Patriarcha Babylonensis Chaldaeorum: Appeal to Help Save the Christians in Iraq

APPEAL TO SAVE THE NINEVEH PLAIN FROM THE JIHADISTS AND TO ENSURE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION

The quickly developing tragedy of the displaced families in the North of Iraq urges everyone to act as there are no signs of a quick solution for the fate of more than 100,000 people who fled from 13 villages in the Nineveh Plain to the towns and villages further North and who have been trying to survive in parks and public places for the past seven days.  From a spiritual and humanitarian point of view, the present circumstances for these exiled people are not acceptable while the suffering increases and the international efforts to alleviate their pain are insufficient.  Currently, it is not possible to rely on the Central Government that is being formed as the process is going through troubled times.  Moreover, it will require a good amount of time for a new government to bring back order and peace in the country.  So before the harsh and heartbreaking realities further afflict these families, the Unites States of America, also due to their prior involvement in Iraq, the European Union, and the league of Arab countries have the responsibility to act rapidly for a solution.  They must clear the Nineveh plain from all the elements of Jihadist Warriors and help these displaced families return to their ancestral villages and reconstitute their lives so that they can conserve and practice their religion, culture and traditions through an active and effective International Campagin until the Central Government and the Regional Government of Kurdistan become effective.  It saddens me to think of them choosing migration as a viable option.  If the situation does not change the whole world should take responsibility of a slow genocide of a genuine and entire component of the Iraqi Society and of losing its heritage  and age-old culture.  ISIS tries to erase all traces!

This letter is sent with the full agreement of the bishops of Mosul from all churches.


+Louis Raphael Sako
Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon
President of the Assembly of the Catholic Bishops of Iraq