Anti-Christian operations disclose tenuous security, say displaced civilians

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Christians displaced from Mosul said insurgent operations targeting them only indicted how frail the government and security agencies have become, accusing unnamed organizations of stirring sectarian sedition in the city. The claims were expressed as violence is escalating by unidentified armed groups against Christians in Ninewa province recently, which prompted hundreds of Christian families to relocate to other places. Toma Lewis, a 38-year-old Christian inhabitant of Mosul, had to flee his city and reside in a small house with a relative in Qara Qosh district in al-Hamdaniya, for fears over the lives of his family members. “Some Christians were murdered in broad daylight. This just showed us that the local government and security agencies, topped by the operations command, do nothing but parroting on promises and pledges,” Lewis told IraqiNews.com. He said his area was void of any security presence and even if they are present they do nothing to stop the assaults. “I have left Mosul on Monday morning after I heard of the killing of several Christians. I have received several phone calls from relatives that some gunmen are targeting Christians and that some of their neighbors were shot down by gunmen without any apparent reasons,” he said. All Christians, he added, have left Mosul to other districts like the predominantly-Christian al-Hamdaniya (Qara Qosh), 40 km east of Mosul, in addition to the districts of Talkeef, Buesheiqa and al-Qosh. He pointed out that some Christians who have no places to go in those areas had to spend some time in other people’s homes. “All the rooms of the Mar Matta Monastery are already occupied by displaced Christians from Mosul, while those who remained in the city are closing their doors and never venture out for fears for their lives,” said Lewis. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday had sent six ministers and the official spokesman for the government to the province of Ninewa, 405 km north of Baghdad, to get abreast of the Christians’ problems in the city. The Iraqi minister for emigrants’ affairs was instructed to provide assistance for the families displaced from the province and make matters easy for them to return to their original homes. Iraqi Minister of Defense Abdelqader al-Ubaidy earlier said that reasons for the displacement of 1894 Christian families from Mosul have been detected. Abu Fadi, another displaced Mosul Christian, said the city will be soon empty of Christians, like it has become empty of ethnic Yazidis before, due to these acts. “There is amity, however, between us and Muslims in Mosul, but there are some unknown parties that try to stir schism between Muslims and Christians,” he told IraqiNews.com. Yahya Abad Mahjoub, a member of Ninewa provincial council from the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), denounced operations targeting Christians in the city. “Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, Arabs, Kurds and Turcomans have always been a model of peaceful coexistence and mutual endearment and cooperation,” Mahjoub, who is also the chief of the council’s relations & information committee, added. He noted that the organizations behind operations targeting Christians are the same ones that “target Muslims, Yazidis as well as Sunnis, Shiites and any other ethnicities or groups”. “There are, however, well known parties supported by neighboring countries to target Christians in Ninewa,” Mahjoud said, not revealing those parties or neighboring countries. AmR (I) 2