Source: SIR
“There is a fight going on between the political groups for power and control over oil, a fight that is also fuelled by external parties. Then, in the next few months, there will be the election of the members of the Council of the Provinces. What is happening in Bassora is actually fuelled by this: who is going to rule and control the oil-producing city?”. This is the opinion of the bishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, about the fights going on in Bassora and Baghdad between the Shiite militias of the radical imam Moqtada a-Sadr and the Iraqi army with the support of US helicopters and aircrafts. “Security – he states to SIR – is not stable partly because the members of the police and army belong to the parties and militias. Rumour has it that the fights going in Bassora, a Shiite city, are the prelude to those of Mossul, a Sunni stronghold”.
In this predicament, denounces the Chaldean bishop, “in Mossul, after the death of mgr. Rahho, the Christians keep fleeing north, to Kirkuk and Syria. The mujahidins sent a letter to the Christian families asking them to pay a protection tax (jizia) of 10,000 dollars, otherwise their homes will be destroyed and one of their relatives will be killed”. “Luckily – he adds – there are also so many Muslims who have expressed outrage for the tragic death of mgr. Rahho and praise for the reconciliation and dialogue carried out by the Christian communities. Christians are for Iraq a great balancing factor and the death of mgr. Rahho is now spurring the devotees to remain in the country in which they lived well before the Muslims ever came. However the Churches and the international community have a duty to help Iraq in its reconciliation and the Christians to survive”. He also made a warning to the coalition troops in Iraq: “if they go away, the Country will fall into an endless civil war. They can make everything go back to normal, help rebuild country, help reconciliation, create work and improve services, thus dispelling the idea, which is widespread amongst the Iraqis, that they do not want to work for such purposes”.
“There is a fight going on between the political groups for power and control over oil, a fight that is also fuelled by external parties. Then, in the next few months, there will be the election of the members of the Council of the Provinces. What is happening in Bassora is actually fuelled by this: who is going to rule and control the oil-producing city?”. This is the opinion of the bishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, about the fights going on in Bassora and Baghdad between the Shiite militias of the radical imam Moqtada a-Sadr and the Iraqi army with the support of US helicopters and aircrafts. “Security – he states to SIR – is not stable partly because the members of the police and army belong to the parties and militias. Rumour has it that the fights going in Bassora, a Shiite city, are the prelude to those of Mossul, a Sunni stronghold”.
In this predicament, denounces the Chaldean bishop, “in Mossul, after the death of mgr. Rahho, the Christians keep fleeing north, to Kirkuk and Syria. The mujahidins sent a letter to the Christian families asking them to pay a protection tax (jizia) of 10,000 dollars, otherwise their homes will be destroyed and one of their relatives will be killed”. “Luckily – he adds – there are also so many Muslims who have expressed outrage for the tragic death of mgr. Rahho and praise for the reconciliation and dialogue carried out by the Christian communities. Christians are for Iraq a great balancing factor and the death of mgr. Rahho is now spurring the devotees to remain in the country in which they lived well before the Muslims ever came. However the Churches and the international community have a duty to help Iraq in its reconciliation and the Christians to survive”. He also made a warning to the coalition troops in Iraq: “if they go away, the Country will fall into an endless civil war. They can make everything go back to normal, help rebuild country, help reconciliation, create work and improve services, thus dispelling the idea, which is widespread amongst the Iraqis, that they do not want to work for such purposes”.