By SIR June 30 2010
An 8-point appeal to claim protection of minorities, respect of their rights, and a higher number of Christian members within their national and local institutions. It was made on 26th June, but the news was given yesterday by the website Ankawa.com, by a group of 76 Iraqi Christian leaders who gathered in Qaraqosh, near Mosul. In their appeal, the Christian leaders ask, among other things, for “constitutional amendments to strengthen the rights of the Christian minority, the funding of schemes to ease the refugees’ repatriation, and the establishment of a National Committee for Minorities’ Affairs to promote peaceful dialogue between different ethnic and religious groups”. Aware that cohabitation and dialogue also involve education and security, the signatories also ask for “the establishment of a university in the province of Neneveh, the upgrading of security for the more vulnerable communities, more investments in infrastructure in the most backward minority-populated areas”. The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, insisted that “Christians must not leave Iraq, they must bear witness to their faith to their country”. It is estimated that, since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, about one half Iraqi Christians, that is about one million devotees, have been forced to leave the country.
An 8-point appeal to claim protection of minorities, respect of their rights, and a higher number of Christian members within their national and local institutions. It was made on 26th June, but the news was given yesterday by the website Ankawa.com, by a group of 76 Iraqi Christian leaders who gathered in Qaraqosh, near Mosul. In their appeal, the Christian leaders ask, among other things, for “constitutional amendments to strengthen the rights of the Christian minority, the funding of schemes to ease the refugees’ repatriation, and the establishment of a National Committee for Minorities’ Affairs to promote peaceful dialogue between different ethnic and religious groups”. Aware that cohabitation and dialogue also involve education and security, the signatories also ask for “the establishment of a university in the province of Neneveh, the upgrading of security for the more vulnerable communities, more investments in infrastructure in the most backward minority-populated areas”. The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk, mgr. Louis Sako, insisted that “Christians must not leave Iraq, they must bear witness to their faith to their country”. It is estimated that, since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, about one half Iraqi Christians, that is about one million devotees, have been forced to leave the country.