Assyrian Christians Raise Alarm Over Iraq Elections, Representation

Christian Post, CA
April 12 2005

`Iraq was liberated to have freedom for everybody, not just Shi’ites,
Kurds and Sunnis.’

Despite the emergence of a fledgling democratic government and a
minority president, Assyrian Christians in Iraq have expressed
concern over the persecution and disenfranchisement of minority
groups during the past two months since the Jan. 30 elections.

Assyrian Christians make up about three percent, or 800 thousand, of
Iraq’s 26 million people. The majority of Iraqi Christians belong to
the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Iraqi branch of Roman Catholicism.
Their patriarch is known as the `Assyrian,’ according to the Middle
East Media Research Institute.

There are other smaller Churches in Iraq, including the Roman
Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Nestorian and Armenian.

For Assyrian Christians, the path to democracy and representation in
the new government has been filled with pitfalls.

The head of the Save the Assyrians campaign, Andy Darmoo spoke at a
news conference at the United Nations on Feb. 18 raising a call
attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians.

Darmoo, an Assyrian who left Iraq in 1965, urged the United Nations
and European union to increase international pressure on Baghdad to
give Assyrians more humanitarian aid and a voice in the new Iraqi
government, according to Reuters.

`Iraq was liberated to have freedom for everybody, not just Shi’ites,
Kurds and Sunnis,’ said Darmoo.

He said that Assyrian Christians were the targets of a `quiet
campaign of ethnic cleansing,’ according to Reuters.

The Assyrian International News Agency reported that pleas for help
regarding vote fraud, threats, and killings targeting Assyrian
Christians had been whitewashed by the Iraqi Independent Electoral
High Commission’s report on voting irregularities and lockouts in
North Iraq.

In addition, another report said that the Al-Rafidayn Democratic
Coalition, the main party representing ChaldoAssyrians blasted a
February report by the IEHC. They said the report failed to explain a
decision by the Niniveh governorate to open only 93 of 330 voting
centers on Election day, according to AINA

In terms of parliamentary representation, the agency also reported
that four of six Assyrians elected to the National Assembly are under
the `explicit direction’ of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which
carried out the `terror campaign’ that was `whitewashed’ by the IEHC,
according to AINA.

Talabani belongs to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which had been
at odds with the KPD in the past.

At the Feb. 18 U.N. news conference, Darmoo said that Talabani had
assured minority groups such as the Assyrian Christians that they
would have a role in drafting the constitution.