"La situazione sta peggiorando. Gridate con noi che i diritti umani sono calpestati da persone che parlano in nome di Dio ma che non sanno nulla di Lui che è Amore, mentre loro agiscono spinti dal rancore e dall'odio.
Gridate: Oh! Signore, abbi misericordia dell'Uomo."

Mons. Shleimun Warduni
Baghdad, 19 luglio 2014

31 marzo 2017

Irak : les espoirs du Patriarche chaldéen pour un Orient en paix


«Mes pensées vont vers les populations civiles prises au piège dans les quartiers ouest de Mossoul et aux personnes déplacées à cause de la guerre, auxquelles je me sens uni dans la souffrance à travers la prière et la proximité spirituelle». C’est le cri lancé par le Pape François mercredi 29 mars 2017 lors de l’audience générale place Saint-Pierre, à l’issue de sa catéchèse. Il est ainsi revenu sur la guerre qui ravage depuis plusieurs semaines la partie occidentale de la ville irakienne, où se sont retranchés les combattants de l’organisation de l’État islamique.
Les civils qui y sont encore plusieurs dizaines de milliers, sont les premières victimes de ce conflit. Plusieurs dizaines d’entre eux sont morts dans des bombardements il y a plus de dix jours, ensevelis sous les décombres de leurs maisons.
Pour Mgr Louis Sako, le patriarche chaldéen, ces paroles du Pape sont «un cri d’un prophète qui condamne le mal et appelle à la paix et au respect de la vie et des hommes». Évoquant la situation à Mossoul, et tout particulièrement à Mossoul ouest, le patriarche reconnait que «c’est une véritable tragédie». «Les gens sont obligés de rester dans leurs maisons parce que les djihadistes ne les ont pas laissés sortir» explique-t-il. Il précise que la vieille ville, centre de la partie occidentale de la métropole du nord de l’Irak, est constituée de maisons étroites, toutes collées les unes aux autres, construites en des matériaux fragiles qui ne résistent pas aux bombardements et amplifient le nombre de victimes.
Retour dans la plaine de Ninive
Dans les localités et les villes déjà libérées par les forces irakiennes ou kurdes depuis le lancement de la contre-offensive contre l’EI, l’année dernière, les chrétiens, qui y vivaient avant la guerre, reviennent timidement. Pour le moment, les familles qui ont trouvé refuge au Kurdistan, attendent l’été et la fin de l’école pour se réinstaller. Celles qui ont décidé de rentrer tout de suite, n’ont que peu de moyens matériels. Les aides sont minimes même si l’Église chaldéenne essaie de les soutenir comme elle le peut.
Interrogé par le service français de Radio Vatican en marge de son déplacement actuel en France, Mgr Sako reconnait que l’État irakien ne les oublie pas mais il regrette que les bonnes paroles ne soient pas suivies d’effets. «On veut des actions, s’exclame-t-il, pas des discours qui ne coûtent pas chers». Mais l’heure pour le moment est à la guerre, pas à la reconstruction. «On comprend que l’Irak n’a pas d’argent. Tout l’argent va à l’armée irakienne», explique-t-il.
Changement de mentalité
Malgré la poursuite de la guerre et les querelles entre les différentes communautés irakiennes dans certaines zones libérées, Mgr Sako demeure optimiste. «Il y a un changement», se réjouit-il. «Les musulmans sentent qu’il faut changer». «Je crois qu’ils se rendent compte de l’importance des chrétiens ici». Il s’est rendu récemment au Caire à l’université Al-Azhar pour une conférence sur les libertés religieuses, la nature civile de l’État, la citoyenneté et le respect de la diversité. Des représentants politiques et des différents cultes ont pu débattre sur tous ces thèmes.
Pour Mgr Sako, ce qui s’est dit durant ces quelques jours montre que les musulmans du Proche-Orient sont sur la bonne voie. «Il faut soutenir dans ces pays-là un gouvernement ou un État moderne, séculaire, et partager la religion de la politique, autrement, il n’y aura pas d’avenir, il y aura toujours des tensions et des conflits. La religion c’est une chose personnelle» explique le patriarche. «La société est pour tout le monde», ajoute-t-il, «tous sont des citoyens égaux et il faut respecter cela». Le processus pour déconfessionnaliser les rapports politiques, notamment en Irak, est encore cependant bien long.

Iraq, Mosul. Reportage dai villaggi cristiani liberati: il difficile ritorno a casa

By TV2000
Massimiliano Cochi 


Con il nostro Tg Post vi portiamo in Iraq. Il nostro inviato Massimiliano Cochi documenta il difficile ritorno a casa dei cristiani nei villaggi nella piana di Ninive strappati di recente all’Isis. Alle sofferenze legate alle immani distruzioni e ai disagi della ricostruzione si aggiungono i timori di un nuovo conflitto poiché questi territori sono adesso contesi tra il governo centrale iracheno e quello regionale dei curdi.

30 marzo 2017

Iraq: siglato decisivo Accordo fra tre Chiese cristiane per ricostruire i villaggi cristiani della Piana di Ninive in collaborazione con Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre


