Reuters Features

Iraq Christians Flee Bombs and Head to Syria

Mon Sep 27

By Lin Noueihed

JARAMANA, Syria (Reuters) - Attacks on purveyors of alcohol and music had already rattled Iraq (news - web sites)'s tiny Christian community, but last month's bombing of churches shattered the hope some still had of staying to help rebuild their country.

When Wafa heard a deafening blast at a nearby church, she grabbed her two children and left straight for neighboring Syria, where she had already spent four years as an exile from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s
rule.

"I wanted to stay in Iraq but things were just getting worse," she said, declining to give her full name.

Already wary of going out with her hair showing in a country where more and more women were covering their heads -- including some Christians scared of being singled out by Muslim extremists -- the bombings were the last straw.

"After the bombings I realized I could not go to church there again. I was scared," she said.

For decades, Iraqis have been fleeing to Syria, which openly welcomes all Arabs and hosts about 250,000 Iraqis, most of them Shi'ite Muslims repressed by Saddam.

Facing an uncertain future in post-war Iraq, more and more members of one of the world's oldest Christian communities are seeking refuge in Iraq's secular neighbor, whose own Christian minority is allowed to worship openly.

"We have seen a slight increase in the number of Iraqis approaching our office in the past two months. This clearly reflects an increase in the number of Christians," said Ajmal Khybari, senior legal officer at the United Nations (news - web sites) refugee agency (UNHCR) in Damascus.

"About 20 percent are Christians compared to demographic statistics of under 5 percent."

LOW PROFILE

Christians make up some 3 percent of Iraq's population of about 25 million and have traditionally kept a relatively low political profile, mindful of the precariousness of their position in an overwhelmingly Muslim society.

Even before car bombs hit five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul on Aug. 1, attacks on liquor stores and hairdressers and verbal insults on women exposing hair or skin had heightened Christian fears that they would be singled out.

Emmanuel Khoshaba, Syria spokesman for the Assyrian Democratic Movement, an Iraqi Christian party, said there were now 10,000 Iraqi Christians in Syria. Most, he said, had arrived in the 16 months since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"Christians used to come here before for economic reasons, but in small numbers," Khoshaba said. "But the war and added security concerns have increased the numbers."

Christians, most from the early Assyrian sect and Catholic Chaldean churches, said they felt safe and free toworship in Syria and it was closer and cheaper than neighbors like Jordan.

But many complained it was hard to find work. Some are applying to begin new lives in Australia or Canada.

Al Assaf Charitable Institute attached to the Ibrahim Khalil Catholic church in Jaramana on the edge of Damascus, where Iraqi Christians have congregated, has for the past three years provided three meals a week and health care for 60 families.

"We are open to all nationalities and religions," said director Hayat Chahine. "A lot of Iraqis come here to pray and many have settled in the area. The number of Iraqis has increased since the war and it is increasing more and more."

Abu Stephan stayed in Iraq, where he tended the garden at the German Embassy, despite anonymous threats warning him to quit the job that fed and clothed his wife and two children.

Then his son Stephan, 9, was hit by a car and snatched by the masked men inside while on the way to Sunday school with his mother. The kidnappers demanded a $30,000 ransom and warned Abu Stephan to quit a new job as a gardener for a German firm.

Days later, as he was scrambling to scrape together the cash, his son's battered body was found dumped on the stretch of road where he was grabbed.

"They said I was collaborating even though I worked with the Germans, not the Americans. When Stephan died I knew enough was enough," he said, sitting on the floor of his three-roomed home, where the only furniture was a small television.

"I was at St. Rita's church when a car went up in flames outside. The police said it was packed with explosives but they turned out to be faulty. Then the priest got a call telling him to evacuate because other churches had been attacked."

A ROLE IN THE NEW IRAQ?

While Christians, like most Iraqis, hated Saddam for his oppression, they were relatively free to worship under the dictator who officially preached religious tolerance and maintained Tariq Aziz, a Christian, as deputy prime minister.

Iraq's current insecurity, including devastating assaults on mosques and Muslim shrines, has left Iraqis of every religion feeling unsafe.

But some Christians, proud of their roots in a land long pre-dating the seventh century arrival of Islam, feel especially vulnerable because of their small numbers and a perception that they have something in common with Americans.

"All religions have been attacked, but when the Americans came some foolish people started turning against us, thinking we support the occupation just because we share the same religion, saying we should leave," Abu Stephan said.

"But we are Iraqis, the original Iraqis. Why should we leave?"