By Baghdadhope
On last November the European Union supported a plan to resettle 10,000 Iraqi refugees fled to Syria and Jordan because of the violence in Iraq. A plan, it must be noted, that provides for the "voluntary" compliance by the member countries and that although concerns only "a certain number of refugees who have no prospect of any other lasting solution, even in the long term ... people in a vulnerable situation who are easily identifiable, especially those with medical needs, trauma or torture victims, members of religious minorities, or women on their own with family responsibilities" aroused many negative reactions in the following months.
The first to declare their opposition to the plan were the representatives of the churches in Iraq who look at it as a measure to boost the already massive exodus of the Christian community as declared to Baghdadhope by Msgr. Louis Sako, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk, who recalled how "The Christian when baptized swears loyalty to his faith, and the path of faith can be full of difficulties and sacrifices, but this is not a reason not to follow it" and that "to emigrate to live a life as a refugee is not the solution. Not even seeking a more comfortable life. These people must hope, pray and fight for the situation to get better and for a future without first or second class citizens. "
But to protest now are also the politicians.
Thus, Asghar Al-Musawi, Iraqi deputy minister responsible for the problems of displaced persons and refugees defined as "unacceptable" the encouragement to emigrate given to Iraqi Christians by "certain governments".
A practice even labeled as "contrary to the international law" as concerning a particular group (Christians) and completely "unjustified" because the situation in Iraq is "stable."
The reference made by Al-Musawi rather than to some "generic" government seems directed at the German one.
In April 2008 the Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stood up for accepting in Germany Iraqi refugees of Christian faith. A proposal rejected by the by-then President of the European Union, Dragutin Mate, who said that "we must accept refugees and give them asylum .. without preconditions of religion or race."
The question for some months seemed deadlocked, at least until November, the date of the resolution of the European Union, when Germany declared itself ready to receive 2.500 of the 10.000 refugees expected reiterating, these were the words of the Interior Minister of Hesse Volker Bouffier, the wish of taking care of Christians in particular without rejecting in any case the aid to persons not of the same faith but in similar particular and difficult situations. Yesterday, February 18, Pukmedia agency reported that the first 70 Iraqi refugees to be resettled in Germany will arrive in mid-March in Lower Saxony, one of 16 federate German states that will receive the refugees.
Germany, therefore, seems determined to continue on its path and to resettle those who, refugee in Jordan or Syria, does not want or cannot return to Iraq.
Consideration of the matter is complex. The attitude of the Church that seeks to preserve the already tiny community is understandable. Its disappearance from the country would be a loss both for Iraq and the world Christian community that would be deprived of one of its oldest members.
Less understandable is the attitude of Iraqi government representatives. Invoking the respect of international laws that would be violated if case of acceptance of Iraqi Christians only on one hand is understandable as such a measure implies a "targeted selection", on the other hand it appears as an interference in the decisions of a sovereign government claiming the right to that choice. Iraqis for too long have lived in a state prison. Nobody in the world hopes that they, Muslims or Christians, are forced to leave their country, their culture, their roots, to live the wretched life of the refugee in a foreign land. Similarly nobody in the world should deny them the right to choose where to live, especially considering the violence that they - all of them - suffered from in recent decades of war and dictatorship.
Time, and statistics, will say if Germany, for now the only European country to have started the implementation of the EU plan, really will accept only the Iraqi refugees of Christian faith. Condition that, it must be remembered, is not present in the resolution that refers "also" but not "only" to "members of religious minorities."
Right now what we know is that yesterday the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, inaugurated the German consulate in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, the territory where thousands of Iraqis from the centre and the south - and among them many, many, Christians - sought refuge.
When one talks about the stubbornness and the organization of the Germans!