Foto Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre
Tre Chiese irachene, la siro-cattolica, la siro ortodossa e la caldea, hanno firmato oggi un decisivo Accordo nella sede dell’Arcidiocesi della Chiesa caldea di Erbil (Kurdistan iracheno) per dare vita ad un Comitato, il Niniveh Reconstruction Commitee (NRC), con il compito di pianificare e seguire la fase di ricostruzione dei villaggi cristiani della Piana di Ninive, distrutti dopo il 2014 dall’ISIS. Il Comitato si compone di sei membri scelti dalle tre Chiese (ciascuna ne eleggerà due), e da tre esperti esterni suggeriti della Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre. La Fondazione pontificia ha collaborato con le tre Chiese in vista della sigla dell’Accordo e si occuperà della raccolta fondi.
Sono circa 12.000 le abitazioni private da ricostruire, per un costo la cui stima oggi supera i 200 milioni di euro. I fondi reperiti saranno distribuiti ai rappresentanti di ciascuna Chiesa in proporzione al numero di case danneggiate appartenenti ai rispettivi fedeli.
S.E. Mons. Timothaeus Mosa Alshamany, Arcivescovo della Chiesa siro-ortodossa di Antiochia e priore del Monastero di San Matteo, dopo la firma dell’Accordo ne ha sottolineato la duplice, storica portata: da un lato lo spirito ecumenico che lo ha reso possibile, dall’altro la reale possibilità per migliaia di Cristiani di tornare alle loro radici e ad una vita dignitosa. «Oggi – ha detto Monsignor Alshamany – siamo una Chiesa davvero unita, quella siro-ortodossa, quella caldea e quella siro-cattolica; unita per la ricostruzione di queste case nella Piana di Ninive e per trasmettere fiducia nei cuori di quelle persone che vivono in quei villaggi e invitare quelli che li hanno lasciati a tornare.». Il presule ha quindi ringraziato ACS per aver collaborato al raggiungimento dell´Accordo. «Vogliamo ringraziare “Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre” che nel passato ci ha aiutato tantissimo, portandoci soccorso e cibo. Ora questa Fondazione gioca un ruolo vitale nella ricostruzione delle nostre case».
Sull’unità delle Chiese cristiane ha insistito anche S.E. Mons. Yohanna Petros Mouche, Arcivescovo siro-cattolico di Mosul: «Vorrei invitare i Cristiani della Piana di Ninive a ritornare a casa e continuare a vivere nei loro villaggi per dare testimonianza alla Cristianità. Oggi ci siamo riuniti insieme per mostrare che formiamo un unico gruppo e che vogliamo accelerare il più possibile questa operazione, che deve partire al più presto».
Il coraggio per il passo compiuto oggi dalle tre Chiese cristiane risponde alla scelta coraggiosa di tanti Cristiani che hanno deciso di restare in Iraq, ha sottolineato S.E. Mons. Mikha Pola Maqdassi, Vescovo caldeo di Alqosh: «Oggi abbiamo dato il nostro consenso alla ricostruzione delle case nei nostri villaggi distrutti. È un passo coraggioso che ci rende molto felici e che incoraggia i Cristiani a rimanere nei loro villaggi e nel loro Paese.».
S.E. Mons. Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf, Metropolita siro-ortodosso di Mosul, Kirkuk e del Kudistan, ha rivolto un appello a tutti i benefattori internazionali: «Noi siamo le radici della Cristianità. Dobbiamo restare nel nostro Paese. Dobbiamo restare come testimoni di Gesù Cristo in questo Paese, in Iraq, specialmente nella Piana di Ninive. Questo di ricostruire tutte quelle case in quei villaggi, dove l´ISIS ha distrutto ogni cosa, è davvero un compito enorme. Grazie in anticipo a tutti quelli che ci aiuteranno.».

New Erbil university offers fresh hope for young lives disrupted by IS


Displaced young Iraqis whose education was halted by Islamic State’s violent seizure of territory are receiving a vital opportunity to catch up and train for professional life, thanks to the local Catholic archdiocese and charitable donations.
The Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) opened in October 2016 and has around 250 students, and unusually for the region, a majority of non-Muslims and of women.
Stephen Rasche, the university’s vice-chancellor, said the students were mainly Christians, but there were also Yazidis and Muslims.
He said their primary focus was on young people who have been displaced by the jihadist violence in northern Iraq, and whose education has suffered as a result.
A statement on the university’s website explains: “CUE seeks to prepare leaders who are ethically, conscientiously, and administratively prepared to serve society and the common interest … CUE actively teaches tolerance and acceptance of others. It welcomes students from all faiths, and the teaching and administrative staff come from various traditions and religious backgrounds.”
Speaking in London last week, Mr Rasche added that the university’s gender imbalance, which is about 60 per cent female and 40 per cent male, was “intentionally sought after, because it’s a critical thing, the education and treatment of women in the Middle East”.
Unlike most other Iraqi universities, tuition is carried out in English, and this first year is a remedial year for focus on language study.
Mr Rasche said their goal is to have around 500 students per year, “teaching as close to a Catholic liberal arts education as we can, within the context of a Muslim country that’s Islamic by law.”
Courses and books have to be approved by the Ministry of Higher Education, he said, and to be approved, university officials have to prove that courses are not on offer at another institution, and that there is a need for them. “It’s an uphill climb,” he said.
The university has so far been funded by charitable donations from various Christian organisations around the world, including the Italian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Iraqi Christians in Need, the US arm of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, and other NGOs.
Its founders, including the Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda, will draw on the experience of the university in Baghdad that was founded by Jesuit priests, to see “what can be possible”, he said. That institution attracted students from many faith backgrounds before it was nationalised under the Baathists in the 1960s. A Jesuit priest will join the new university’s staff.
At the opening ceremony in December, Archbishop Warda said the university symbolised Iraqi Christians’ determination to remain in their home country despite recent years of violence.
“The university is a message to those who want us thrown out of the circle of history. It means we are staying because we are deeply rooted in this soil for thousands of years,” he said.

