Here by the Speech of Ms. Pascale Warda in the Swedish Parliament
The situation of Christians in Iraq
Repetition and seminar in the Swedish Parliament
15/12/2010 Stockholm
Pascale Warda Former Minister of Displacement and Migration
And the Director of Public Relations of the Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights
Dear Ladies and Sirs
A thousand good morning
It is my honor to participate and represent the Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights in the recitations and seminar in the distinguished Swedish Parliament. Allow me to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the staff in the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nation for inviting me and thank their partners from the Christian parties and interested parties in the Iraqi issue in your distinguished Swedish parliament who made this event possible.
Without a doubt, That came for several reasons, foremost your attention to the maintenance of human rights, including the related to Iraqi refugees in your country, which many years ago it is serving Iraqis of various components and also to achieve justice in spite of everything and across all changes which continues in the history of the young democracy in the suffered Iraqi scene.
Christians are living in a state of despair and pain
Yes Iraq free from dictatorship which caused damage to the dignity of its people for unforgiving decades. But today, it is most regretful that the Iraqi continues waiting for the change promised by the liberators of Iraqis and their allies in order to remove the suffering of the long life of every individual and every creature of unparalleled country in good things and richness, whether it comes to the richness of the human or abundance of material wealth in all fields.
The situation today, we can see that the Iraqi people in all of its components and in the forefront o are Christians, living in a state of continued despair and pain because first: of the waves of security retreat, which promotes the escalation of violence ,also Second: the dropping of services
as the largest number of Iraqis continues to live in material poverty and in constant fear ,where the crisis of confidence even with the nearest neighbors become impinge on their hopes.
That what leads to the forced displacement that begging most basic human rights as individuals and groups. Thus especially since they are victims of repeated daily and outrageous forms as it happened in the massacre of the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance on the faithful Christians on Sunday night, October 31, 2010 in Karrada district of central Baghdad. In addition to the sustained operations targeting to kill Christians continued on religious identity in their homes in various areas, the number reached of victims since the massacre mentioned to 70 people in Baghdad and Mosul.
The ways of displacements of Christians, using various types and means of threat and intimidation and continued killings as the number of families left their homes and went to different parts are more than 2198 family from the date of the massacre of the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance, where the the average number of members of each family is not less than 5 people as the estimation reach to 11 000 internally displaced persons, without reference to those who migrate out of the country. It could be argued that the majority of those who went the Kurdistan Region will be migrating after arranging their states due to the lack of viable to them and the difficulty of a new incorporation in those areas where the expensive cost of housing and living due to unemployment and other unwanted policies and contexts which force displaced people to continue to migrate outside of Iraq. Also there is no effective and serious projects or special government strategies by the federal government and interregional levels to contain the bleeding of immigration and restore confidence of the people affected by murder and abductions.
During the year 2010 Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights observed 87 killings of Christians, and most of them are from Syrian Catholic Church and 42 injured with various injuries, including 63 cases of killings in Baghdad and 23 cases of murder in Mosul and one in Erbil. They also reported 36 cases have been injured in various areas of Baghdad and 6 cases were injured in Nineveh. The abductions have remarkably was reduced to one case in Baghdad, and another case in Kirkuk and another case of a university female student in Mosul up to 14/12/2010. Also our organization observed19 cases of assault on persons and private property, including 12 in Mosul, and 7 cases in Baghdad. As well as the abuse of 3 youths from the area of the Nineveh Plain by police in Qaraqosh and beaten for no reason and that was on 114.10.2010 and the arrest and insulting Mr. Zakaria Khadr Mansour Hidaya Director of Nationality and Civil Affairs in Hamdania by the Kurdistan Democratic Party on 20/10 / 2010. as well as they arrested and insulted Hamdania Director of Education and the Department of Tourism in Mosul, who still live under threat of murder and displaced from his home .. And other cases that are not documented here, all there is no reason to do that
And the total of attacks on churches from 2004 to 2010 reached to 52 churches.
What are these strange policies?
A number of questions present themselves: Are these atrocities can be regarded as merely normal events and offense occurs anywhere in the world, as some claim? Is there no one behind the making of these hellish projects for a particular purpose, but it is the draining of Iraq's Christians, as happened to other people before them? Are all these scenarios prepared in advance is not sufficient to indicate the presence of strange policies in the service of a mysterious and destructive agendas, aimed to change the demographic and historically composition of the Iraqi people but even geographically?. But the most severe question is whom is getting benefit of that? And by which influential Iraqi hands as with Iraqis talk about? These and other questions posed by the simplest Iraqi from his pulpit. Because the targeting of Christians in particular and minorities in general and competencies of all the Iraqi factions do not tell, but one fact is the destruction of Iraq from its deep roots and of original peoples on one side, and targeting the huge capabilities held by Iraq in general and capabilities represented by these small components on the other side , which in most cases, if we did the proportion, we will see that it is capabilities exceeds the capabilities owned by the majorities of the components in terms of quality and quantity. These two facts were highlighted Iraq from the rest of the region in the durability and continuity of thousands of years through the history of what was produced accumulations of great civilizations have left their mark on the whole of humanity, whether on the intellectual, scientific or cultural or physical or material level.
