By Baghdadhope
The decision of the Iraqi government to ensure only 6 seats for minorities (Christian, Shabak, Mandean and Yazide) in the forthcoming elections of the provincial councils caused dismay in the country. The grievances expressed by Msgr. Shleimun Warduni,the Chaldean Patriarch vicar, were joined by those of many other clerics and politicians.
Sheikh Satar Jabar Alhalu, community leader of the Mandeans explicitly required the approval of the proposal made on October 27 by Staffan De Mistura, Special Representative of the United Nations, which provided 12 seats for minorities and not 6 as now approved. And this although his community is the one that most benefited by the cancellation in July of the art. 50 which included 15 seats for minorities but none for Mandeans.
"Concern” was expressed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Jordan and Iraq, Msgr. Francis A. Chullikat, who stressed that the government's decision will have negative effects not only on the Christian community that from July to November "lost" 10 seats, but also on the other minorities.
"It is unacceptable" said Msgr. Louis Sako, from Rome where he attended the Christian-Islamic meeting in the past days, that more than 250,000 Christians in Baghdad and more than 100,000 in Mosul will be represented by a single elected politician in both provincial councils.
Of the evidence of the failure to recognize the legitimate rights of Christians who do not have to be considered and treated as second-class citizens, spoke Msgr. Mati Shaba Matoka, the Syriac Catholic bishop of Baghdad.
Interesting, among the voices – a few, to tell the truth - not belonging to minorities affected by the measure, the claim of Kurdish MP Abd Albari Zebari, of the Foreign Relations Committee, who sees in its application the cause of a possible deterioration of the international relations, especially with Europe, with a predictable impact on foreign investments in Iraq.
Sheikh Satar Jabar Alhalu, community leader of the Mandeans explicitly required the approval of the proposal made on October 27 by Staffan De Mistura, Special Representative of the United Nations, which provided 12 seats for minorities and not 6 as now approved. And this although his community is the one that most benefited by the cancellation in July of the art. 50 which included 15 seats for minorities but none for Mandeans.
"Concern” was expressed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Jordan and Iraq, Msgr. Francis A. Chullikat, who stressed that the government's decision will have negative effects not only on the Christian community that from July to November "lost" 10 seats, but also on the other minorities.
"It is unacceptable" said Msgr. Louis Sako, from Rome where he attended the Christian-Islamic meeting in the past days, that more than 250,000 Christians in Baghdad and more than 100,000 in Mosul will be represented by a single elected politician in both provincial councils.
Of the evidence of the failure to recognize the legitimate rights of Christians who do not have to be considered and treated as second-class citizens, spoke Msgr. Mati Shaba Matoka, the Syriac Catholic bishop of Baghdad.
Interesting, among the voices – a few, to tell the truth - not belonging to minorities affected by the measure, the claim of Kurdish MP Abd Albari Zebari, of the Foreign Relations Committee, who sees in its application the cause of a possible deterioration of the international relations, especially with Europe, with a predictable impact on foreign investments in Iraq.
A position which implies attention to the possible reactions of the governments of the countries where minority rights are one of the pillars of democracy, and that seems even to suggest the road to be taken to promote a similar awareness in the Iraqi government.
