Christians Shut Out of Election Process

(ANS) – The Assyrian Assistance Center in Baghdad has claimed that a “calculated effort is underway to deny Assyrian Christians representation in the upcoming elections.” Ken Joseph Jr., from www.Assyrianchristians.com, says, “A 1,000 member election commission is being chosen to represent the various constituencies from which elections will be ultimately carried out.” Amir George of the Assyrian Assistance Center in Baghdad , who has asked that his name be changed to protect his identity, added, “To date we have confirmed only 20 Assyrian delegates out of the total of 1,000. “The names the Assyrian Christian Community has turned in for inclsion in the election commission have all been rejected by the Kurdish Regional Government authorities. We are calling upon freedom loving peoples worldwide to protest in the strongest way possible this blatant attempt to shut us out of the electoral process.” The Assyrian Christians are the indigenous people of Iraq and Christians. They face blatant discrimination first because they are not Arab, then because they are not Moslem and again because they are seen as allies of the West. “During the time of Saddam Hussein the Assyrian Christian Population was given as 2.5 million by the Iraqi Government. That should give us a minimum of 100 seats out of the 1,000 member assembly. We call upon the international community to protest in the strongest way possible to their local Iraqi Embassy that the rights of the Assyrian Christians be protected.` says George. `We demand immediately that the Assyrian Christians be accorded delegates to the convention from Dohuk, Irbil and every area of Iraq in accordance with our status as the indigenous people of Iraq .”