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KRG Minister for Tourism commends
religious freedom in Kurdistan Region
1.7.2009 |
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Nimrud Baitu Youkhana urges all Iraq to emulate
religious protections of the KRG
July 1, 2009
Washington, US, — Nimrud Baito Youkhana, the
Minister for Tourism in the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) and Secretary-General of the
Assyrian Patriotic Party, talked of significant
progress in ensuring religious freedom in the
Kurdistan Region in Iraq.
During key meetings with Members of Congress, the
Obama administration, and representatives of leading
NGOs and the religious freedom community in the US,
Minister Youkhana detailed how since the fall of
Hussein, extremist groups targeted Christians and
bombed their villages and churches,www.ekurd.net
including his
home town. This terrorism forced tens of thousands
of Iraqis Christians to move to the Kurdistan Region
where they were warmly welcomed and assisted.
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Nimrud Baito Youkhana, the Minister for Tourism in
the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and
Secretary-General of the Assyrian Patriotic Party |
The Minister commended highly language in the
proposed Kurdistan constitution that affirms the
rights of the Christian community in Iraq to have an
autonomous administrative area in places where they
are the majority.
“The progress the KRG has made in protecting
religious opportunity and encouraging free and
unfettered religious practice was warmly received by
all of those I had the honour of meeting,” Minister
Youkhana said. “We have reason to be proud and I was
determined to make it clear that the KRG has been
untiring in its efforts to ensure all religions in
the Region are safe and strong. It is my wish that
such progressive tolerance expands throughout Iraq.”
Mr Qubad Talabani,www.ekurd.net
the KRG’s Representative to the
US, hailed the Minister’s visit as an important
reminder to all of the diversity of the Kurdistan
Region and its commitment to human rights and
freedoms.
“Minister Youkhana’s firm and clear words testifying
to the KRG role in protecting and supporting
Christianity throughout Iraq are crucial for our
American friends to hear so as to better understand
our determination in guaranteeing religious freedom
within Iraqi Kurdistan,” Talabani said. “Although he
is a high-ranking minister in the KRG,www.ekurd.net
Minister Youkhana nevertheless speaks his own mind for his
region, his political party and his religion.”
After departing Washington, the Minister continued
his mission to cities throughout the US for meetings
with the Assysrian-Chaldean-Syriac communities.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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