Source: SIR
The violence that the Christians have been suffering for some time in Iraq “is part of a political plan aimed at creating disruption and conflict between the different components of the population” and “the evacuation, in the dramatic ways it has been carried out, is a deliberate, very dangerous thing, a shove towards the division and partition of the country”. It has been stated in a note sent to SIR by the Bishops Conference of Iraq (Aeci) that gathered on October 29th in Erbil to review “the latest dramatic, alarming and regrettable incidents of Mosul”. “With a sense of moral and patriotic responsibility”, the Bishops insist that “Christians are an integral part of the whole national fabric of Iraq.
"The public authority – they state – should have taken action quickly to protect them and prevent them suffering abuse. What happened is in conflict with the responsibility of the State to protect all its citizens. Let the state find a radical solution to the problem of the evacuees from Mossul, to let them go back to their homes, refund the damage they suffered and watch over their security”. In the final statement of the meeting, the Bishops of Aeci highlight “in particular, the loyalty of Christians to Iraq” and insist that the Christian community wants to “continue, in friendliness, to cooperate with all their brothers, as much in joy as in pain, and absolutely refuse to live in isolation from them”. At the same time, Aeci asks the institutions again to “reinstate and enforce Article 50 of the Constitution. The Constitution protects our representation and our participation in the national power and responsibilities”, write the Iraqi prelates, who ask that “the rights of the other religious and ethnic minorities be protected as well”. The statement ends by thanking “all the religious, political, diplomatic and social bodies, institutions and people in Mossul, as much in Iraq as in the rest of the world, for their solidarity in this ordeal, for highlighting the serious dangers of the aggressions, for asking to make the evacuees go back to their homes and be compensated for the damage they suffered. We also thank all the media that covered these regrettable incidents”. The statement has been signed by mgr. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, Latin bishop of Baghdad e general Secretary of Aeci, together with others bishops, among them, Shlemon Warduni, Jacques Ishaq, Petros Al-Harboli and Louis Sako.