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Iraqi bishop calls for creating a safe
zone for Christians 8.11.2006
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The bishop of Kirkuk
city made an appeal to religious and political Iraqi
leaders: meet to draw up a common position on the
situation in Iraq, to face the scourge of migration
and to play a more pro-active role in national
reconstruction. We publish the text of Mgr Sako’s
appeal.
Kirkuk, Kurdistan-Iraq, November 8, --
Drawing a “common line” about conditions and
problems of Christians in Iraq, “uniting demands”
for political and civil rights and duties,
researching “development projects” for villages in a
bid to contain growing emigration. This would be the
agenda of a meeting of all political and religious
leaders of the Iraqi Christian community called by
the Archbishop of Kirkuk, Mgr Louis Sako.
The bishop told AsiaNews such a meeting needed to be
held urgently, especially in view of the “difficult
and risky” idea of creating a “safe zone for
Christians” in Iraq. In fact, the possibility of
creating a new “administrative region” around the
northern province of Nineveh is being discussed more
and more, recently winning the support of the US
Church. Such a region would be directly linked to
the central government of Baghdad and would aim to
offer Christians more security and control over
their activities.
Mgr Sako launched his appeal from the columns of the
Arab-language website ankawa.com. The bishop himself
sent AsiaNews the translation of his appeal, which
we publish below.
Appeal for a conference of the state of Christians
in Iraq!
The current tragic situation of Iraqi Christians
calls for the organization of a general conference
in which all parties will take part: leaders of
Christian parties (at least eight), religious
leaders (their role consists in guiding and
conserving human values, Christian and national, not
to indulge in politics), intellectuals and experts.
Some experts could be Muslims, in order to study the
Iraqi situation in general and the Christian one in
particular. At the end of the meeting, it would be
necessary to draw up an official document on the
Iraqi situation and the position of Christians in
this regard.
The meeting should be prepared in serious, prudent
and global way, and with the consensus of all
participants.
Points to be discussed:
- Choosing a name that unites all Iraqi Christians.
For example: Assyrian-Chaldeans, Chaldeans, Syrians,
Assyrians, or Armenians. Or else Christians,
including everyone. Their strength lies in their
unity and in their cultural and economic clout:
division leads to a loss of their rights and
diminishes their national role in the construction
of the country.
- Clarify an objective and integral vision of the
future of Christians of Iraq. In fact, they reveal
themselves to be marginalized and weak. But the
fault is theirs, because they are divided.
- Unite demands about their rights and duties as
citizens, both as regards the Iraqi Constitution as
well as that of Kurdistan, so that both texts will
be to the satisfaction of all.
- Agree on a plan to develop Christian villages,
where the majority of people are unemployed and
paying high rent. The project should evaluate
factors like lodging, agriculture, schools, private
universities, and cultural and social centres. Thus
the problem of emigration, with the consequent drain
of human capabilities, could be resolved. European
religious institutions could help and open missions
at least in the safe zone.
- Forming a committee (a sort of League) that unites
diverse Christian activities and that could become
the mouthpiece of Iraqi Christians, respecting the
unique aspects of each party and church without
getting lost in details.
The aim would be to draft a clear official document
that outlines the history of Christians in Iraq and
their contribution to cultures – Arab, Kurdish,
Muslim – and articulates their stand on the current
situation.
+ Louis Sako, Archbishop of Kirkuk
asianews it
The former Iraqi president forced about 250,000
Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in
the 1970s,
to "Arabize" the city and the region's oil industry.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. A
referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide
whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be
annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region
in Iraq's north.
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