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Irak: Het bloedvergieten van het Aramese volk en bombarderen van de kerken gaat onverminderd door.
Twee moorden in Mosul en bomaanslag in Baghdeda (Qaraqosh)
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Syrisch Orthodoxe Mor Gorgis kerk in Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), doel van aanslag op 13-11-2008 |
Het Aramese bloed blijft vloeien in Irak. En het bombarderen van hun heilige gebouwen met het doel hen te intimideren en weg te jagen uit hun inheemse land, Aram-Nahrin, blijft zich maar met de regelmaat van de klok voordoen.
Op 12-11-2008 werden in Mosul twee Aramese zussen vermoord. De zussen behoorden tot de West- Aramese Syrisch- Katholieke familie in Mosul. Een groep gewapende terroristen drongen een huis binnen in het Alkahira wijk en schoten de twee zussen Lamia en Walaa Sobhy Salloha in koele bloed neer. Na het doodschieten van de beide zussen plaatsten de terroristen een bom in hun huis. Toen de politie arriveerde, werd de bom in het huis tot ontploffing gebracht waardoor twee politiemannen werden vermoord en paar verwoond.
Eind september begon een massa exodus van de Aramese Christenen uit Mosul naar aanleiding van moorden, bedreigingen en intimidatie. Meer dan 10.000 Arameeërs vluchtten uit Mosul, ongeveer 1500 families. De laatste tijd begonnen 700 Aramese gezinnen weer terug te keren naar Mosul, naar aanleiding van veiligheidsgaranties door de centrale en plaatselijke overheid.
Met het vermoorden van de twee zussen lijken de terroristen een signaal af te geven aan de Aramese Christenen dat ze niet welkom zijn in Mosul, ondanks de belofte veiligheidsgaranties.
Bomaanslag op de West- Aramese Syrisch Orthodox Mor Gorgis Kerk in Qaragosh (Baghdeda)
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Op 13-11-2008 werd een bomaanslag gepleegd op de West- Aramese Syrisch Orthodoxe Mor Gorgis kerk van Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), in de Nineve vlakte. Bij de aanslag raakten twaalf mensen gewoond waarvan vijf militairen van het Irakese legere. De terroristen lijken de Arameeër signalen af t geven dat ze nergens veilig zijn in Irak. De Arameeër moeten zich koest houden en zeker niet beginnen over hun rechten te praten, ondanks dat zij de originele bewoners zijn van dit deel van de wereld. Dat is de boodschap van de terroristen die ze willen afgeven.
Het Aramese volk, inclusief "Assyriërs" en Chaldeeërs, in Irak is mikpunt geworden voor de fanatieke Islamitische terroristen, politieke groeperingen, ordinaire criminelen en dieven die een munt willen slaan uit de chaotische situatie in Irak. Door de onveiligheid, terreur, moordaanslagen en uitbuiting heeft een belangrijke deel van ons volk Irak verlaten en is gevlucht naar landen als Syrië en Jordanië. De lijst van de vermoorde Arameeërs is lang, zowel geestelijken als leken in begrepen. Deze lijst omvat onder andere:
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1. West- Aramese Syrisch Orthodoxe priester Paulus Iskandar van St. Afrem Kerk in Mosul werd vermoord op 12-10-2006 |
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2. De West- Arameeër Isho Majeed Hadaya werd vermoord op 22-11-2006 in Baghdeda (Qaraqosh). |
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3. De Oost- Aramese Priester Ragied Aziz Gannie werd op 3-6-2007 vermoord samen met drie diakenen in Mosul. |
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4. De Oost-Aramese Chaldese bisschop van Mosul, Mgr. Paulus Faraj Raho werd ontvoerd op 29-2-2008 en zijn lichaam werd gevonden op 13-3-2008 werd hij gevonden in een graf in Mosul. |
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5. Op 5-4-2008 werd de West- Aramese Syrisch Orthodoxe priester Yusuf Adel Abudi vermoord in Baghdad. |
Zie ook onze analyse:
Poging
tot etnische zuivering van Mosul: De Aramese Srebrenica.
Wie heeft het gedaan en wat is de reden daarachter?
Gunmen Kill 2 Christian Sisters in Iraq
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-12-voa12.cfm
Cairo
12 November 2008
Iraqi police say gunmen they identify as Islamic extremists shot and killed two Christian sisters while storming their house and rigging it with explosives in the war-torn northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The mother of the two women was also wounded, as Edward Yeranian reports for VOA from Cairo.
Christian families in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are the focus of violence targeting their once-prominent community.
