Pagine

5 marzo 2010

Iraq: Election. Polls open in Jordan, Moussalli (Chaldean Vicar) "people shocked at the polls"

Source: SIR

Polls open in Jordan today for the Iraqi refugees: “at the polls – states to SIR father Raymond Moussalli, Chaldean patriarchal vicar to Jordan – I see people shocked by the latest violent attacks in Iraq and above all in Mosul, from where approximately 5 thousand people have arrived in the last few weeks alone to the Hashemite kingdom”. “People has lost confidence in their future and in the future of the country, however they want to vote to try to contribute to improving the situation. As the Chaldean church in Jordan, we are trying to encourage them to vote, so that the new political class may strive to gather all the population within the national borders”. The hope, which is far from hidden, is that “in the new Parliament there may be Christian members too, so that they will be able to make the voice of the minority heard on such issues as security, rights, justice. Christians in Iraq are not aliens, quite the opposite: the first inhabitants of Iraq are Christians, never forget that”. According to the vicar, there are about 400 thousand Iraqi refugees in Jordan (15 thousand are Christians, the majority of them are Chaldean Catholics), at least 100 thousand of whom have voting rights. The polls set up by the Iraqi Election Committee are