Christian in Iraq, are speaking the language of Christ and the heirs of the early church
. Christianity began in Iraq since the first centuries to preach the Christian message of peace and love by the first messengers. St. Thomas, one of disciples of Christ , one of the Twelve students of Christ, and by direct order from him and Apostles Addai and Mari with him, who was proud with increased enthusiasm to go to Mesopotamia speaking their native language, Aramaic, then, also known as Syrian, which is still nowadays spoken by the Christians of Iraq, as well as the Christians of Iraq's neighboring countries of the sons of the nation's Chaldean Assyrian Syrian , which is the language of Jesus Christ and which was also the language of official dealings and trade in the Holy Land and in the whole region then, which churches Christians nation of the mentioned above remained - are the only heirs to them.
Mesopotamia people had witnessed the openness to faith in one God, through his idol, our Father Abraham, the father of all believers who obeyed God's revelation when he revealed himself to himt in Ur of the Chaldeans in southern Iraq today know as Nasiriyah, where it could send him to the Promised Land. So one could say that this is the geographical spot (UR) was the first step in the history of human salvation which was completed by Christ.
Successive massacres against Christians in Iraq
We should not forget that the killings of Christians on the identity regrettably is not a new process
Today The Christians in Iraq continue that redemption practically on a daily basis in their lives which is not without unfortunate and bloody periods where terrorists immerses their sons and daughters in the blood of the martyrdom to exercise the genocide once in a while, since Hulako and Genghis Khan through Pettmrlank down to the butcher BadrKhan to the massacre of August 1933 in the Smeal in northern Iraq where at least 4000 Assyrian Chaldean Christian was killed as a martyr to racism and religious causes, without punishing the crime and still thousands of families that survived the massacres dream of their rights in the land of their grandparents who are on the banks of the River Khabour in Syria. As well as in Soria massacre of 1969 in the above-mentioned area where more than 38 Christians from the Chaldean Church died as martyr. The perpetrator Lieutenant Hamid Aljehici who is still free and he was also in the Iraqi army at the time. Who can forget the killing and displacing hundreds of families and the demolition of at least 250 Christian village in the northern areas together with churches and monasteries in which its history goes back to the first centuries of Christianity in Iraq in 1988 in the famous Anfal. And where hundreds of Christians were killed, including more than a few are still unaccounted for who were fallen the hands of the fascist regime, among them are my relatives and uncles (four families of the people of my villages only) as well as inAl Anfal of 1991 the rest of the Christian villages finished with historical landmarks, the old had been deleted in addition to the killing and displacement of thousands Christian families where no irreversible.
Statistics are disastrous in the democracy too
killing, kidnapping and displacement of Christians in Al Dora District since 2003 and from 2006 and Mosul in particular in 2008, where killings and mass displacement, including the martyr Archbishop Faraj Rahho and 7 of the priests in addition to the priests of Our Lady of Deliverance, and the targeting various scientific efficiencies and students of Nineveh Plain in May 2010 on their way to University of Mosul, leading to the massacre of Our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad on Sunday, October 31, 2010 where 53 Christian martyrs were killed. After them still the targeting ,persecution and killing of Christians in their homes in Al-Mansour ,Al Dora ,Al Baladiyat , Camp Sara ,Al ghadeer and other parts of Baghdad ... All blamed to Al Qaida which serve the purpose of anybody was the organizer of those crimes in our day and in the chaos of Iraqi politics While these persecutions exercised, since centuries, long before the terrorists who use Islam interpreting it out of all interpretative criteria emphasizing through void Fatwas that the message of the last Prophet must end any religious contact after him and that by killing and murder and looting and all that makes Christians and other religions who are not Muslim is a Non-Muslims allows jihadists to act by their lives and property by the name of God and that they regard as profit of war that the extremists are to fight sooner or later as the terrorists said in the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance "Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, we kill you Christians to triumph Islam and inherit the paradise .. jihad for God's sake .. ".
