Statement by Msgr. Philip Najim, the Prosecutor of the Chaldean Church to the Holy See received by Baghdadhope.
Translated by Baghdadhope
“In the last weeks we witnessed a new, another, wave of violence affecting the Christian community of Mosul where armed groups enter neighborhoods where Christians live and kill at random those who are on their way. They are cold-blooded murders made in daylight and in front of dozens of witnesses, as if these groups wanted to show how they can operate with impunity and their control of the city. Dozens of families fled Mosul because directly threatened or because terrorized, and the few who decided to remain live in their homes and dare not to go out, even to bring the children to school. The aim is clearly to sow the terror to complete the work to empty the city of its ancient Christian component that began several years ago. To such violence it must be added the abolition of Article 50 from the law that sets the rules for the forthcoming elections of provincial councils which ensured, in its first draft, the representative within such councils of the minorities in the country. A move, this, that would deprive them of their rights as Iraqi citizens who should have equal rights to those making up the majority. Citizens who have always proved their loyalty to the state of which they form an essential part. Why, is this the question we make to the world, the Iraqi Christians have to suffer such attacks? Why to kill us and to deny us our rights? In this difficult period for Iraq, and for all the minority communities in particular, we call on the international community to listen to our voice, to defend our rights, to break the wall of silence that surrounds this issue. We ask that institutions and international organizations - the United Nations, the heads of government, associations involved in human rights - put pressure on the Iraqi government to restore Article 50 as soon as possible and without changes. To the Iraqi government we recall the enormous responsibility it has: to create the conditions for the patriotic reconciliation of the country to restore the peace and the security it needs for its development and for the effective implementation of democratic principles that cannot be irrespective of the rights of its minorities. To ask, to demand our rights, it’s a duty. We belong to minorities but we represent an important part of the history of the country which has always been characterized by the coexistence of the different parts of its social fabric. We do not ask anything more than what we have the right to ask for: the rights that must be guaranteed to us as Iraqi citizens. To the members of the Iraqi government we recall as the gift of life for everyone is a gift from God, and so we ask for an end to the waves of violence because there is no peace without the respect of human life. The question is not the protection of minorities but, I underline again, the protection that a government has the task of ensuring to all its citizens, with no consideration of their faith or the ethnic group they belong. Only by ensuring these rights the Iraqi government can demonstrate to be really resolute to make the country a democratic nation. Words must come into action: stop the killings of Iraqis and respect their rights. "
