Rights for Iraq's Chaldean, Apostolic, and Syriac Assyrians Are Critical to Solving the Iraqi Refugee Crisis
On April 10, 2008, Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-23rd District, FL), Chairman of the Commission on Security in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-10th District, MA) urged Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to use some of the Iraqi budget surplus from oil revenues to address the growing Iraqi refugee crises. On the same day, Chairman Hastings, with fellow Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), also sponsored important hearings on the plight of Iraqi refugees.
In addition, Congressman Delahunt has joined with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-3rd District, CT) to cosponsor a letter to Prime Minister al-Maliki regarding this matter. This letter has been co-signed by Chairman Hastings as well as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-16th District, CA), Joe Pitts (R-16th District, PA), Frank Wolff (R-10th District, VA), Chris Shays (R-4th District, CT), and Bob Inglis (R-4th District, SC).
I applaud this bipartisan effort to bring help to Iraqi refugees, but I write to bring particular attention to an underappreciated aspect of the Iraqi refugee crises that must not be ignored. A strikingly disproportionate share of Iraq’s refugees are the indigenous ethnic Assyrians. Christians since the first century A.D., modern Assyrians practice their faith under a variety of denominations, in particular the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Apostolic Church of the East, and the Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Churches.
Given the disproportionate number of Assyrian refugees, however, Iraq’s refugee crises cannot be solved without directly addressing the unique plight of the Assyrian people in Iraq. Financial assistance alone is simply insufficient. The only long-term solution to the Assyrian refugee crisis is securing the legal and human rights of Assyrians in their indigenous homeland.
The best solution to secure a safe and permanent presence for all the Chaldean, Apostolic, and Syriac Assyrians in the fabric of a free, stable, and peaceful Iraq is the development of an administrative unit under the central Iraqi government in the Nineveh Plains, the heart of the ancestral Assyrian lands. Permitted by Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution, an administrative unit would allow Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains to develop security forces and engage in limited self-rule. The creation of an administrative unit is a necessary first-step to bring the hundreds of thousands of Assyrian refugees back home.
The history of Assyrians in what is today modern Iraq dates back millennia to days of ancient Mesopotamia. This rich history is in serious jeopardy of coming to an end as the Assyrians in Iraq are suffering a concerted effort of ethnic cleansing. Since Sadaam’s fall, Christian Assyrians receive anonymous notes warning them to pay the jizya (the Islamic tax for non-Muslims), convert to Islam, flee from their homes, or be killed. Dozens of Assyrian churches have been bombed, and hundreds have been killed. In fact, Fr. Faiz Abdel of the Syriac Orthodox Church was the latest casualty of this insidious persecution, joining the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of the Chaldean Catholic Church only weeks before.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Assyrians of all faiths have fled as refugees. Although ethnic strife has affected all of Iraq’s citizens, the persecution of Iraq’s Assyrians is truly sui generis. Assyrian Christians represented only 3% of Iraqis before the war, but they represent as many as 40% of Iraq’s over 2 million externally displaced refugees. Such disporportionate effects on the Chaldean, Apostolic, and Syriac Assyrian population can only be the result of a concerted campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Providing financial assistance to all of Iraq’s refugees is laudable, but more importantly, I urge you to convey to Prime Minister al-Maliki that creating an administrative unit in the Nineveh Plains is essential to a future for Iraq’s indigenous Assyrian Christians.
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