By BaghdadhopePhoto by Ankawa.com
As foreseeable the condemnation of the revoke of Art.50 made by the Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Mar Emmanuel III Delly was joned by that of other Iraqi religious leaders as Mar Addai II, the Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East, Mgr. Toma I. Kurkis, bishop of Nineveh of the same church , and Mgr. Luis Sako, Chaldean bishop of Kirkuk who, in a letter to SIR asked for the respect of the United Nations Chart and explained how the revoke of art. 50 could push other Christians to leave Iraq.
A letter was sent to the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani and to the president of Iraqi parliament, Mahmoud Al Mashadani, by Mar Meelis Zaia, Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church of the East in the name of its patriarch, Mar Dinkha IV who, according to those who defend him from the accusation of not having answered promptly to the situation, would be recovering from the long journey he made to Europe that ended by the middle of the month. To Jalal Talabani has been too addressed the letter by the Council of Christian Leaders in Baghdad signed by Mar Gewargis Sliwa, Assyrian Church of the East bishop of Baghdad, on behalf of all the members including the Chaldean ones who were in Ankawa for the inauguration of the new major seminary building.
As for politics in the meanwhile the act of the parliament was condemned in different Christian villages in the north as Al Qosh and Bakhdida, by people who rallied the streets holding banners saying "no to dictatorship" and by the Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See, Albert Yelda, who said he will try to meet the Pope to explain him the situation and its possible effects on the Christian community. "Disappoitment" was also expressed by Barmah Salih, Iraqi deputy PM and by the same PM Nouri Al Maliki, while "worried for the fate of Iraqi minorities" declared himself to be Barak Obama, the American Democratic presidential candidate in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
According to what published by Al Sabah an official source of the Parliament Presidency Committee attributed the cancellation of article 50 not to the will of the MPs to deny the rights of the minority communities but to the lack of statistic data about them. Data that, however, would be difficult to have on the entire Iraqi population considering that the last general census dates back to 1987.
There is no certainty that these voices will make change what Iraqi parliament decided but surely without them the abrogation of article 50 would have passed unnoticed.
Letter by the Chaldean Patriarch to Iraqi government
Chaldean Patriarch to Iraqi government: revoke the abrogation of art. 50 of the electoral law for the provincial councils
