No votes in Nineveh

Iraqi Assyrians are victims of Kurdish ethnic cleansing

Our people, the Assyrians, the original inhabitants of Iraq – whose empire preceded Babylon, many of whom still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ – have been robbed. Along with other minorities in the north of our country, the Turkmen, the Yezidis and the Shabak, we were promised democracy. But the ballot boxes never arrived. The recent elections simply passed us by, our complaints ignored, our rights trampled, by people who should know better, because we shared their experience of repression under Saddam Hussein. As a result, no Assyrian representatives will be taking their place in the new Iraqi parliament.

Since the fall of Saddam, systematic low-level ethnic cleansing has driven thousands of Assyrian Christians from their homes. Our churches have been firebombed and our women forced to wear the hijab. In northern Iraq much of this intimidation has come from the Kurdish militias. It reached a climax on election day, when ballot boxes were prevented from reaching between 200,000 and 400,000 people. On the Nineveh Plains, the last area in Iraq where our people live in sizeable numbers, six Assyrian towns, Baghdeda, Bartilla, Karemlesh, Shekhan, Ain Sifne and Bahzan were prevented from going to the polls. The western media have made much of people in the Sunni heartlands being intimidated into not voting, or refusing to vote. It does not report that the Assyrian people and other minorities wanted to vote, but were stopped from doing so.

Reluctantly, many of our people believe that Kurdish political leaders want to exclude minorities such as the Assyrians and the Turkmen. The treatment of the Turkmen has so enraged Turkey that the leader of the opposition, Bulent Ecevit, has called for action to protect them. But no one is speaking up for us. No one has reported that tens of thousands took to the streets to protest at the great vote robbery.

We want to live in peace with our Arab and Kurdish neighbours, in a democratic, secular Iraq, free to practise our ancient religion and traditions. We want an Iraq free of outside forces and an end to civil conflict. But the election was rigged, and the Assyrians and other minorities demand that it is re-run in the contested areas. During the 1990s, Britain helped create a safe haven for the Kurds, some of whom have clearly forgotten what it is like to be a repressed minority.

To Tony Blair – and to his special envoy to Iraq, Ann Clwyd, who has a great deal of influence over the Kurdish leaders, we say: honour your promises. In the early part of the last century, British politicians made many promises to the Assyrian people that were never kept. This time we hope it will be different.

Before our ancient community is driven from Iraq for ever, Britain and her friends in the international community must act.

? Dr Odisho Malko is president of the Assyrian National Assembly in Iraq.