Society for Threatened Peoples calls urgently for permanent residence permits for Christians from Iraq

Dreadful new crimes against Assyro-Chaldaic Christians in Iraq have caused the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on Friday to call again urgently on the Federal and Provincial Minister of the Interior to grant permanent residence permits in Germany for Christian refugees from Iraq. The human rights organisation appealed to the courts not to take away from these people looking for protection their status as recognized asylum seekers, for the terror against Assyro-Chaldaeans in Iraq has increased dramatically.

On Wednesday (11.10.06) the Syrian-Orthodox priest Paul Alexander (Paulos Iskander) was found beheaded in Mosul. On the same day the 55-year old cleric Dr Joseph Fridon Petros was attacked in Baghdad by Islamists and murdered. "The murder of Father Paulus, who was very popular, will increase the panic of Christians in Iraq”, fears the GfbV General Secretary Tilman Zülch. "If they had the financial and logistical means most of the Assyro-Chaldaeans would flee abroad from the terror.”

A few days ago a 14-year old boy was crucified in Baghdad’s Christian suburb of Albasra, says the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). Christian girls and women are increasingly victims of abduction, rape and murder.

On 24th September two bomb attacks were made on the Old-Oriental Orthodox Maria Cathedral in the ar.Riad quarter in Baghdad and two Christians were killed. Then on 4th October a wave of terror attacks were carried out in the district of Camp Sara, which is inhabited mainly by Christians. Here nine Assyrian Christians lost their lives. The names are known to the GfbV.