Opposition to Iraqi enclave for non-Muslims voiced by Erbil diocese


The Catholic Church in northern Iraq has voiced its opposition to suggestions that an enclave should be created to safeguard non-Muslims fearful of returning to live among their Muslim neighbours.
However Stephen Rasche, aid co-ordinator for the Catholic diocese of Erbil in northern Iraq, also said that the likelihood of Christians returning to live in the city of Mosul, formerly home to thriving Christian communities, was “essentially non-existent”. 
Non-Muslims such as Christians and Yezidis were driven from their homes by Islamic State jihadists in 2014, but with the group’s imminent demise in Iraq, minority communities are questioning whether they can return home, or whether their Sunni Muslim neighbours may have become sympathetic to the ideology of IS. Some Assyrian Christian politicians, and some US Christians, have favoured the creation of an enclave, but others have warned it could become a ghetto and further increase Christians’ vulnerability.
“There aren’t enough people left for that to work in the favour of the Christians,” said Mr Rasche. 
Speaking at a briefing in London last week, Mr Rasche continued: “To put this small, small, people together in one place … they would be tremendously vulnerable,” he added.
Due to emigration as a result of targeted violence, the number of Christians in Iraq has fallen from around 1.4m in 1987 to only around 200,000 today. Other non-Muslim minorities have also been forced to flee their homes.  
Instead, he said, the Catholic Church believed that Iraqi Christians’ future lay in full integration, full participation and equal rights.
The question of whether Christians from the towns and villages surrounding Mosul in the Nineveh Plains could return home would need to be decided on a town by town basis, Mr Rasche said. Christians were waiting to see how regional politics would settle after the recapture of Mosul. However in the city itself, where in 2014 many Christians were turned out by their neighbours, “the likelihood of Christians returning to Mosul is essentially non-existent”.
He noted that Nineveh Plains region, which lies south of Kurdistan, is currently split between control by the Iraqi army and control by Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The latter is “relatively stable” while the former he described as “incredibly chaotic,” being fought over by Shia and Christian militias.
Just as Sunni Muslims have feared marginalisation under the Shia rise to power that followed Saddam Hussein’s ousting in 2003, so minorities fear that the Islamisation of society that has begun will leave ever less room for non-Muslims and more moderate interpretations of Islam.
At the briefing, Christopher Segar, the Government’s former head of mission in Iraq and a trustee of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), said that in purely pragmatic terms, the wisest policy was to ensure a “pluralist society, a multi-religious, multi-ethnic society in Mesopotamia, and not to leave existing trends to play out in the next few years”.

‘Six weeks’ medicine and two months’ food for displaced Iraqi Christians’

By WorldWatch Monitor

The supplies sustaining displaced Christians in northern Iraq will run out “within weeks” but UN agencies, accused of ignoring them, have pledged to do better since the advent of US President Donald Trump, the aid co-ordinator for the Catholic archdiocese of Erbil said.
Without significant financial aid and sufficient care, Iraq’s remaining Christians, whose numbers have fallen from 1.5 million in 2003 to around 200,000, “could disappear within the next six to 12 months,” warned US-born Stephen Rasche.
It is vital that the international community view them as “a threatened people on the verge of extinction, the victims of horrific genocide,” he added.“If we can’t hold this community together over the next six to 12 months, it will all be for nought ,” he said, adding that the Christian presence in Iraq could be reduced to “a custodian population looking after old church properties”.
A clinic run by the archdiocese, which lies in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan and is caring for almost 100,000 Iraqi non-Muslims who fled Islamic State jihadists in 2014, has only 45 days’ medicine left, he said.
Aid to support the displaced, the majority of whom are Orthodox and Catholic Christians, has fallen -because private donors are running out of money, he added, pointing out that the displacement crisis is now in its third year.
More than US$40m in aid has come from charities such as Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Open Doors, the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, the Knights of Columbus and various members of the Caritas confederation – “all church-related,” he said.
Mr Rasche was briefing UK journalists on the situation in Erbil the morning after Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Westminster in which four people were killed and as many as 50 injured. The attacker, Khalid Masood, was shot dead by police. The public briefing was relocated from the House of Lords to a nearby restaurant, because the Palace of Westminster was closed to non-passholders, however he been able to enter to address peers shortly beforehand. As well as outlining the critical shortages in medicines, he told peers that the diocese’s supply of food aid would run out in two months.
Mr Rasche also said that it was “absolute fact” that Christians were discriminated against when applying for exit visas through the UN for asylum purposes. Priests working with displaced and refugee Christians have expressed frustration at the difficulties experienced in obtaining these visas, and also at their bishops, some of whom have urged embassies to deny Christians visas in order to preserve the Christian presence in the Middle East.
His approaches to the UN for aid for the displaced minorities had been met with the response “no, your [expectations of Christians’ living] standards are too high” and  initially officials believed Christians not to be in desperate need because Christian agencies around the world had been quick to respond to their plight in 2014.
He said his requests to the UNHCR and the UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) had fallen “on deaf ears – up until the last several months.”
He linked officials’ “change of tone” to the start of the presidency of Donald Trump, who has vowed to improve efficiency at the United Nations, to which the United States is a major donor.
“People at the UN Mission in Iraq have changed their tone with us,” he said. “They’ve come to us in the last six weeks and said ‘we have to do better’.”
“One of the things the US [government] is not happy about is that none of the aid dollars have got to Christians. Many people in the US government are surprised to learn it hadn’t reached the Christians.”
This change was discernible, in his view, “not just in the US, or the UK, but globally,” he said. He attributed it to an improved understanding of the circumstances Eastern Christians are facing.
“It has taken this change in our intellectual consciousness to understand that the Eastern Christians are in a different reality … they’ve been the minority oppressed religion for centuries”.
He also said that Americans are surprised to discover that “Eastern Christians are the oldest Christians” and that the Christian presence in Iraq long predated missionary activity in the country.
However a senior British defence adviser complained that religious literacy within the British civil service is still too low, and has linked the international community’s failure to reach Iraqi minorities with aid to their high levels of emigration from their homeland. Major-General Tim Cross, a practising Anglican and a senior figure in the planning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, told UK BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme that the lack of religious literacy within the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development (DfID) is evident “in the way aid was being given to the region, by DfID and others, largely to camps run by the UNHCR”. He continued: “They don’t understand that for most of the minorities in the Middle East, who have suffered terribly over the last few years, they will not go into the camps because they’re too scared to do so.” Very little aid is reaching Iraq’s non-Muslims, such as its Christians, he said, “and we’ve seen the numbers of these minorities fall dramatically in the last few years.”
Meanwhile Mr Rasche said that as displaced Iraqi Christians weigh up whether to return home or not, some are opting to settle in Erbil in the Kurdistan region, despite differences in language, qualifications and culture. Selling their land in Iraq, however, “finalises the elimination of the Christians” and has led in some cases to an increase in foreign, notably, Iranian influence, which has vastly increased since the Shia majority came to power after the removal of Saddam Hussein. “There’s real evidence that the money for these [land] purchases is coming from Iran,” he said.