The extremists shot and killed the two Christian sisters, and police say they then wired the home with explosives. The explosives detonated later when a squad of Iraqi police was sent to investigate the crime. Several of the policemen were wounded by the blasts.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees says more than 12,000 Iraqi Christians have fled Mosul after numerous kidnappings and killings, and threats made against them.
U.S. military forces and their Iraqi counterparts are waging an intensive campaign against al-Qaida and other Islamic militants in a battle to restore normalcy to the beleaguered city.
An operation called "Mother of Two Springs," an allusion to the Arabic name for Mosul, began last spring and picked up intensity in mid-October.
Mosul lies between northern Iraq's Kurdish region and the Sunni Arab heartland, and there is communal friction as well as violence from Islamic extremists aimed at U.S. and Iraqi forces.
One U.S. officer told Reuters news agency that the violence in Mosul resembled what was going on in Baghdad 18 months ago, before security was improved in the capital city.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly pledged to help protect the tiny, beleaguered Christian community in Mosul, but large numbers continue to flee to Kurdistan and elsewhere as Monsignor Paul Dahdah, the Apostolic Vicar in Beirut reveals. He says that he saw a family from Mosul that had fled the city for Lebanon in order to seek refuge, either in Beirut or to get a visa for a third country. The mother made it to Lebanon, via Syria, with her two children, he adds, but her husband was kidnapped and no one knows what happened to him.
The plight of Iraqi Christians has prompted the Vatican and other Christian organizations to lobby several Western governments for political and military action to protect the small remaining group of Chaldean Christians, Armenians, and Catholics.
But Monsignor Dahdah thinks more must be done. He says church leaders must insist that much more be done in terms of security in order to stop the exodus that has befallen the Christian community in Iraq, reducing their numbers to less than half their pre-2003 levels.
Dahdah blames the United States for the bad security situation in northern Iraq and thinks it is the United States' responsibility to restore order to Mosul.
New anti-Christian attack in Mosul, two sisters killed
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13732&geo=23&size=A
12-11-2008
Eyewitnesses say the gang that carried out the attack was made up of men ranging in age from 16 to 18. Attackers killed the young women in cold blood then placed a bomb at the entrance of their house, killing two policemen when it went off. Sources tell AsiaNews that the violence is tied to an ongoing “power struggle” ahead of upcoming provincial council elections.
Mosul (AsiaNews) – Mosul Christians have been attacked again today. A group of armed men stormed a house in the Alqahira neighbourhood where they killed two sisters in what amounts to targeting killing. After entering the building the gunmen shot the two young women in cold blood and wounded their mother with a knife. At present she is in hospital but her conditions are not serious. The husband and the son were able to escape at the start of the attack.
The victims are Lamia Sobhy Salloha and Walàa Sobhy Salloha, both from the Syro-Catholic Church of Mosul. The two young women were employed by the Office of the Treasurer of the Municipality of Wala.
According to eyewitnesses the attack was carried out by a gang of 16-to18-year olds who after attacking the residents of the house placed a bomb at the entrance and detonated it when a group of police agents came to the scene, killing two and wounding others.
A source told AsiaNews that “youth gangs from poor families” were involved in the incident but that behind them there is “a criminal organisation” that is doing everything to drive Christians out of the city.
“It is over power and the next election to provincial councils and minority representation, which might be decisive for the balance between Arabs and Kurds,” said the source.
Urged by the United Nations, the government had promised to put art. 50 back into a draft law to guarantee minorities 15 seats out of 440 (13 for Christians). But on 3 November parliament passed the bill without doing so, which later received the necessary sanction by the Presidency Council to become law with only one seat set aside for Mosul Christians. The parliament’s decision has embittered the leaders of the Iraqi Church who slammed the blatant violation of the constitution which should ensure equal rights for all citizens.
“We don’t trust anyone. Both Arabs and Kurds promised to help us but so far we have not seen anything concrete,’ the source told AsiaNews. Today’s attack was “another warning by those who want to force Christians into the Niniwa Plains.”
In recent days more than 700 families had decided to come back to Mosul after local authorities promised to provide them with greater protection. This targeted killing “will push Christians to flee again” and threats of new attacks and violence will continue to hang over the few who remain.
“It is all a political game but it is Christians who are the losers,” said the source.
Today’s attack is but the last in a series of acts of violence against Mosul’s Christian community which has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists and armed gangs alike.
Since the start of October, 16 people have died and 2,000 families (about 12,000 people) have left the city.
Matters had begun to get better in recent days, hence the decision of 700 families to come back; however, today’s attack will cast an even greater shadow on the fate of Iraq’s Christian community. (DS)
