By Baghdadhope*
Source of the news: Ankawa.com
Although it is impossible to count the number of Christians who left Mosul in recent days to escape in search of security different sources speak now of hundreds of families who sought refuge anywhere, even in monasteries, both in neighboring villages or in cities as far away as Kirkuk.
The spokesman of the presidency of the Kurdish region declared the closeness and solidarity of the institution he represents in favour of the Christian population fled from Mosul and the willingness to accept it in the area under Kurdish control.
Christian associations and various political parties organized protest marches for Sunday, February 28th, in the predominantly Christian villages in the north and in Baghdad.
Solidarity and empathy were expressed by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect for the Congregation of Eastern Churches who prayed especially for Iraq during the ceremony in the College of Sant'Ephrem held yesterday in Rome to commemorate the patron saint of the institution. The ceremony was attended, in addition to the 22 priests resident in the college and coming from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, by the Patriarch Emeritus of the Syriac Catholic Church, Cardinal Mar Ignatius Daoud Moussa, who inaugurated the college on March 8, 2003 when he was still Cardinal Sandri's predecessor as head of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, by the procurators to the Holy See for the Syriac Catholic, Chaldean and Greek Melkite churches, respectively Msgr. Mikhail Al Jamil, Msgr. Philip Najim and Fr. Mtanios Haddad, and by the director of the Institute Fr. Hasam Sha'abo.
Cardinal Emamnuel III Delly, who arrived in Mosul on Friday 27 continued to meet with representatives of civilian and military institutions and different families. Saturday, February 28th, the Cardinal attended the liturgical ceremony in the monastery of Dair Al Nasr in the neighborhood of Hay Al Arabi in Mosul, calling the faithful "to not be afraid" and later visited the monastery of Mar Khorkhis where its superior, Fr. Dinkha Al Rihab, briefed the Cardinal the situation of the monastery and the areas surrounding it.
According to some sources, the number of security personnel in Mosul was increased with the arrival of men from Baghdad and Christian families residing in the city were provided phone numbers to call in case of emergency.
The governor of Nineveh, Abdul Aziz Athiel An-Nujaifi, revealed the arrest of one of the men who last week broke into the house of a Christian family and killed in cold blood the father and two sons of him. As in the past, however, the institutions did not releas other details or the name of the arrested man.
Another appeal came from the Father Toma Jibrail, General of the Order of St. Hormizd of the Chaldeans, who demanded respect for the Iraqi Christian population "always loyal to its own country and who sacrificed much for it."
Bad news for the Iraqi Christians also come from Austria where no application for work at the Vienna offices of the High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations by representatives of the community has been accepted.
The Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh, confirmed the creation of a commission of inquiry on the events in Mosul while many members of the government shifted the responsibility of the tragic events occurred to Al Qaeda and the Baathist supporters of the former regime.
Sunday February 28, following the invitation of Iraqi bishops, there were protest marches in the villages of Telkief, Bartella, Alqosh and Karamles where, in the church of Mar Addai the Apostle, which houses the remains of martyrs Father Ragheed Kanni and Archbishop Faraj P. Rahho, to the faithful spoke the Chaldean patriarch Cardinal Mar Emmanul III Delly who was accompanied by the Bishop of Mosul Msgr. Emil Shimoun Nona.
