating
violence in Iraq, including a series of bombs exploded at five
churches across Baghdad early on Saturday 16th October. There
were no casualties in that incident. Islamic extremists conducted
lethal terrorist bombings on Sunday August 1st against 5 churches
in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, which killed 12 people
and injured many more. On July 4th, two ChaldoAssyrian children
were killed in Baghdad at their home by Islamic terrorists. Raneed
Raad, 16, and her six-year-old brother, Raphid, were shot dead.
Since April 2003, the assassinations of at least 88 Christians
have been recorded by ChaldoAssyrian organisations in Iraq. The
most recent victim was a little girl who was brutally murdered
by Islamic extremists. In the wake of the August church bombings
and other anti-Christian violence, tens of thousands of ChaldoAssyrians
have fled, further decimating Iraq's Christian presence.
The headquarters of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement in Baghdad came under mortar attack in the early hours
of Sunday morning, August 8th 2004. The Assyrian Democratic Movement
is the leading political party representing the ChaldoAssyrian
Christians of Iraq. One of this party's founders and its current
Secretary General, Yonadam Kanna, was the only Christian member
of Iraq's former Governing Council and is now one of four ChaldoAssyrian
Christians serving in the Iraqi National Assembly. Over 95 percent
of Iraq's Christians are ChaldoAssyrian and they are the indigenous
people of Iraq, descended from the ancient Assyrians of Biblical
times. Their language is Aramaic-based and similar to the Aramaic
which Jesus spoke.
The meeting's speakers were Stephen
Pound MP, John Michael, an Assyrian who is British representative
of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Professor Eden Naby, an
Assyrian and specialist on the Middle East, Shamiran Mako, from
the Council for Assyrian Research and Development and Human Rights
Without Frontiers, and Wilfred Wong, Parliamentary Officer for
Jubilee Campaign.
John Michael says, "If the International
Community, specifically the governments of the U.S.A and U.K,
want peace, stability and democracy to prevail in Iraq, thus
spreading throughout the Middle East, then the security and continued
presence of the ChaldoAssyrians in their ancestral homeland must
be guaranteed. Therefore, it is imperative that the British government
supports the ChaldoAssyrians in every respect, including the
creation of an administrative region for the indigenous ChaldoAssyrian
people, as granted under article 53(D) of the Iraqi Transitional
Administrative Law."
All the speakers supported the meeting's
call on the British government to urgently encourage and support
the creation of an administrative region for Iraq's ChaldoAssyrians;
financially support the reconstruction of ChaldoAssyrian villages
and infrastructure; provide across the board political support
to the ChaldoAssyrians; assist ChaldoAssyrians in their struggle
to reclaim their towns and villages; financially support the
return and resettlement of ChaldoAssyrian refugees and to facilitate
the ability of those forced to flee Iraq by the Hussein regime,
or exiled in recent months, to register to vote if eligible.
In his presentation to the meeting,
Wilfred Wong stated, "There is no danger of the Kurdish
or Arab community disappearing from Iraq but there is a real
risk that one day soon the ChaldoAssyrian community may largely
vanish from that country. Not only are the ChaldoAssyrians facing
the usual risks of violence which all average Iraqis have to
currently put up with in their daily lives, they are also having
to deal with the additional violence of being targeted by Islamic
fundamentalists simply because they are Christians and intimidation
from their Kurdish neighbours because
they want to grab ChaldoAssyrian land for themselves. The British
government must support the forces of moderation in Iraq, which
include the Christian community. Moderate Muslims would be much
better able to oppose the Islamicisation of Iraq if they had
the support of a strong Christian community and the British government
should do all it can to empower Iraq's Christians."
Stephen Pound MP says, "This meeting
is only the start of a process to bring the world's attention
to the terrible suffering of the Christian communities in Iraq.
By meeting today we not only raised the issue in the British
Parliament but also sent a strong signal of support and solidarity
to this persecuted minority. No one in Parliament can now say
they are unaware of the sufferings of this beleaguered community.
I'm very grateful to the UK branch of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement and the Jubilee Campaign for organising this meeting."
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Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational
Christian human rights organisation which has worked with over
150 British parliamentarians on human rights issues worldwide.
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