29 marzo 2017

Sarcelles (Francia) Galà di beneficenza a favore degli iracheni cristiani

By Baghdadhope*

Organizzato dal CSCI France (Comité de Soutien aux Chrétiens d'Irak) in partenariato con L'Œuvre d'Orient e con il patrocinio del presidente della repubblica francese François Hollande si svolgerà domani a Sarcelles, non lontano da Parigi, un galà benefico a favore degli iracheni cristiani: " L'Iraq, è la mia terra ed io rimango."
Al galà parteciperà il patriarca caldeo Mar Louis Raphael I Sako che, accompagnato dal vicario Mons. Basel Yaldo, è arrivato ieri a Parigi e che nei giorni a venire visiterà la comunità caldea di Francia celebrando una messa nella chiesa di San Giovanni Apostolo ad Arnouville e guidando la Via Crucis in quella di San Tommaso Apostolo a Sarcelles.

IRAK – « de Qaraqosh au camp de Nishtiman a Erbil, témoignage d’humanité »


En Irak, à Erbil, nous avons recueilli le témoignage du docteur Rabia, ancien habitant de Qaraqosh et déplacé avec sa famille depuis près de 3 ans à cause de l'état islamique.

« On m’appelle Docteur Rabia du fait de mon diplôme de vétérinaire, j’ai une famille aimante et était un Irakien comme tant d’autres jusqu’en août 2014. Ma vie a basculé avec l’arrivée de l’Etat islamique dans la plaine de Ninive, pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Propriétaire d’une belle maison, je me suis retrouvé sans rien excepté ma voiture, avec des enfants à charge.
L’humiliation d’être un déplacé, la vue des familles dormant dans les jardins publics d’Erbil m’était insupportable. Ayant appris qu’un grand nombre d’appartements de l’immeuble Nishtiman, dans le centre-ville, étaient vides, j’ai négocié avec son propriétaire pour y établir des déplacés en quelques jours. Réalisant que le bâtiment Jihan Center, situé en face et appartenant au même propriétaire, était vide également, j’ai obtenu que nous nous y installions moyennant la rénovation du lieu. L’Œuvre d’Orient et le Centre de Crise du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères français ont fourni les finances et nous le savoir-faire technique et les bras disponibles : nous étions tous sans emploi ! Je me suis retrouvé chef de chantier improvisé durant les deux mois suivants et m’occupe actuellement d’assurer le bien-être de 400 familles en exil, soit quelque 2000 personnes.
Quand je réalise le chemin parcouru, à titre individuel et collectivement, je suis fier de ce que nous avons accompli. Ces épreuves m’ont fait réaliser la fragilité de mes richesses matérielles et l’importance d’être solidaires et dignes. Je n’ai rien fait de remarquable : tout cela est arrivé et j’ai réagi du mieux que je pouvais. La foi m’a aidé à garder confiance dans les moments de doute et à communiquer mon enthousiasme aux autres. Etre résilient fut et est toujours une nécessité et une évidence. Je porte d’ailleurs une croix toute simple, sans image de Jésus crucifié, afin de mettre en valeur l’espoir et la promesse de résurrection ».

Saluto del Santo Padre Francesco al comitato permanente per il dialogo tra il Pontificio Consiglio per il dialogo interreligioso e le sovraintendenze irachene: sciita, sunnita e quella per cristiani, yazidi, sabei/mandei


Buongiorno! Vi saluto cordialmente e ringrazio per questa vostra visita e per la vostra presenza. Per me è un vero piacere questo incontro di dialogo e di fraternità. Tutti siamo fratelli, e dove c’è fratellanza c’è pace. Noi siamo figli di Dio, tutti. E noi, come ha detto Sua Eminenza [il Card. Jean-Louis Tauran] abbiamo un padre comune sulla terra: Abramo, e da quella prima “uscita” di Abramo, noi veniamo, fino ad oggi, tutti insieme. Noi siamo fratelli e, come fratelli, tutti diversi e tutti uguali, come le dita di una mano: cinque sono le dita, tutte dita, ma tutte diverse. Io ringrazio Dio, il Signore, che ci ha aiutato ad essere riuniti qui. Il vostro dialogo tra voi, la vostra visita è una vera ricchezza di fratellanza, e per questo è una strada verso la pace, di tutti. La pace del cuore, la pace delle famiglie, la pace dei Paesi, la pace del mondo. Chiedo a Dio onnipotente che benedica tutti voi, e a voi chiedo, per favore, di pregare per me. Grazie tante.

