Attacks on churches spur Christians to move to Kurdish north

Only God can keep Christians and Muslims safe in Iraq's volatile environment, people often say when asked how they will deal with the daily diet of car bombs, suicide bombers and fighting going on around the country. But now an estimated 350 Assyrian Christians families are ready to take matters into their own hands. After two coordinated attacks on Christian churches, one in August against five churches, four in Baghdad, one in Mosul, and another attack in October on up to seven churches, they want to move back to homes in northern Iraq out of fear of further attacks. Relations between Christians and Muslims in Iraq have been peaceful in the past, although many Christians remained on the edge of Iraqi society. But now, in what is becoming an increasingly segregated Iraq, some feel the Christians, many of whom speak English in the predominantly Arabic-speaking country, are supporting the Coalition forces. As a result, some Christians are keeping their children home this school year, worried that increasing animosity against them makes them a target. Johnny Giorgious, 33, told IRIN he would move his family of five to the northern governorate of Dahuk. He intends to rent a house in the region and talk to Kurds now working the land he says belongs to his family. In the future, an as yet unformed agricultural committee could help make a ruling on who deserves the property, Giorgious said. Some Christians were resettled from the region by former president Saddam Hussein while many others fled during the 1991 Gulf war. There are Christians living throughout Iraq, including a sizeable community in Baghdad - accurate figures are hard to find but various estimates put the number in the capital at somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000. "We asked for our rights in 1992 and the government told us it was not a suitable time," Giorgious said. "We are still asking for our rights." There's just one problem: Kurdish Muslims living on the land and in the homes the Christians once occupied in the north, don't want to leave, William Warda, leader of the Assyrian Christian political movement in Baghdad, told IRIN. Workers at the Ministry of Displacement and Migration told IRIN they were aware of the issue, but had not been able to do anything to deal with it yet. The ministry is discussing building new housing in the region that could be used either for Christians or Kurds, a ministry official, who declined to be named for security reasons, said. United Nations officials in Jordan have also been approached, Warda said. "Saddam destroyed 200 of our villages in the north and deported the inhabitants," Warda said. "We are asking the Kurdish authorities to remove these people. They are pleading that they need more time." Al Barwari, a security adviser and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK) director in Germany, who is currently living in Iraq, said Christians were talking to PDK officials about moving to land in and around Dahuk where Kurds currently live. "We are aware of the issue," Barwari said. "We are discussing it. It is a complicated issue." An estimated 60,000 Christians have fled Iraq for Syria and Jordan in recent months because of the unstable security situation, Warda said. About 1.3 million Christians registered for a 1987 census, he said, a number that has now dropped to about 70,000. However, without an offcial census accurate numbers are difficult to assess. There appears to have been a gradual reduction in the number of Christians in the country over the years as many left for economic reasons. But this has now been accelerated with the recent attacks. However, other Christians in Baghdad are defiant about the threats, saying Iraq is their home, even if they are a minority. "Our people will never leave. We have always lived together during the good and bad, so these bad operations strengthen our bonds. Jesus teaches us peace," Father Zaia Joseph, a priest at the Eastern Orthodox St. George Church in Daura, on the west side of Baghdad, told IRIN. The church's front door was blown up in early October by a grenade thrown over the wall. The church choir master agreed. "It is inhuman that they would do such a thing," Grantama Muhanna, 40, told IRIN. "Iraq has always been a very good country where everyone can live together, but this is not good." But graffiti on the wall down the street is a chilling symbol of the growing religious divide between the Christians in the neighbourhood and their Muslim neighbours in the outdoor market next door. "Infidels" will be killed during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer, the graffiti says. Muhanna makes light of the graffiti, saying no one has been killed. Police came quickly to put out the fire when the grenade went off in front of the church, she said. More worrisome to her are the Christian translators who were working with US forces who have been killed, an estimated four or five just in her neighbourhood. "No one has ever hurt me," Muhanna said. "They did this to create sectarian violence, but I don't want to leave."