Swedes Have Poor Knowledge of the Situation of Iraq’s Christian

By Haore Sulaiman

AMMAN- AINA– She chooses her words very carefully when she tells about what she has seen and heard during her trip in Iraq. One single word that is misunderstood can have devastating consequences for Christian groups, Margareta Viklund, president of the Swedish Committee for Assyrians (SKA) and previous member of the Swedish parliament, explains.

“The Western World must wake up and realize the reality in which these groups of people live in. Swedes must not be naïve and let themselves be fooled by some people who travel to the region and return with an angled view of reality, she says.” Christian natives, Assyrians (Syriacs and Chaldeans), have for over a century been targets of political and religious forces in the Middle East, and they have been expelled from territories they have lived in from time immemorial.

Ethnic Christians from the whole region have systematically been killed and researchers estimate that one and a half million people have been killed. “But how much do we Swedes know about this? What do experts and the media tell about this?” Margareta Viklund asks. At the end of April, Margareta Viklund, together with other members of SKA, went to Iraq and visited many Christian villages in the Kurdish controlled areas. The fear of assaults from terrorists was always there.

Margareta Viklund says that many Christians live in very poor circumstances. The purpose of the journey was to assess the possibility to build a woman’s centre and to educate women. “In some parts there is a large need of education, and we hope to be able, with the help of charity money, to make sure that there are courses and meetings for these people,” she says. Margareta Viklund is affected by what she has seen in the Christian areas.

“It is difficult to understand that people can live in such poor conditions, as many people do.” But they do everything they can to show that they will survive oppression and poverty. “We will make it, we will get through”, they say. A strong impression that she brings back from Iraq is the spirit for the future that many show, despite threats and persecutions from the surroundings. The Assyrians want an area of their own to rule. Nineveh, an ancient Assyrian city, not far from Mosul, can be such an area.

Since the coalition invasion of Iraq, the numbers of Christian peoples have drastically decreased. Some say that more than half of the Christians of Iraq have fled to other countries. Margareta Viklund, however, met many who refused to leave Ira q. “I met a family, whose relatives all had fled to the Western World, but they refused to leave the country.” “We are needed here, as Christians, to withstand”, they said, even though they understood that life is much more simple outside of Iraq. The Christian minorities are facing threats from all directions.

“They cannot trust anyone. They do not dare to trust the Kurds either. It is true that there are Assyrians of high station in Kurdish parties, but they are used for political cause and are just the Kurds’ tool. They are bribed to run politics that, in the long run, do not favour the Assyrians.” Margareta Viklund says. The threat from the Islamists is very serious, since they have proven innumerable times that they will not doubt to kill and abduct Christians.

The Christians are associated with “the Christian USA” and are regarded as traitors. “One can say to the least that the situation for the Christians is indeed difficult. Everybody that we met either had lost a relative, or knew someone who had had a loss. Many have been imprisoned because of their religious belief,” Viklund says. She can not give any direct answers as to why she thinks that Christians are so brutally persecuted in Iraq, but says she can see similarities to what the Jews had to endure.

“The Assyrians are very competent people. That and their faith, causes enviousness for those who want power and other people’s property,” she says. Margareta Viklund sees no change for the better if the situation continues to be the way it is. “Assyrians and other Christian groups in Iraq need to receive help and support from the outside. The Western World must see their situation. They have no armies to protect them, and they are left out entirely.

The world must take an active part in this issue, or else the Christians in Iraq have no future.” SKA will write a report about the trip and tell about how matters stand, in more detail. Because of security reasons, we have chosen not to name people or places that SKA has met or visited.