Studio di ACS: per ricostruire le sole case private della Piana di Ninive necessari quasi 190 milioni di dollari


Quasi 12.000 abitazioni private nei villaggi cristiani della Piana di Ninive sono state danneggiate dall’ISIS. 669 residenze sono completamente distrutte. I costi della ricostruzione delle sole case private, ad esclusione quindi degli edifici di interesse collettivo, sono stimati in 186.378.689 dollari. Sono queste le prime conclusioni di uno studio intrapreso dalla fondazione Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre – Aid to the Church in Need.
Attualmente ad Erbil (Kurdistan iracheno) ci sono circa 14.000 famiglie fuggite dalla Piana di Ninive a causa dell’ISIS. Si tratta di circa 90.000 persone (erano 120.000 nel 2014). 12.000 famiglie sono ancora dipendenti dagli aiuti umanitari garantiti da ACS. A 1.500 nuclei familiari è stato chiesto se ora sia loro intenzione ritornare nei villaggi di origine. 1.308 famiglie hanno fornito una risposta al sondaggio: il 41% ha risposto affermativamente, mentre il 46% sta valutando tale ipotesi. Per avere un termine di confronto, si può citare un’altra ricerca condotta nello scorso novembre da ACS fra 5.762 rifugiati interni: allora solo il 3,3% degli intervistati era intenzionato a far ritorno nei villaggi natii. All’epoca infatti la sicurezza nelle regioni liberate era troppo precaria, e le operazioni militari erano ancora in corso.
Tornando ai contenuti dello studio più recente, il 57% degli intervistati ha riferito che le loro proprietà sono state saccheggiate, il 22% che le loro case sono state distrutte. Il resto potrebbe non essere nelle condizioni di fornire informazioni sullo stato attuale degli edifici. Il 25,5% ha riferito che i loro documenti di identità sono stati rubati dai terroristi del sedicente Stato Islamico.
Dopo aver quantificato i danni relativi alle abitazioni private, ACS, con l’ausilio di personale delle diocesi locali, sta procedendo alla valutazione degli edifici a destinazione pubblica quali scuole, cliniche e luoghi di culto.
“La fase di valutazione dei danni è quasi del tutto completata. Siamo pronti per quella operativa. Il progetto è veramente ambizioso: una sorta di “Piano Marshall” per far tornare alla vita i villaggi cristiani della Piana di Ninive. Da qui ai prossimi mesi ogni benefattore della Fondazione potrà porre una pietra per la ricostruzione. Aiutare i Cristiani iracheni a vivere in patria, come loro desiderano, rappresenta un atto concreto e costruttivo, realmente alla portata di tutti. Rappresenta la speranza che si imporrà sull’orrore prodotto dall’ISIS.”, ha commentato Alessandro Monteduro, Direttore di ACS-Italia.

Iraq: padre Mekko (Mosul), “grazie Papa Francesco. Le sue parole ricordano al mondo la disperazione e la miseria in cui vivono sfollati e perseguitati”

By SIR

“Grazie Santo Padre! Tutto il popolo e i cristiani iracheni hanno bisogno delle parole e del sostegno del Papa. Ogni suo intervento è utile per far conoscere alla comunità internazionale la miseria e la disperazione in cui vivono le popolazioni sfollate, perseguitate, bombardate”. Lo ha detto al Sir il sacerdote caldeo padre Thabet Habeeb Mekko, originario di Mosul, commentando l’appello lanciato oggi da Papa Francesco durante l’udienza in piazza san Pietro, a favore delle “popolazioni civili intrappolate nei quartieri occidentali di Mosul e agli sfollati per causa della guerra”: “Nell’esprimere profondo dolore per le vittime del sanguinoso conflitto, rinnovo a tutti l’appello ad impegnarsi con tutte le forze nella protezione dei civili, quale obbligo imperativo ed urgente”. In piazza San Pietro era presente una delegazione di sovraintendenze irachene composta da rappresentanti di diversi gruppi religiosi, accompagnata dal card. Jean-Louis Tauran, presidente del Pontificio Consiglio per il dialogo interreligioso.
Da Karamles padre Mekko, che è uno dei due sacerdoti incaricati dal patriarca caldeo Mar Sako della ricostruzione dei villaggi caldei della Piana di Ninive, liberati dall’occupazione dell’Isis, si dice “colpito dalla vicinanza del Pontefice che esorta il mondo a ricordare la miseria di chi non può tornare perché la propria casa è stata incendiata o distrutta dai terroristi e dalle bombe. Il terrorismo non è finito, si combatte ancora a Mosul. La nostra speranza che le parole del Santo Padre possano essere un forte incoraggiamento al Governo iracheno e alla comunità internazionale perché adottino misure efficaci per contrastare la violenza terroristica. Non è più tempo di promesse”. Secondo uno studio condotto da Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre (Acs) sono “quasi 12.000 le abitazioni private nei villaggi cristiani della Piana di Ninive danneggiate dall’Isis; 669 quelle completamente distrutte. I costi della ricostruzione delle sole case private, a esclusione quindi degli edifici di interesse collettivo, sono stimati in 186.378.689 dollari. Attualmente ad Erbil (Kurdistan iracheno) ci sono circa 14.000 famiglie fuggite dalla Piana di Ninive a causa dell’Isis. Si tratta di circa 90.000 persone (erano 120.000 nel 2014). 12.000 famiglie sono ancora dipendenti dagli aiuti umanitari garantiti da Acs.

Papa Francesco: appello per pace e protezione dei civili in Iraq, a partire da Mosul