Going back to detailed annual statistics and data of Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights and including the report of the year 2009 see the site of Hammurabi: www.hhro.org, it reveals quite clearly lists of the names of the victims of the dead who were civilians, who numbered (730) people who were killed while exercising their normal daily life over the past seven years, and also include details of their dates and places of martyrdom as well as those targeted. And Supplement (a) and plot (1) illustrate the annexes that the responsibility for the blood of these victims had been distributed to the following:
537 people killed by unidentified gunmen
126 people have died while they were in places where the blasts occurred by unknown assailants
30 people were killed by U.S. forces or the multinational forces.
21 people killed as a result of the exchange of fire between U.S. forces and insurgents, or by random bombardment
10 people killed during U.S. military operations before 09/04/2003
6 people were killed by National Guard troops.
As it turns out statistical through the sketch number (2) contrast escalation ratios of violence in relation to the years. It has reached the highest percentage of Christians dead in 2004 it accounted for 29% of the total number of dead Christians who was spotted by the organization, and then the percentage was decreased gradually as in 2005 was14 % reached in 2006 to 10%, as it returned to escalate in 2007 to 21%, especially when intensified killings on identity and on the rise of sectarian, while the security situation has improved somewhat in 2008, the rate was 10% then dropped to 4% in 2009,which is the lowest rate recorded by our organization, and also the statistics describes 52% of the victims died in Baghdad, where more than half a million Christians lived in it before 09/04/2003, and 29% of the dead, died in the province of Nineveh (the second- largest gathering of Christian after Baghdad), which was of 250 thousand Christians, one hundred thousand of them live in the city center and the remaining estimated 150 thousand people living in the Nineveh Plain, and the percentage of victims of 4% in Kirkuk, and 3% in Basra, while 2% in each of the cities of Anbar and Salahuddin and Diyala in the 1% and 8% were distributed among the other provinces. (Note the chart No. 3) ...
Chart No. 4 indicates that 94% of victims aged between 18-60 years old as a proportion of children 4% and the old people was 2%, while the diagram number (5) shows a the proportion of victims of competencies, which includes doctors, engineers, university professors, pharmacists, researchers and others was 16% While the proportion of women was13%, and the clergy was 2%.
Yes, the Christians in the light of contemporary Iraq and since the First World War have not experienced real peace, but to facing murder, forced displacement and injustice of simplest human rights as civil and political rights. And increasing migration flows in various forms for many reasons, including the establishment of systems dedicated sectarian, as happened during the formation of the Iraqi state in 1921, where means were used of preference component at the expense of the rest of the components and the outcome led to this shocking extremism and the education sponsored by some parties , countries and systems characterized under the auspices of extremism and support it where distributed to the periods and regular intervals and aggravated during the mandate of the hottest or the low of the situation of Iraqi politics. So the terrorists extremists sees, just like they had to exploit suited opportunities, in favor of the waves of chaos and the withdrawal of the rule of law to perform operations which was prepared for it intellectually and psychologically, but extinguished its flame under the dark ashes waiting for a spark to ignite the fire at the first opportunity of chaos. This fact, which is witnessing a decline in the number of Christians in alarming form as the Iraqi official statistics indicates for the year 1997, the number of Christians one million and three hundred thousand people in 15 districts ie, excluding Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah, where it was estimated the number of Christians in the mentioned three provinces by more than 200000 people, meaning the number of Christians Before 2003, more than a million and a half in Iraq. Today we feel that our estimates is too much , the number was 800 000, some say 500,000 people.
Is there any role for the the United Nations Organization?
How does not the Christian fear for his life and the lives of his family's who is experience the test of injustice legitimizes dayly by terrorists who reject the existence and blow themselves up in order to kill others, and the payment of "Paradise" as a fee for their ugliness?? What is it that secure the Christian presence in an area fraught with these deadly scenarios resulting from the education , care and organize them exceed expectations of analysts? All Iraqis, especially minority people woundering: When will be then for the UN role. The international organization that certifies since it was founded, it represents the political regimes and governments without the nations in the true sense of the term. The largest evidence of this is the weakness extent and the attention of this international organization towards the deemed weak nations, and today the Christians of Iraq as a whole and in particular the nation, known as (Chaldean Assyrian Syriac) as well as Armenians and other Christians and minorities such as Yazidies and Sabean Mandaeans continue to live in the darkness of deep roots in the contemporary history of the State of Iraq. It is worth mentioning that Iraq is one of the founding members of the United Nations, which leadsthe Iraqi to the question about how to evade the UN Security Council of the United Nations to issue a special resolution (resolution) required by the Iraqi authorities on the performance of its duties to its people in general and the vulnerable of them in particular? Otherwise, what is the interest of big spending to support the existence of an international organization? Is not supposed to be one of the functions of policy guidance systems by clicking on it by all means available to them during the waste of human rights irrespective of any principle of interference in the internal affairs of nations? And regrettably, regarding the accounting heinous criminal act against