IRAQ: Is nowhere safe for under-fire Christians?

By John Pontifex

Father Andrew with children in a Christian village in the north of Iraq

Christians in Iraq are beginning to flee the only place where they thought they were safe – their ancient homelands in the Nineveh plains.

Reports have come in from clergy in the north of the country that, in the past few months, a slow but steady emigration has begun from the villages and towns close to Mosul city, which trace their heritage back to the earliest Christian centuries.

It comes after warnings of another blow to the Church expected in the immediate run-up to the January 2010 general elections.

With government ministers publicly expecting a surge in violence as people prepare to go to the polls, Church leaders fear that a new security crisis could spark another mass exodus of Christians, which in some areas may mean the departure of the last remaining faithful.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, leading Iraqi priest Father Bashar Warda made clear that Christians in the Nineveh region are now beginning to feel threatened by the kind of security problems which have blighted the lives of people in so many other parts of the country.

Speaking from northern Iraq today (Monday, 28^th September), Father Warda told Aid to the Church in Need: “I am sad to say that the emigration of Christian families that we have seen in places like Mosul and Baghdad has now begun to affect the Nineveh area.

“We are not seeing – at least not yet – a large emigration from places like Alqosh and other [Nineveh] villages but it is definitely happening.”

Father Warda said he could not give precise estimates of the numbers leaving the region but he said that a number of exclusively Christian villages have each been losing 30 or 40 faithful every month, and sometimes more.

The news has added significance because the many almost completely Christian villages in the region had become a refuge for faithful under threat in other parts of the region.

When thousands of Christians fled for their lives following a spate of killings and anti-Christian propaganda in Mosul about a year ago, many took refuge in the Nineveh plains.

Father Warda, who is rector of St Peter’s Major Seminary in Ankawa, outside Erbil, the provincial capital of the Kurdish north of Iraq, went on to say that the emigration from Nineveh is expected to speed up after a popular doctor was kidnapped at her home in Bartala, one of the most important towns in the region.

Doctor Mahasin Bashir was freed yesterday (Sunday, 27^th September) from the town of Baashiqa, about 10 miles from her home in Bartala.

The abduction of the gynaecologist has, according to Father Bashar, “sent major shockwaves” through the region, which until recently had been largely free from the kidnappings, explosions and other incidents affecting other parts of the country.

Concerns that the violence has spread to Nineveh will be a challenge to many Iraqi observers who report that terrorists linked to radical political movements have deliberately kept the region safe to encourage Christians to stay there in a bid to create a so-called safe haven for the faithful.

Christians in Iraq, who numbered 1.4 million at the last census in 1987, are now down to less than 400,000 according to latest estimates.

At least 800,000 Christians – proportionately far higher than other religious groups – have fled the country since the security breakdown of the immediate post-Saddam years.

Father Warda went on warn that a sudden escalation in violence in the run-up to the general elections due on 30^th January 2010 may prove catastrophic for the future survival of the Church, with yet more Christians leaving the country.

He said: “Of course it would be dangerous to speculate but if the violence becomes worse, it will seriously endanger our situation.

“It is clear that whenever a problem suddenly gets worse, the first solution the Christians look for is emigration.”

Tagged with

• Iraq
• Persecution
• Refugees

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