Dissatisfaction and regret in the comment made by Msgr. Shleimun Warduni interviewed by Baghdadhope about Iraqi government's decision to reduce the political representation of minorities in the forthcoming provincial election.
Promises and meetings proved useless. "Brotherhood, friendship, solidarity and support." These were the words that more than any other marked the meetings held during the past week between Iraqi Christian political and religious representatives and Muslim politicians who had declared to be unfavorable to the proposal on the parliamentary representation of minorities (Christians, but also Mandeans, Shabaks and Yazidis) in the forthcoming elections of the provincial councils to be held within next January. A proposal that had aroused the indignation of many as it reduced the number of seats allocated to those minorities to only 6 out of the 15 set in July, and that today was approved by the Presidential Council, which has the final say on parliamentary decisions.
"This morning we had a meeting with the heads of Christian religious communities, Catholics but also Orthodox," said to Baghdadhope Msgr. Shleimun Warduni, Chaldean Patriarch vicar, "and we produced a document in which we express our dissatisfaction and our regret for a decision against minorities approved just during the Islamic-Christian meeting."
"For us this law is another challenge and we will not stop asking for our rights" wanted to reaffirm Msgr.Warduni.
Will you ask again the revision of Article 50 and thus an increase in the allocated seats for minorities?
"We were assured that the number of seats for minorities, for which I repeat we declare our dissatisfaction, will increase in the future. That this decision is provisional, that it will be valid only for the next session of the election for the provincial councils, and that after a census of the population it will be reviewed."
What will you do now?
"First of all we will not be content with this situation. All political parties always said and pointed out that Christians are the original inhabitants of the country and as such we will continue to demand our rights. As the saying goes 'Help yourself and God will help you' and we trust in the Lord and in the rightness of our demands. "
Last week the Italian Senate passed a bipartisan motion on the persecution of Christians in India and Iraq. Do you think these political actions abroad may have, at least in the future, some reflection on the situation that the Iraqi Christians and the other minorities are living? That they can affect it in some way?
"We appeal to all - governments, peoples, international organizations - to put pressure on the government and Iraqi MPs to put into practice what they always promise: the recognition of our rights as Iraqi citizens. In this sense, any initiative aimed at preserving those rights can be useful."