Iraq, protecting the Christians

The European Parliament “Expresses its grave concerns over – and strongly condemns – the recent attacks on Christian and other religious communities in Iraq and the abuse of religion by the perpetrators of those acts”. Upon concluding the plenary session on Thursday, November 25, the EU Assembly adopted a resolution on “two distinct issues”: the death penalty in Iraq (including the case of Saddam Hussein’s former right-hand man Tarek Aziz) and the persecutions against Christians. Protecting “vulnerable” minorities. With the resolution, the European Parliament “calls on the Iraqi authorities radically to increase their efforts to protect Christian and other vulnerable minorities, to step up action against interethnic violence and to do their utmost to bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice in accordance with the principles of the rule of law and international standards”. At the same time, it “reaffirms its full support for the population of Iraq and calls on all Iraqi political entities to work together against the threat of violence and terrorism; emphasizes that the right of all religious groups to gather and worship freely must be protected; deplores the deliberate targeting of locations where civilians congregate, including places of worship”. The document, voted in a semi-deserted Hall, (to the presence of 68 MEPs out of 736), expresses solidarity to the families of the victims, and “welcomes the statement of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 2 November 2010 calling on the specialised authorities and all security forces to stand firm against any attempts to separate Iraqi citizens on a sectarian or racial basis, and to provide protection for Iraqi citizens and safeguard religious practice”. The principle of the freedom of religion. The European Parliament calls upon EU Council and Commission, in particular the vice-president of the Commission and the High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, “in view of the preparation of the first Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Iraq, to address the problem of Christians’ safety within Iraqi borders as a priority issue”. MEP Mario Mauro is the rapporteur of the partnership agreement for the European Parliament, and the Personal representative of the OSCE Chair-in-Office on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, with particular reference to discrimination against Christians: “The purpose of the Resolution – he explained – is to ensure that also in Iraq is reaffirmed the principle of the freedom of religion, which lies at the basis of all other freedoms and of each democratic system”. We want this to be “a strong sign to the new Iraqi leadership, so that it may come to grips with the situation and restore the respect for minorities in the civil life of the Country”.Human rights and democratic principles. The recent murders of Christians and the persecutions they are subjected to in Baghdad and in other cities of Iraq “show that the suffering of Iraqi Christians are the paradigm of a situation which perhaps was never so unstable” in the Country between the two rivers. “It’s an endless persecution, which caused the death of hundreds since 2003. Large numbers of Christians have had to leave the Country, thus increasing the exodus begun with the outbreak of the war; others, in a situation in which everyone is asked to take sides, have decided to convert to Islam. They were treated like scapegoats, to be exploited or eliminated, they are forbidden to freely profess their faith, women are compelled to wear the veil, and crosses are removed from the churches”. This is why this resolution “includes in its political content EU’s requests – at the level of human rights and democratic principles – which are critical to the completion of the first cooperation agreement with Iraq, of which I am the rapporteur for the European Parliament”. A hostage of the struggle for power. The content of the agreement, due to be submitted to the Foreign Affairs Parliament Commission in the forthcoming months, “cannot be reduced to merely economic aspects. We will demand the respect of the political conditions contained in the voted resolution”. Unfortunately, in contemporary Iraq Christians are the hostages of a struggle for power begun with the fall of Saddam Hussein, and are associated to the image of the West as pretexts for cruel acts of violence” against them and injustice like the confiscation of property by their aggressors. The European Union, the MEP concludes, “cannot stand powerlessly before the daily carnage perpetrated against the Christian community in Iraq”.