Sir,


London – savetheassyrians ++ As US forces have withdrawn from Iraq’s main cities and towns in recent days, there has been a disturbing spate of bomb attacks aimed at innocent civilians. Most of these attacks have been rightly both condemned and reported upon widely.

However there is one major outrage, that claimed eight lives and severely injured three children has gone largely un-reported. On 29th June a large car bomb exploded outside Al- Hamdania Hospital , in the town of Baghdeda in the Nineveh Plains area of Northern Iraq . This is a largely Christian Assyrian town and the victims were all Christians. The attack was passed over by the World media, including Middle Eastern television stations such as Al Jazeera. Because to ask the question who bombed Baghdeda is to undermine the image of Iraq as a Country merely of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Sadly, representing a more general pattern of deliberately ignoring the plight of the Assyrian Christian minority, the original inhabitants of Iraq. The Assyrians have suffered disproportionately as a result of the conflict, and continue to do so. Most of the attacks against them go un-reported, as has the desecration of many of their ancient Monasteries. The fact that so many have fled the country, and that those remain are in relatively under-populated areas such as the Ninevah Plains, may contribute to a general ignorance about their continuing plight.

The Assyrians remain historically a peaceful people. They wish to live in harmony with their Arab and Kurdish neighbors in a new Iraq that offers them both protection and fundamental human rights.

They deserve our support in these difficult times.



Yours sincerely,

Glyn Ford Member MEP (Lab)
Charles Tannock MEP (Con)

Office of Glyn Ford MEP
European Parliament
03.07.2009