Court judgement against asylum for Assyro-Chaldaean Christians from Iraq is a "disturbingly mistaken decision"

"While in South and Central Iraq, the home region of 95% of the Iraqi Christians, month by month thousands of children, women and men from all ethnic groups fall victim to bomb attacks and Christians flee in all directions and are murdered, the administrative court wants to deport Christian refugees from Iraq to their former homeland, which has now turned into a powder-barrel", criticised the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch, in Göttingen. Some 20,000 Christians from Iraq live as refugees in Germany. After this court judgement they could be threatened with deportation.

Christians in Iraq live today in the underground. They must wear the veil like Muslims and hide their identity. Already 31 of their churches have been blown up and many of their priests and worshippers murdered. Purely at random members of the Assyrian-Catholic, the Syrian-Orthodox, the Chaldaean, the Assyro-Anglican, the Old Apostolic-Nestorian, the Armenian-Catholic, the Armenian-Orthodox and the Adventist Mission Church attacked, persecuted, mishandled, raped or murdered. Whoever has the chance to do so tries to leave the country.

The GfbV criticised energetically the arguments put forward by the Swabian administrative court that these Christians from Iraq, who mostly speak the mother tongue of Christ, Aramaic, could live safely enough in the Iraqi Kurdish region. This region is indeed at peace, but completely over-filled with refugees and over-stretched. The people there have themselves in 40 years of permanent persecution under Saddam Hussein lost 500,000 members through genocide. Now the refugees are pouring into the region from all sides, among them Christians. From Iraq itself come Sunni and Shiite Arabs seeking refuge from the daily bombardments. Mandaeans, whose religion goes back to John the Baptist, are being hunted down and find themselves stranded, like the Faili Kurds, a Shiite minority in Baghdad numbering some 100,000 members.

"The Kurdish authorities, which are now hopelessly overstretched, and humanitarian organisations also fear that the terror will spread to their region", warned Zülch. "The Turkish government is also threatening that Turkish troops will march into Iraqi Kurdistan." In May this year Turkish artillery shelled the two Christian villages of Dore and Kani Masi in North Iraq.

At least 100,000 Christian refugees from Iraq, the number of whom is rising daily, are struggling in the Arab neighbouring countries under the most difficult circumstances for their survival and trying to get exit visas for western countries.

Anyone wanting to drive these threatened Christians out of Germany in these circumstances acts irresponsibly, indeed inhumanely, and must be reminded of the times between 1933 and 1938 when Jewish and other Germans were driven out of Germany and between 1944 and 1989 when millions of Germans became refugees and displaced persons.

The GfbV calls urgently on the 17 federal and provincial ministers of the interior to give the Christians from Iraq who are living in Germany long-term residence and work permits and to facilitate their naturalization. "In a country which is for the most part Christian there should be a minimum of solidarity with fellow-believers who are severely persecuted and threatened daily", warned Zülch and recalled in this connection how the Hugenots were taken in and integrated in Germany. With the Christians from Iraq it is a matter of a minority which is particularly ready to integrate. In Germany there are living about 20,000, mostly Aramaic-speaking Christians from Iraq and 140,000 of these Assyro-Chaldaeans from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Extract from a GfbV documentation on the persecution of the Assyro-Chaldaean Christians in Iraq.

Chronology of the attacks on Christian churches/institutions in Iraq

End of 2003

At the end of 2003 various attacks on Christian churches take place. A rocket attack on a convent in Mosul, explosives in two Christian schools in Baghdad and Mosul, an explosion in a church in Baghdad on Christmas Eve. A bomb is found and rendered harmless in a monastery in Mosul. (Daniel Pipes, On the disappearance of the Iraqi Christians, in: New York Sun, 24.08.2004)

26.06.2004

Two unknown persons in a silver-coloured Opel throw an explosive at the Church of the Holy Ghost (al-Rooh al-Qudos) in the Akha quarter in Mosul. In the explosion the sister of the priest is injured. (www.christiansofiraq.com, 03.12.2004)

01.08.2004

In attacks on four Christian churches in Baghdad and a church in Mosul twelve persons are killed and 61 injured. A further attempted murder can be prevented. The attacks are directed against the following churches:a Syrian-Catholic, an Armenian-Catholic, two Roman -Catholic and a Chaldaic. (Beate Seel, Christians are becoming targets of attack, in:taz (Berlin), 03.08.2004, p. 10, FAZ.net, 17.10.2004; kath.net, 26.10.2004, Daniel Pipes, On the disappearance of the Iraqi Christians, in: New York Sun, 24.08.2004)

10.09.2004

The Church of St George and the dwelling of Father Sabah Kamura in Doura, in a suburb of Baghdad, are the target of an attack with hand-grenades and machine-gun fire. The priest just manages to escape with his life. (kath.net, 28.09.2004)

11.09.2004

In the centre of Baghdad a car-bomb explodes at the Church of the Virgin Mary of the Seventh Day Adventists in the Al-Sa´doun Park (www.christiansofiraq.com, 03.12.2004)

09.10.2004

At the Assyrian Anglican church on the al-Andalus Street in Baghdad a bomb explodes during the night (www.christiansofiraq.com, 03.12.2004)

16.10.2004

Attacks are carried out at six Christian churches in Baghdad. One person is killed and nine others injured. Some of the churches are severely damaged and the Roman-Catholic Church of St George, which is built of wood, burns out completely. The attacks on the second day of Ramadan were, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, evidently carefully planned. FAZ.net, 17.10.2004, Süddeutsche.de, 17.10.2004)

08.11.2004

In attacks on two Orthodox churches in Baghdad at least eight persons are killed. The attacks are directed at the Syrian-Orthodox Church of St. George and the Church of St. Matthew of the Assyrian Church of the East. In the attacks, according to Cindy Wooden of the Catholic News Service, the Chaldaic Church of St. John was also damaged. (www.christiansofiraq.com, 08.11.2004)

07.12.2004

Explosions take place in two churches in Mosul. The new Armenian-Orthodox church in the Al Wihda quarter, which has not yet been opened, is attacked at 14.30.Three persons are injured. The Chaldaean Al Tahira Church and Archdiocese in the Alshafa quarter is attacked at 16.30. Armed men bring believers out of the church before they detonate the explosives. (Rev. Emmanuel from Iraq, 08.12.2004)