Iraqi Christian Statement

On 19th April 2008, more than 5000 Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians from many European  countries organized a march and a meeting in Brussels. The aim of the meeting was to draw the attention of the USA, the European Union and the UN to the ongoing terror, violence and especially the killings of the clerics of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Following the collapse of Saddams dictatorship regime, a systematic operation of ethnic cleansing against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians has begun. As a result of the persecution and acts of terror, between 2004 and 2008, one half of the population of the Chaldean-Syriac- Assyrians was forced to flee outside Iraq. The attacks are mainly targeting the churches, the clerics, the businesses and the young girls of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people. The aim of these attacks carried out against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians is to drive out from Iraq those who belong to the Christian faith and create a purely Islamic state of Iraq.

Accordingly, the acts of terror committed against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians are
becoming more and more brutal. The terrorist groups, in order to accelerate the campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians, have targeted their churches and their church representatives. As a result of these attacks, more than 40 churches have been attacked with explosive charges and many church leaders have been killed. Some of the murdered church leaders are: Archbishop Boulus Faraj Rahho, Priests Rev. Father Paulus Skander and Rev. Father Ragheed Ganni murdered in Mosul and Rev. Father Youssef Adel Aboudi murdered in Baghdad. Moreover, hundreds of innocent Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians civilians have been killed during the last four years.

With these atrocities carried out against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians a new wave of ethnic cleansing is going on in Iraq. If these atrocities continue the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians and the Christianity will be soon wiped out from Iraq altogether. And this will become a new tragedy for humanity. For the continuity of their existence and living in their homeland, the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians who are the indigenous representatives of the Mesopotamian Culture, also known as the Cradle of Civilization urgently need a protection by the International community. Accordingly, the below mentioned organizations of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians are kindly requesting from the USA, the EU and the UN to meet their following demands:

1- The recognition of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians as indigenous people of Iraq underthe Iraqi Constitution
2- The acceptance of an Autonomous Safe Zone in North Iraq in the areas where the
Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians have a majority of the population
3- An official recognition of the Autonomous Status of this region to be requested from both the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
4- The security of the Autonomous region to be left to the responsibility of the UN and the international powers.
5- An international plan to be made for the re-settlement of the Chaldean-Syriac-
Assyrians in the Autonomous region

The European Syriac Union (ESU)
The Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Germany
The Syriac Federation of Germany
The Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO)
Platform Aram (The Netherlands)
Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Institute (France)
The Chaldean Association Ishtar
(Belgium)
The Syriac Council of Switzerland