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Politics - U.S. Newswire Press Releases
US Dominicans
Contacting UN, US Officials in Attempt to Restore Right to Vote
for 150,000 Iraqis
Wed Feb 2, 05
To: International Desk
Contact: Anne Lythgoe of the Dominican
Leadership Conference, 215-725-6027 or anne.lythgoe@verizon.net
GENEVA, Feb. 2 /U.S. Newswire/ --
Reliable sources on the ground in many Iraqi villages say they
were deprived of their right to vote in Sunday's election, according
to Philippe LeBlanc, OP, NGO representative at the United Nations
(news - web sites) in Geneva.
Nearly 150,000 Iraqis were unable
to cast their ballots.
Eight largely Christian villages
in the plains of Nineveh, near Mosul, waited in vain for the
ballot boxes to arrive. The villages included Karakosh, Barttella,
Karamles, Bahizan, Cheikhane, Bashika, Al'Hamdanya and Bagdida.
These villages are essentially composed of Christians and Yezidis,
a Kurdish religious sect, and they are located in a calmer zone
than the city of Mosul. Nevertheless, no electoral team showed
up on Sunday, Jan. 30, nor on Monday, Jan. 31.
LeBlanc, who is in close contact
with Iraqis, serves at the United Nations Human Rights Commission
as the NGO representative of the Dominican Order, a world wide
network of men and women who have members in Iraq (news - web
sites) and other parts of the Middle East. LeBlanc and U.S. Dominicans
are in the process of trying to regain the franchise for the
Iraqis in this strategic region of the country.
LeBlanc's sources report that in
Karakosh, people demonstrated in the streets to protest what
they considered to be a violation of their right to vote. These
villages are situated between the Arab-Sunni region of Mosul
and the Kurdish autonomous region. The Christian, mostly Chaldean
and Syriac villagers, the Yezidis, and small groups of Kurds
and Arabs live there in harmony and claim the right to participate
in political decisions that concern them.
He said, "For certain people
in the area, this was a deliberate attempt to prevent these villages
from voting in order to avoid the creation of territories or
areas with Christians or Yezidis in the majority".
"In the midst of the great
instability in Iraq, the minorities had areas where they could
live according to their customs and in relative peace. The fact
that they were deprived of their right to vote does not augur
well for the future of these communities.
"The response of the Iraqi
national authorities and of the international community to this
situation is a litmus test for the world's commitment to a democratic
Iraq. Will these 150,000 Iraqis be given their opportunity to
vote? I hope so," said LeBlanc.
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Editor's Note: Two U.S. Dominicans
were in Iraq, along with others, one year ago and are available
for interviews, names and phone numbers are listed below; contact
them for comment:
Beth Murphy, OP, 217-341-6413, Dominican
Sisters of Springfield, Ill.
Roberta Papara, OP, 561-626-1300
ext. 16, Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wis.
Another source: Judith Hilbing,
OP, 708-714-9050, Chicago, Ill., North American co-promoter for
Justice, Peace and Care of Creation is the co-promoter with Philippe
LeBlanc, OP
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