PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE FOCUSES ON URGENT PLIGHT OF IRAQI CHRISTIANS

He said, “The ChaldoAssyrian Christian community is highly vulnerable and under siege. I posit that there is no danger of the Kurds or Arabs vanishing from Iraq, or of their communities being reduced to a tiny remnant, but there is – this is not alarmist – a real and genuine possibility that that could happen to the ChaldoAssyrian community unless the security situation vastly improves.”

Stephen Pound MP worked closely with the human rights organisation, the Jubilee Campaign, and with supporters of Iraq’s leading Christian Political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, in securing the debate and preparing for it.

Mr. Pound also urged the British government and its U.S ally to financially support the redevelopment and reconstruction of ChaldoAssyrian villages and infrastructure, the return and resettlement of ChaldoAssyrian refugees and to support the Christians of Iraq in enhancing their security and protection.

Russell Brown MP and Dr. Robert Spink MP were among several MPs who backed Stephen Pound’s call for much more support by the British government for Iraq’s besieged Christians. Dr. Spink called on the British government to push hard for the return of ChaldoAssyrian land and villages in northern Iraq that had been illegally expropriated by neighbouring Kurds and Arabs. He pointed out that if the rights of Iraq’s ChaldoAssyrians were not respected and their security needs ignored, Iraq would be deprived of a major force for religious moderation, and a significant bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism. That would gravely threaten its chances of ever becoming a leading example of pluralism, freedom and democracy for the middle east.

Chris Mullin MP, a Minister at the Foreign Office who responded on behalf of the British government, did not agree with the MPs’ calls for an autonomous administrative region for the ChaldoAssyrians and claimed that Article 53(D) of Iraq’s Transitional Administrative Law did not imply the right to an autonomous administrative region for one particular group. He also failed to adequately deal with the issue of the ChaldoAssyrian land and villages illegally expropriated by Kurds and Arabs and did not address the calls by MPs for the British government and its U.S ally to give financial support for the redevelopment and reconstruction of ChaldoAssyrian villages and infrastructure, the return and resettlement of ChaldoAssyrian refugees and for the enhancing of the security and protection of the ChaldoAssyrians.

Article 53(D) of Iraq’s Transitional Administrative Law states: “This Law shall guarantee the administrative, cultural and political rights of the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians, and all other citizens.”

John Michael, the head of the UK branch of the Assyrian Democratic Movement says, “Unfortunately, the official response by the Minister from the Foreign Office was highly unsatisfactory. The British government, the main ally of the United States of America in the war to liberate Iraq, has a moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure that peace, stability and democracy prevails in Iraq. It is totally unacceptable to ignore the fundamental rights of any ethnicity in Iraq, specifically the rights of the vulnerable, persecuted and oppressed ChaldoAssyrian people. It is becoming increasingly more apparent that Iraq is moving towards a Federal system of government and it is imperative that all ethnicities in Iraq be treated equally and granted the same rights. Article 53(D) of the Transitional Administrative Law guarantees the “Administrative rights” of the ChaldoAssyrians, we therefore urge the British, American and Iraqi governments to pledge their full support towards the creation of an administrative region for the ChaldoAssyrian people in their historical heartland in the Nineveh Plains and Dohuk province. We will continue to lobby the British government to ensure that the ChaldoAssyrian people of Iraq are supported to the fullest extent.”

With assistance from the Assyrian Democratic Movement and the Jubilee Campaign, Mr. Pound drafted a Parliamentary motion urging the same kind of support from the British Government for Iraq’s Christians as he had called for in the debate. Early Day Motion Number 342, tabled by Stephen Pound MP, is entitled “Christian Community in Iraq”, and was tabled on December 7th.

Jubilee Campaign’s Researcher and Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, “The British government is still failing to take the desperate plight of the Iraqi Christian Community sufficiently seriously. All those who wish to support the ChaldoAssyrians can write to their local MP, asking their MP to raise concerns with the British Foreign Secretary about Iraq’s Christians. They should also urge their MP to sign Early Day Motion Number 342 if they haven’t already done so.”

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Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational Christian human rights organisation which has worked with over 100 British Parliamentarians on human rights issues worldwide.