By Abouna.org
The Chaldean Archbishops of Basra and the south, Habib Jajou and of
Kirkuk, Yousif Toma participated in the International Conference on
Victims of Ethnic and Religious Violence in the Middle East held in
Madrid, Spain on Wednesday, 24 May. They participated in the conference
on behalf of His Beatitude Mar Luis R. Sako. Dozens of political leaders
from 59 countries and 16 UN organizations came to adopt an action in
support of the Iraqi and Syria Christians, Yazidi and other minorities.
The conference was organized by the Spanish and Jordanian foreign
ministries. It was the second version of the Paris conference for the
same goal in 2015.
Archbishop Jajou thanked the Western Church groups, UN organizations
and all NGOs for their supportive programmes and projects ‘But
people needs more humanitarian, legal and political undertakings’ he
added.
He highlighted several vital points, namely the bad situation for the
displaced people in Nineveh Plain; the dangers posed by ISIS, where he
said "because of the extremist mentality of several political and
religious leaders ‘we have to monitor the incitement and discrimination
and move forward with social resilience and protection of the national
fabric of different religious and cultures’. He criticized the poor role
of the international community in countering the irrational propaganda
of the extremists. He also called for to establishment of an
international law to criminalise who finance or encourage terrorism.
He emphasized refusal to use terms like ‘minority or ethnic’ which
isolate the communities with lesser rights. He suggested the title
‘multicultural society’ instead of ‘society with culture diversity’.
He, furthermore, confirmed the need to re-draft the Iraqi constitution
especially, Article 2 and the Personal Status Law, Article 26, and
called for educating the new generation, through reforming the education
curriculums in schools; to work for people’s equality and protect the
dignity of the human person, namely woman's and children's rights.