humanity for the mass slaughter at the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance. The mentioned organization merely an orphan condemn in one sentence which did not belong to the bloodshed of innocent Christians in a concentrate form to deter or offset to the type and location of the disaster but covered the whole of Iraqis, and certainly this is what we are doing too because the Iraqis were targeted to various addresses. However, you can see, Is the brutal massacres required without any reason, just because they are Christians, pacifists and innocent of everything that happens from the right-and-run inIraq? As well as the killings continued since 2005 in Baghdad as the gunmen attacked my security subjects convoy and my cars during the duty on their way to my apartment where four heroes of my young security were died as martyrs, after the end of my Ministerial functions. They are Ninos, Danny Johnny and Maher who are immortals of Christians and wounded two of them and to this hour the crime did not reveal as well as kidnapping, murder and mass deportation in 2008, in Mosul and the investigation still remained cards to political bargaining and criminals enjoy full freedoms and and more strongly even succeeded to plan to be stronger than that because of the lack of questioning and Accounting, in addition to the displacement and killing of Christians in various areas of Baghdad down to the indifference of the crime of genocide mass at the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance, which, if it is not the largest massacre in 2010, it is the largest massacres in the awful quality in the view of the greatness of the innocence of victims , prayers and priests with children and women, young and old by the horror of desecration of the house of God, the place of prayer, with the blood of unrelated to the humanity of the other side. Doesn't this dramatic unique bloody play deserve emergency procedural positions to be expressed by the decision of the UN Security Council for the Protection of Human Rights in Iraq in general and focusing on the situation of Christians, for the purpose of urging the authorities to take all means to prevent the crimes that affect the lives of Christians, whether displacing or killing them and their leaders such as church leaders in Mosul like Martyr Bishop Kalmrhom Faraj Rahho and the priests before him, as after him and the continued kidnappings.? Here there are signs to say that condemnation alone does not meet the purpose of accounting of crime and ugliness, but is required to be responsible internationalism in an impartial and to resort to legal means such as the formation of the Committee to achieve an international investigation of the crimes mentioned together by UN resolution to urge the Iraqi authorities on the actual work to expose and to hold accountable the perpetrators of crimes especially in Accounting who are behind them on the contrary to continue and sufficiency with policy statements which are too far from reality and truth. Successive operations have been seen that lack of faith in justice as a means of peace and security has led to a repetition of crimes ,not in one place but many places in different cities, including within a small distance from the people considered to be responsible in the State.
Iraqi authorities are preoccupied
The leaders and all its forms, in Iraq does not dedicate themselves to the affairs of their community so far, here we approach the full year and the Iraqi authorities battling among themselves over posts and sovereignty? Where the citizen go? Iraqis did not live the experience of democracy and the claim through the legal process than ever before. Even if now learned to do so at the level of civil society and the Iraqi street in general, where they have an acceptable level of freedom of opinion and expression, and thanks to the selection of the Iraqi people for the democratic process with a view to a real change from dictatorships to a genuine democracy will require more sacrifice and patience to achieve them in Iraq. But we know very well that can not be so without the benefit from the experience of countries that have achieved an acceptable level of democracy. The difficulty of achieving that now lies in the fact the task of a large number of Iraqi leaders who in the various political and religious authorities who are also in various administrative channels are still far from listening to people's demands and respond through the legal process posed by the principles of democracy. This difficulty comes from a lack of truly faith in democratic principles despite their acceptance in it because it is a way through the elections which most of it is not integrity. They reached to power and stick to it regardless the right of citizenship and the status of citizens in the street. While the position is usually offset by the accounting goal above all it is a leading operations to achieve service of the security and safety of the others to exercise what it means to safeguard public funds in the public interest to exercise the rule of law in transparency.
The fact is, Iraq occupies an advanced position in the administrative and financial corruption, which shall prejudice the right of citizens to equality and equal opportunities. Also universally known is that the main objective of the positions is to manage the process of construction and development projects required for the advancement of the country. Regrettably, here we are at the end of the eighth year of of changing the previous regime and the sequence of parliaments and governments, but the process of construction still like annulled , rather than that it has started as a tool to provide opportunities for citizens to support the elimination of widespread unemployment in order to avoid involvement in cheap acts doesn't produce anything, but hated and all kinds of crime. We can deduce from these facts that the success of the security is intrinsically linked to economic development.
The prerequisite is to achieve all that we have mentioned is the sense of faith and a sense of common good to be achieved by the leaders manage and work to find solutions to political and other required for the exercise of public service in the interest of all under the rule of law, and not out of narrow special interests and goal.
Thank you for your attention
Translated by
Najim Al-Khaphaji
Institute for International Law & human rights
Resource : Hammurabi Human Rights Organization.