"Germans in the Kurdish provinces in the north of Iraq can feel safe”

"The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed on Wednesday urgently to the German government to remove the three provinces administered by the Kurdish regional government of Dohuk, Arbila and Suleimania from the call to the German citizens living and working in the north-east of Iraq to leave Iraq. "In this region there have been fortunately only two explosions in the past three years”, said the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch. "The Kurdish majority and the Christian minority are very friendly to foreigners. They support the security forces and keep an eye on the foreign helpers and experts, they are always mindful of their safety. Germans can feel safe there.”

If German experts leave the three Kurdish provinces the speedy reconstruction and the upward trend of the economy following the terrible years of the poisonous gas attacks and the genocide by Saddam Hussein would be severely hampered, warned Zülch. Instead of calling upon people to leave, Germany should give increased support to the attempts of the regional government to settle Christian refugees from southern and central Iraq in the northern provinces. According to the information of the regional government some 5,200 houses have been built for Christian refugees. 1,200 Christian Assyro-Chaldeans are working in the public sector. There are all told about 12,000 Christian refugees who have sought protection in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Their president, Masud Barzani, has also called on the Assyro-Chaldeans, who had fled from Saddam Hussein, to return to north Iraq.