Press conference about the grim reality
facing Iraqi Christians

(Saskatoon- Canada) On behalf of the local community of Iraqi Catholics, and the extended global “diaspora” of Iraqis, Rev. Noel Hermiz and Helen Smith-McIntyre held a press conference to express the grim reality facing Iraqi Christians in light of the recent abduction and assassination of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho.

“Fighting terrorism cannot be countered by kidnapping a whole country, as is the case with the occupation of Iraq,” noted Rev. Hermiz, who is a Chaldean Catholic priest serving the local parish as well as other communities in western Canada.

Hermiz spoke of Archbishop Rahho as a martyr, explaining that it is likely a branch of “al-Qaeda” who carried out the assassination – he was kidnapped while leaving the cathedral February 29th, after leading the Stations of the Cross. His three companions were murdered instantly, but his body was discovered almost 2 weeks later in a shallow grave.

“There was no intention of a ransom – this was a political murder, a murder to silence a voice and send a message to the Christian community, and to those who hope for peace and diversity,” explained Hermiz, who is also fluent in French and Aramaic and writes for journals and periodicals on many of the issues facing the Iraqi people. “They wanted him to disappear.”

Speaking of the shock and loss at this unnatural death and discovery of the body, Hermiz noted that the Archbishop had many Muslim friends and leaders, and was a spokesperson for peaceful coexistence. One of Rahho’s parishioners said,”For us he was the last hope…despite threats and dangers, his standing by us gave us the courage to continue.”

Hermiz also noted that there is continual persecution of all minorities in Iraq which has escalated during the U.S. occupation, including Arabs who are neutral or working towards peaceful solutions, Kurdish citizens, clergy of any religion trying to maintain neutrality and peace, and ethnic religions who are identified as second-class citizens, or worse.

“I was asked, how does this event affect people in Saskatoon,” noted Smith-McIntyre, who works as a volunteer with organizations such as Amnesty International. “And my answer was, besides standing with our local Iraqi community with a history of more than 2500 years, we have a responsibility to our global community.”

Smith-McIntyre spoke of the continuing persecution and atrocious living conditions of the Iraqi citizens. Recent reports released by Amnesty International and International Red Cross recognize the severity of the situation; the humanitarian situation in Iraq is considered to be one of the most critical in the world.

Five years after the U.S. invasion, millions of Iraqis have insufficient access to clean water, sanitation, and health care. Hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, every month. 4.5 million people have been uprooted, 2.5 million within the country itself, and another 2 million in neighboring countries, where their living conditions are appalling, the drastic influx unsustainable.

Smith-McIntyre would like to see the Canadian government increase sponsorship – currently it has allocated further spots for Iraqi refugees, but only by taking these from other countries in the same area, thus creating no new sponsorship space – and increase humanitarian aid and long term, peaceful solutions.

Hermiz has hope that Canadian and international communities will help Iraqi Christians, and other minorities not by simply removing them from their native territories but by addressing the larger issue: one of embracing peace by finding Muslim partners, rather than combating terrorism by mass invasion and war tactics which serve only to proliferate it.

Our message to the international opinion

The abduction and the assassination of our Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, has been a new reminder that we have something else, something new to give to the public opinion, about the tragic situation in Iraq and of the continual persecution of minorities, and here we would point out what minorities we have in mind:

Minorities among the actual Iraq are those who are not in power members of the sectarian government under occupation or have a weak representation in the so called Iraqi Parliament, they are facitons of the Shiites or Sunnite who not driven by religious or political fanaticism and are not involved in political activities, based on sectarianism or religious doctrines.

Minorities are factions of the Kurds who are not members of religious or racial supramcy parties, as it is the case with others who are fermenting sectarian and religious conflicts.

Minorities are the technocrats commitmed to building the country's infrastructure. Minorities are religious leaders who are against involvement of religion in the political affairs.

Minorities are ethnic- religious communities such as Yezidis, mandean and Christian, who only wish to live in peace but are treated as members of a lesser God.

The message of our martyr St Paulos Faraj Raho, was not only to say that Christian are under persecution, but that Iraqi people are not able, to live within these conditions and to co-habitat peacefully, for as long as they are persecuted because of their religion.

Our friend and colleague Helen, gave a summary about our holy martyr.

If we are kindly asking the Canadian authorities and other countries, to help our Christian in Diaspora, in Syria Greece Turkey Lebanon and Jordan, we don't mean to empty Iraq of its Christian populaiton who are not the only persecuted minority in that country but to solve the terrorism problem by working with the international Muslim communities who will in the future suffer the same type of terrorism unless this problem is solved once and for all.

Thank you