Assyrians in Iraq Hope for Autonomous Region
ICC Note
"In the short term, if we do not act to protect the Christians in Iraq , they will become refugees to the U.S. , and they do not want to be."
By Jeff Gardner
09/14/2009 Iraq (AINA)-Since the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq 's urban centers, the level of violence in Iraqi cities has risen sharply. For almost six years, Iraq 's Chaldo-Assyrian Christians have been caught in the eye of this violent storm.
On Aug. 19, truck bombs in Baghdad, killing almost 100 and wounding some 600, prompted Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni to tell Catholic News Service that "we are losing everything we can't pray; we can't work; we can't even walk."
Now, a proposal that would give Iraq's Christians control over their traditional homeland in the north, the Nineveh Plain, has moved a step closer to fruition thanks to a promise of at least $20 million in U.S. aid.
Called the Nineveh Plain Administrative Unit, the proposal, first put forward in 2003, would establish a region in northern Iraq where the country's Christians could return, resettle and rebuild their lives.
According to Michael Youash, project director for the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project, a Washington-based think tank that has lobbied hard for U.S. support of the Nineveh Plain Administrative Unit, the Nineveh Plain is not an independent state "or some sort of Iraqi-Christian reservation."
"Rather," Youash said, "this initiative would constitutionally define an area in northern Iraq where Christians and other minorities could elect local councils to deal with matters such as education, public works, health care and security."
'Jump Start'
Iraqi Assyrians living in the U.S. agree that something must be done.
Fred Aprim, an Iraqi Assyrian writer and activist living in California , became concerned about Iraqi Christian refugees in 1991 after the first Gulf War. Traveling to Jordan , Aprim saw thousands of Iraqi Assyrian refugees who had fled the country because of the war.
"After visiting with these Assyrian families," Aprim recalled, "I returned to my hotel room, sat down and began to cry."
Noting that the situation in 2009 is much worse for Iraqi refugees than it was in the 1990s, Aprim declared flatly, "We must help the Assyrian Christians to stay in Iraq and not leave. The Assyrian people should not be left to disappear, merely represented through monuments, busts and artifacts in museums."
Future Conflicts
Christians have been fleeing at a rapid rate. According to United Nations estimates, since 2003, Iraq 's Christian population has declined from 1.5 million to less than 1 million. Those who have stayed behind are literally fighting for their lives.
While there is agreement that self-governance for Iraq 's Christians is a good idea, the question of who will stay in the Nineveh Plain until the administrative unit becomes a reality is less certain. Iraq parliament member Kanna, while thankful for U.S. support, is adamant that the United States and other Western countries stop encouraging Iraqi Christians to immigrate.
Uniting both sides of the issue is a sense of urgency that something get done. Kirk noted, "In the short term, if we do not act to protect the Christians in Iraq , they will become refugees to the U.S. , and they do not want to be."
