THOUSANDS OF Baghdad Christians have been forced to flee militant attacks after the siege at a Catholic cathedral in the city in October, the United Nations said yesterday.
The UN High Commission For Refugees said at least 1,000 families had fled Baghdad and Mosul since September 1st for the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. A further 133 families had registered with the organisation in Syria, as had 109 individuals in Jordan.
Fr Hanna, the leading Assyrian Catholic priest in Beirut, said that 450 recently arrived families had contacted with his office and plan to ask the UN for help.
The mass movement of Iraq’s Christians, the remnants of which make up one of the most ancient communities in the Middle East, was sparked by the brutal siege in a Baghdad Assyrian Catholic cathedral on October 31st, which left at least 58 people dead and about 100 injured.
Since then, Christian families have been increasingly targeted in their homes, among them survivors of the church massacre. The violence is being driven by al-Qaeda and its affiliates and is being seen as an attempt to ignite sectarian chaos after repeated attempts to lure Iraq’s Shias back into battle had failed.
“We have heard many accounts of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Some were able to take only a few belongings with them,” the UN report said.
There are thought to be about 500,000 Christians remaining in Iraq, down from one million when Saddam Hussein was ousted. They enjoyed protection under Saddam and have not been persecuted by the various Shia-led regimes that have ruled Iraq since.
However, many Christian leaders fear that Iraq’s leaders can no longer safeguard them from attacks. Many suggest that the last six weeks mark the beginning of the end of an era in Iraq that dates back almost 2,000 years.
The UN described the movement as a slow but steady exodus, but Christian leaders disputed this. “I can tell you that the numbers the UN are citing are too low,” said Abdullah al-Naftali, head of Iraq’s Christian Endowment Group. “We have recorded a 213 per cent increase in normal departures since the church massacre. It is not a slow, or steady exodus – it is a rapid one.”
The large numbers of families looking for refuge in Iraq’s Kurdish north have been drawn there by the region’s president, Massoud Barazani, who last month pledged to protect and shelter them.
Iraq’s central government has also increased security around churches and Christian enclaves.
The exodus has sparked widespread concern among Christian communities elsewhere in the Middle East, such as Lebanon and Egypt, where they enjoy freedom, but are apprehensive about declining demographic balance.
“The Christians in general in the broader Middle East are not really secured and feel a kind of uncertainty all over the Islamic world,” said Amin Gemayel, a former president of Lebanon and patriarch of the country’s largest Christian bloc.