By SIR

“Pregare affinché l’Iraq trovi nella riconciliazione e nell’armonia tra le sue diverse componenti etniche e religiose, la pace, l’unità e la prosperità”, e “impegnarsi con tutte le forze nella protezione dei civili, quale obbligo imperativo e urgente”, a partire dai quartieri occidentali di Mosul. È il doppio appello rivolto dal Papa, al termine dell’udienza, prima dei saluti ai fedeli di lingua italiana. “Sono lieto di salutare la delegazione di sovraintendenze irachene composta da rappresentanti di diversi gruppi religiosi, accompagnata da Sua Eminenza il Cardinale Tauran, presidente del Pontificio Consiglio per il Dialogo Interreligioso”, ha esordito Francesco, che stamattina, prima dell’appuntamento con i fedeli in piazza San Pietro, ha ricevuto nell’Auletta Paolo VI i partecipanti alla riunione del Comitato permanente per il dialogo tra il Pontificio Consiglio per il dialogo interreligioso e le Sovrintendenze irachene. “La ricchezza della cara nazione irachena sta proprio in questo mosaico che rappresenta l’unità nella diversità, la forza nell’unione, la prosperità nell’armonia”, ha proseguito. Poi l’appello: “Cari fratelli, vi incoraggio ad andare avanti su questa strada e invito a pregare affinché l’Iraq trovi nella riconciliazione e nell’armonia tra le sue diverse componenti etniche e religiose, la pace, l’unità e la prosperità”. “Il mio pensiero va alle popolazioni civili intrappolate nei quartieri occidentali di Mosul e agli sfollati per causa della guerra, ai quali mi sento unito nella sofferenza, attraverso la preghiera e la vicinanza spirituale”, ha proseguito Francesco: “Nell’esprimere profondo dolore per le vittime del sanguinoso conflitto, rinnovo a tutti l’appello ad impegnarsi con tutte le forze nella protezione dei civili, quale obbligo imperativo ed urgente”.

27 marzo 2017

‘Convert, leave, or die:’ Iraqi Christians and the dream to return to Mosul

By Al-Arabiya
Sonia Farid

In the summer of 2014, Mosul was for the first time in its history almost totally emptied of Christian civilians. More than 200,000 of Iraqi Christians, who make up the fourth largest indigenous Christian population in the Middle East, were forced to flee the city following invasion by ISIS whose leaders gave them the choice to convert, leave, or die then seized their houses and burnt their churches. It was only recently that the Christians of Iraq started harboring hopes of returning to their homes as Iraqi forces managed to reclaim the city, which was home to one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities.
Reverend Daniel al-Khari, a Chaldean priest who oversees a Christian refugee camp in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan where large numbers of Christians fled, argued that ISIS’s departure from Mosul makes it possible to return, yet not safe. According to him, it is not about ISIS’s physical presence as much the culture the group managed to nurture in the city. “We can go back but it is a question of safety. We are dealing with a new generation bred by ISIS - they have a radical anti-Christian viewpoint and so it would be really hard to go back,” he said, arguing that with the spread of fanaticism he doubts that Muslim and Christian communities can co-exist. Al-Khari particularly referred to ISIS’s recruitment and radicalization of children, who came to be labeled “caliphate cubs” and were instructed to walk around the city armed with knives and guns. “It would be very hard for children here and children in Mosul to get together,” he added. “We really need to work with the children in Mosul to change what ISIS has implanted there.” 

Long before ISIS

Romeo Hakari, head of Assyrian Christian political part Bait al-Nahrain, said that the threat to the existence of the Christian community in Iraq started long before ISIS, particularly with the 2003 US invasion of the country. Hakari blames Western countries for encouraging Iraqi Christians to settle outside Iraq instead of supporting them to rebuild their homes and churches and defend themselves. “European embassies in Iraq, especially the French and German embassies, have facilitated the migration of our people,” he said, adding the leaders of the Iraqi Christian communities are holding meetings with EU and US officials to demonstrate the downside of this approach. The Iraqi Christian Relief Council, on the other hand, said that Christians, estimated at 1.5 million before the US invasion, were subjected to systematic persecution as part of the sectarian violence that started in 2003 and continued with the emergence of ISIS so that now the Christian population has decreased by almost 80%. 
While admitting that Christians in Iraq were victims of the sectarian conflict the followed US invasion, Joel Velkamp traces their persecution back to the era of Saddam Hussein. According to Velkamp, Hussein used his war with Iran as a pretext for getting rid of as many Assyrian Christians as possible since he felt threatened by their affirmation of their non-Arab identity. “Assyrian Christians found themselves drafted for the war more often than other groups. 40,000 of them never returned from the battlefields,” he wrote, adding that during his war on Kurds Hussein also destroyed 120 Assyrian villages and killed over a thousand Christians, including priests, which drove Christians to flee the country.

Different factions

Iraqi writer Gawhar Audish argues that another problem that would hinder the resettlement of Christians in their hometowns is the current conflict between different Christian factions. “There are several armed Christian groups in the Nineveh plain and each is fighting for its own agenda and I wonder how they’re capable of doing so at such a critical time when they should unite to liberate their towns from ISIS,” he wrote. Audish cited the struggle between the Babylon Brigades and the Syriac Democratic Union as well as attempts by the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, founded by the Assyrian Democratic Movement, at monopolizing power in Christian areas. Audish called the conflict between Christian factions one in which “dwarfs” fight over “leftovers.” 
Several Iraqi Christian figures accused the state-sponsored Popular Mobilization Forces of arming warring factions, thus intensifying the conflict. “The struggle for power in Christian areas led the Chaldean Babylon Brigade to storm the headquarters of the Syriac Union in southern Mosul and abduct the leader of the Syriac Eagles Battalion,” said activist Haithan Bakou. Writer Caesar Hermes said that several Christian militias are vying for power in the Nineveh plain. “Examples include Lions of Babylon, Babylon Brigades, the Syriac Children Squadron, Syriac Eagles, and Nineveh Plain Protection Units,” he said, warning that the situation is bound to escalate if heads of different Iraqi churches do not take a unified stance against the conflict that “is bound to have graver consequences than the ISIS invasion,” as he put it. 
A sizable number of Christians, however, seem to be quite hopeful, which was demonstrated in their return to several liberated parts and the cross they raised on top of a hill outside Mosul as they cheered “Victory for those who chose faith and those who return.” According to the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad Luis Rafael Sako, the erection of this cross delivers a message to the whole world. “Our ancestors were buried in this pure land and we are going to remain to preserve them with all our might and for future generations,” he said. “It is a sincere and great call to return and rebuild.” Sako held the first Mass since the ISIS invasion and described it as “the first spark of light shining in all the cities of the Nineveh Plain since the darkness of ISIS” and reassured the congregation that they are finally back in their land.

