Recognize the dangerous situation of the Christians in Iraq!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed urgently on Monday to the judges of the Higher Administrative Court for Rheinland-Pfalz to grant the appeal of an Iraqi couple of the Christian faith and to grant the family with their small children further protection in Germany. "News on the misuse, torture and murder of Christians in Iraq reach us every day, so it is irresponsible for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to withdraw recognition from persecuted Iraqi Christians", says the GfbV letter.

"In a Europe which is mainly Christian, where people are feeling threatened by Islamist terror, it is grotesque to deny the right to stay in Germany to a group of persecuted Christians, who have for the most part left their homelands or are preparing their flight", emphasised the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch.

Investigations carried out by the human rights organisation show that the Assyrian-Chaldaean Christians are subject to religious persecution in Iraq and that refugees cannot return to their homeland except at danger to life and limb. Although the Islamist terror in Iraq is the most aggressive in the world, the Federal Office justified the rejection of asylum for this family by stating that the political situation has changed with the intervention of the USA and the fall of Saddam Hussein. The matter will be decided in Koblenz on Tuesday (AZ: 10A 10785/05.OVG).

"People belonging to the Christian minority of southern and central Iraq must expect terror attacks at any time of the day or night. They can no longer gather in their churches since 25 religious buildings have been subjected to terrorist attack. Only a few days ago a car loaded with explosives blew up in front of the Maria Cathedral in Baghdad", said the GfbV Near-east expert, Kamal Sido. Priests have been murdered and Christians are being abducted every day. To prevent themselves from being attacked on the street by Islamists Christians must hide their identity and Christian women must wear a veil.

Nor in the northern Iraqi province of Kurdistan is there any assurance of safety for the Christian Assyro-Chaldaeans, writes the GfbV. Although this area has come to rest it has more refugees than it can cope with. The Kurdish authorities and humanitarian organisations, which are already hopelessly overstretched, fear now that the terror may spread to their region. There is in addition the constant threat from the Turkish government of Turkish troops marching into Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish and also Iranian artillery are day by day shelling towns and also Christian villages lying in Kurdish-Iraqi territory. So there can be no question of a lasting change in the political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In spite of its "autonomous status" Iraqi Kurdistan is still a part of Iraq. Everything which has been said of the security situation in Iraq applies also to Iraqi Kurdistan. This region is being threatened every day both by the neighbouring states and by the rest of Iraq.

A chronology of the attacks on Christian churches can be found on our homepage www.gfbv.de. (in german)