Assyrians Better Off in a ‘Ghetto’ Than Being Slaughtered in Baghdad

The Christian Assyrians have been the ones worst affected among all the ethnic groups in Iraq despite the relatively small size of the community. The inferno in Iraq has evolved into a systematic mass murder on the Christian Assyrians. On June 8th 2007 a historical meeting was held between two of the world’s most powerful men; the President of the United States of America, George W Bush and the leader of the Vatican and the Catholic church, the Pope Benedict XVI.

Two questions discussed during their meeting were;
1) The situation of the Christian Assyrians in Iraq and,
2) The establishment of an administrative area for the Christian Assyrians in north western Iraq.

Autonomy for Assyrians in the Nineveh plains in north western Iraq All Christian forces and organisations involved, whether Assyrian or from the west, have a genuine interest in the question of local self rule and are unanimous on the solution of the Assyrians problems in Iraq; to establish an administrative area for Assyrians in north western Iraq. Assyrians do not wish for the Iraqi state to be divided. Assyrians are and will remain loyal citizens to the Iraqi government. The intended administrative area will function as a safe haven from the religious violence that ravage in today’s Iraq.

The world leaders have an excellent opportunity to be remembered as the ones who prevented the attacks against an entire nation, those who prevented the butchering of the Christians in Iraq. The world leaders can also, through helping Assyrians on-the-spot, avoid a refugee wave off approximately one million to Europe and The USA. The Vatican wants to stop the establishment of an administrative area for Christians All aid organisations agree about the urgent need for an administrative area for Assyrians if the world wants to avoid a human disaster.

It is the only reasonable solution to stop the present ethnic cleansing. This proposal has met a lot of unexpected opposition. The Vatican, with the Pope Benedict XVI, has taken a treacherous position towards the proposal to establish an Assyrian administrative area and has thereby taken a position against the Assyrian nation’s survival.

The Vatican’s ” official” reason to this treacherous position is that Assyrians do not want to move from other parts of Iraq to the expected administrative area on the Nineveh plains. The Vatican asserts that the Assyrians feel like home in the places they currently live in.

Either the Vatican has not realised the fact that the Assyrians are being oppressed, assaulted, driven out, kidnapped and murdered on a daily basis or it has deliberately chosen to ignore this fact. The last six months the Vatican has carried out a very intense lobby activity both to divide Assyrians on the question of administrative rights and to persuade the western world not to support the proposal about establishing an administrative area.

Anonymous sources from the Swedish government office has informed ESNA that the Vatican’s embassy in Stockholm has worked lately to convince Swedish government officials in order to ensure that the Swedish government will not support the Assyrian administrative area.

As a result of the intense Vatican lobby Sweden’s government has rejected the establishment of the administrative area for the Christian Assyrians in north western Iraq. The Vatican claims that it’s mostly exiled Assyrians who are using the persecution of the Assyrians in Iraq in order to advance their political agenda. The desperation and fear of the Vatican requires it to use very strong words to describe the administrative area, such as the expression that the Vatican does not want to have an “Assyrian ghetto” in Nineveh.