The Long Lent of Iraq’s Christians

By National Catholic Register
Edward Pentin

Rosaries and broken crucifixes strewn across the floor, upturned furniture and littered belongings greeted us as we entered the former rectory in Karemlash, an Iraqi Christian town liberated from the Islamic State (ISIS) last October.
The two-story house, only completed in 2012, had all the hallmarks of a place possessed, as though a demon had been unleashed to run right through it.
The sight was emblematic of the whole town.
Karemlash was once home to up to 10,000 mostly Chaldean Catholic inhabitants, but ISIS invaded and began to plunder it in August 2014, as part of its offensive that year.
The town was part of a daylong visit by a group, including this correspondent, March 18 to liberated areas.
It was arranged through Nasarean.org, a charity that aids persecuted Christians.(See related story.)
‘Demonic’ Destruction
Our first stop was Karemlash’s ancient St. George’s Cemetery, dating back to the sixth century. ISIS had desecrated it, leaving gaping holes where graves had been, broken tombstones, and a coffin sitting on the grass in the open air. One corpse, a Chaldean Church official told us, had even been exhumed and then beheaded.
The adjoining St. George’s Monastery was also ransacked, but relatively well-treated, although nothing but rubble was left of Dair Banat Maryam, a 13th-century convent connected to the monastery, which had once survived the Mongol invasion.
Karemlash itself was deserted, except for a few Christian militia guarding the town’s entry point and one or two locals returning to pick up whatever remains of their belongings.
The town’s now quiet and somewhat peaceful atmosphere was occasionally broken by the sound of military jets in the distance and the sporadic light thud of artillery, as the battle to liberate Mosul, just nine miles away, entered its final stages.
Everywhere, there was destruction and desecration. House after house was blackened by fire, if not altogether destroyed, and the owners’ possessions looted. Some properties, being filled with booby traps, had been flattened by the Iraqi army, making parts of the town resemble the aftermath of an earthquake.
All that remained of the family home of our guide, Chaldean Father Thabet Yousif, was wreckage and a conspicuous mortar lying among the bricks. Used as an ISIS base to launch attacks on nearby Peshmerga, Kurdish military forces, it had been bombed by the Iraqi air force. Father Yousif also showed us the home he had been born in, now with its front door removed and its contents probably looted. It pleased him to be able to ring the bells of one of the town’s eight churches. All of the churches showed similar signs of anti-Christian destruction. ISIS forces appeared to have tried their best to burn down the town’s St. Addai Church, but failed. They had defaced the cross at the altar — one of many to be vandalized in the town — and fired shots at it, leaving bullet holes in the marble. A statue of Our Lady had been beheaded. 
The church contains the tomb of Father Ragheed Ganni, a much-loved priest known to many in Rome from his time as a seminarian there. Born in Karemlash, Father Ganni was martyred in Mosul on Trinity Sunday in 2007. His tombstone had been vandalized, but his resting place was untouched. 
More severe was the damage to the 19th-century St. Mary the Virgin Church in the town, where fire had gutted the nave, leaving charred remains and blackened walls. A curtain in front of the sanctuary, once decorated with a cross, had been slashed.
“Everywhere, the cross is defaced, scratched out, shot at,” observed Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org. “We know who’s behind this. It’s demonic — let’s call it what it is. It's Satanic … Satan has a hatred of the cross, and he has a hatred of the followers of the cross.”
In many of the houses, ISIS militants had used sophisticated equipment to dig tunnels to help escape death or capture, and commandeered the town’s St. Barbara Monastery, rebuilt in 1798, as their base in Karemlash.

Ghazala’s Witness
The town suffered almost no atrocities because most people fled when ISIS invaded. But one person who didn’t escape right away was Ghazala, a doughty 83-year-old woman from Karemlash whom we met in Erbil. She had slept through the ISIS invasion and was too ill to leave, forcing her and another elderly woman to stay in the occupied town for 10 days.
She recounted how she resisted their attempts to force her to convert to Islam, telling the ISIS fighters her age and saying: “You want to make me a Muslim now? You can make me into a whore, bury me here, shoot me — I’ll never convert to Islam,” she said. “Would you want your mother to be forced to convert to Christianity?” she then riposted, to which one militant replied, “No.”
Asked why she thought they did not kill her for not converting, Ghazala replied: “I wasn’t afraid of them; I was never afraid of them. They had weapons, guns, everything, but I wasn’t afraid — because God is with me.” 
The empty town, however, gave ISIS fighters the chance to wreak chaos and destruction on Karemlash, the extent of which even shocked local Muslims, according to Father Yousif. “It made some of them want to become Christian,” he told us, “but they can’t because they don’t have the freedom.”
Graffiti was splayed across the town with messages, including, “The Cross will be broken,” “ISIS will remain,” “ISIS will take Rome,” and, on a wall in St. Addai Church: “Jesus was a Servant of God, not the Son of God.”
But driving through the empty streets, it was possible to imagine how idyllic it must have once been. Beautiful ancient churches and monasteries, large open streets, attractive gated properties, and schools, shops and services — it appeared to have once had everything, including famous vineyards.
It will therefore be a considerable challenge to bring it back to its former glory, not least because many of the Christian families who used to live there have fled Iraq, probably never to return. It will also always have the scars of the ISIS occupation.

The Difficulty of Returning
Countless other towns share the same fate, including neighboring Qaraqosh, once the largest Christian town in Iraq. We hastily drove through the now-lawless place, governed by competing Christian militias and other groups, and witnessed the same extensive damage there. As in Karemlash, most houses had also been burned in an attempt by ISIS to deter its Christians from returning.
The prospect of liberation had given many Christian families hope, but the extent of the damage has led them to lose it. Sister Ban Saaed of the once Mosul-based Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, told the Register in Erbil that families were already drifting away from Iraq.
“Parents are waiting for children to finish school, and then they plan to go to Jordan or Lebanon,” she said. “They have been thinking of leaving for good because of the damage they’ve seen to their houses and villages.” Christians, she said, “would love to stay, but they’re fed up with the uncertainty and not knowing what to do.” Primarily, they feel their children deserve a better future, she said.
The sisters, who run a school and clinic in Erbil, also reported frustration with the security services as well as the U.S. and coalition forces who have a large base nearby. “The houses are burned, but what are the allied troops doing?” asked Sister Nazek Khalid Matty. “They desire to leave the country stronger, but since September and the liberation, nothing has happened. They’re not involved in helping the country to be secure.”
Christians in this part of Iraq are “really suffering on a daily basis, and there’s also huge mental suffering,” said John Neill of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil. “It’s genocide — 100%,” he said, pointing to the trauma he had witnessed of those “fleeing their homes, leaving everything behind, then ISIS desecrating them, burning them, and the uncertainty of the future.”

Need for Security
A constant refrain from everyone we met was the need for security, which continues to be lacking and, in turn, prevents reconstruction, job creation and services. “We feel alone; no one to protect us, our people. How can we go back to that situation? It’s stupidity,” said Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Nicodemus Sharaf, the last bishop to leave Mosul in 2014. “I told my people: If you don’t see me there, I won’t accept anyone going back.”
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil pointed out that the government has been focused on fighting ISIS in Mosul, causing a delay in bringing about security and reconstruction and, with it, disappointment among those wishing to return to a normal life. He also recognized that the rule of law must return to these areas, which are now weakened by sectarian rivalries between various Christian and non-Christian militias — groups he believes will not help in building a country “that respects a law for all.”
“Here, we need the support of the international community to remind Iraqi politicians of the importance of really building a state on law that respects everyone and protects the lives of every citizen,” he told the Register, adding that, at the moment, the signs are not positive that this can be achieved. Laws haven’t been respected since the Iraq War of 2003, many Christians say.
Built into the poor security situation is the almost total breakdown of trust between Christians and the government, as well as with their Muslim neighbors.
Iraqi and Kurdish government forces largely deserted them when ISIS invaded, despite outnumbering ISIS 200 to 1, and many of their fellow Muslims stole their property and possessions.
“The situation is as you see,” said Metropolitan Nicodemus. “It’s so bad, and we can’t accept or trust anyone around us.” He, too, is therefore calling on the international community and the United Nations to issue bone fide, written guarantees for a “safe zone” of Nineveh Plain villages, as well as a change in the system (though not necessarily the leadership) of government in Baghdad.

Aid for the Refugees
The predicament for the refugees is that now that the liberation is almost complete, the West largely sees the emergency situation facing Christians in the Nineveh Plain as over. But, more than ever, they say they need aid to pay rents in their temporary housing in Erbil, as well as medicines and other provisions (the Chaldean Church’s St. Joseph Clinic for refugees in Erbil, for example, will soon run out of funds). So far, it has been the Churches, rather than government or the U.N., that have provided almost all of the funding for the Christian refugees.
“At the moment, they’re living through the good works and charity of so many wonderful people in America and all over the world,” said Father Kiely. “But very few have jobs, and in order to have a vibrant future, they must have jobs; otherwise, they’ll leave.”
Everyone we spoke to saw the West — in particular the U.S. and its allies involved in the 2003 Iraq War — as responsible for the plight of the country’s Christians and marked that as the time when respect for the law began to collapse. They also all have high hopes for President Donald Trump, who they see as a strong leader with clear sympathies and whom they believe will help them.
“Personally speaking, I’m really encouraged to see someone is at least thinking about the Christians,” said Archbishop Warda, adding that he was pleased Trump is “attracting attention” for them. He would like to see the U.S. president taking a lead in building security, but through working with all parties in the region and not unilaterally.
Yohanna Towaya, a former farmer from Qaraqosh now living as a refugee in Erbil, said that before Trump was elected, all the Christians and Yazidis were praying for him to win.
“We have confidence in Trump,” he said, adding that Christians “hope he’ll be savior of these minorities by making these strong decisions.” The view of Obama, on the other hand, was “terrible,” according to Neill, who said they were “more than disappointed” in him because “he did nothing.”
In addition to hope from the U.S., those aware in Iraq of Hungary’s lead in helping persecuted Christians are also delighted by the Hungarian government’s decision to dedicate a ministry to help them. “I take great pride in this country,” said Metropolitan Nicodemus. “I hope and pray America will do the same because, for the first time, I feel like a respected Christian.”
The Christian leaders and lay faithful of Iraq also have no illusions about Islam. They consider ISIS to be the real Islam, and Archbishop Warda said that to rid the religion of violent extremism “is the homework of the Muslims, with the help of Christians.”
“We don’t have to say: ‘We were victims, and we have had enough.’ No, we have to say: ‘We were victims, but we have to continue to dialogue with them,’” he said.
Catholics in the West, meanwhile, have plenty to do to help, according to Father Kiely, and he believes the hierarchy in particular needs to be “much more supportive.” He observed that many Iraqi Christians feel the West has abandoned them and “cannot comprehend” why there’s not more active prayer for their plight, such as weekly rosaries for persecuted Christians.
Stressing that St. Paul talks about the Body of Christ, and that “when one suffers, all suffer,” he reminded the faithful that the Christians of Iraq and the Middle East “gave birth to the faith,” and therefore all Catholics have a responsibility to protect it.“If we let that disappear,” Father Kiely said, “our judgment might be rather severe.”

Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.