11.03.2008 - Source: US Department of State

Kidnapping of Christians in Baghadad and Mosul in 2007 ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2007") [ID 23804]

"There were also kidnappings, with ransoms paid, of religious figures. For example, on June 6, Chaldean priest Father Hani Abdel Ahad and five other Christians were kidnapped in Baghdad and released after ransom was paid. On October 13, two Syriac Orthodox priests, Father Pios Affas and Father Mazin Isho'a, were abducted in Mosul on their way to church. Following negotiations, they were released two days later."

Document(s): Open document

11.03.2008 - Source: US Department of State

Christians targeted by Sunni terrorists; increase of threats after controversial Pope comments on Islam ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2007") [ID 23808]

"Members of the Christian community indicated that they were targeted throughout the year, particularly by Sunni-affiliated terrorists. Threats spiked against Christian institutions, clergy, and individuals, after September 2006 comments by Pope Benedict XVI perceived as anti-Islamic; threats reportedly decreased after the Pope expressed his deep regrets that Muslims had been offended."

Document(s): Open document

07.08.2007 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Mosul: Thousands of Christians have fled abroad or to countryside around city to escape attacks of militants; their churches have been bombed, their clergy murdered, and community members regularly face threats and kidnappings ("Mosul Christian Community Dwindles") [ID 21575]

Document(s): Open document

08.2007 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Current situation for Chrisitans in Iraq ("UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-seekers") [ID 23070]

"The security environment and political climate has steadily worsened for religious minorities in Iraq since the 2003 toppling of the former regime. There have been a number of targeted attacks on Christian places of worship, religious figures as well as individuals. After attacks on several Christian churches in 2004, several additional incidents were again reported in 2006. According to UNAMI HRO, attacks against Christians in Iraq have intensified since September 2006 and are still on the rise.

Christian clergy have reported that priests in Iraq no longer dare to wear their clerical robes in public for fear of being attacked. The Babel College, the only Christian theological university in the country, and the Chaldean St. Peter seminary were transferred from Baghdad to Ainkawa in Erbil Governorate in early 2007 after senior staff had been kidnapped.

Acts of violence against many members of the Christian community include, inter alia, harassment and intimidation, killings (often with extreme violence), kidnappings, armed robbery, forced closure, destruction or confiscation of property, forced conversion to Islam and rape and forced marriage of Christian women. The Director of the Iraqi Museum, Donny George, a respected Assyrian, says that he was forced to flee Iraq to Syria in fear for his life and that Islamic fundamentalists obstructed all of his work that was not focused on Islamic artifacts. The predominantly Christian area of Camp Sara in central Baghdad has repeatedly come under attack, including by mortar fire and car bombs, causing a number of casualties.

The situation further worsened with the onset of controversy regarding cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and the speech made by Pope Benedict XVI on 12 September 2006 that included the quotation of a 14th Century Byzantine emperor that outraged segments of the Muslim community worldwide and triggered protests and even attacks on churches in several Muslim countries. In February 2006, Iraqi Christian students at Mosul University were attacked by other students who described the Christian students as atheists and US traitors. The attacks may have been motivated by fatwas and militia statements calling on Iraqis to expel Christians and atheists from schools, institutions and the streets of Iraq because they offended the Prophet. Following these attacks, one Christian female student at Mosul University was reportedly killed while awaiting transportation. Christian students< in Mosul face a climate of extreme insecurity, and UNHCR has received reports that Christian students have sharply curtailed their class attendance and strictly avoid moving alone. IRIN reported that Christian parents have stopped their children from attending schools and universities, after many fellow students made verbal threats against them.

In Mosul, Father Boulos Iskander Behnam, a priest from the Syriac Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary, was kidnapped and beheaded by men seeking retribution for Pope Benedict’s comments about Islam. His death intensified fear within the Christian community, who are calling for international assistance to help them leave the country. In September 2006, the new Al-Qa’eda chief in Iraq and successor of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Abu Hamza Al-Muhajer, called for the kidnapping of “Christian dogs” who could be exchanged for Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric imprisoned since 1995 for conspiring to blow up landmarks in New York."

Document(s): Open document

08.2007 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Christians in “Disputed Areas” and in the Three Northern Governorates ("UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-seekers") [ID 23116]

"In the three Northern Governorates of Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Dahuk, the rights of Christians are generally respected and a significant number of them have sought refuge in the region, in particular in the Governorate of Dahuk (from where many originate) and the Christian town of Ainkawa, near the city of Erbil. Some reports suggest that Christian villages are being discriminated against by the Kurdish authorities, which do not share reconstruction funds and oil revenues and have confiscated farms and villages."

Document(s): Open document

04.2005 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

General information on freedom of religion; situation of Christians, Jews, Mandeans, Yezides and Jehova's Witnesses ("Hintergrundinformation zur Gefährdung von Angehörigen religiöser Minderheiten im Irak") [#31560],  [ID 10267]

Document(s): Open document

28.01.2005 - Source: International Crisis Group

Report focused on escalating crisis in Kirkuk ("Iraq: Allaying Turkey's fears over Kurdish ambitions") [#28629],  [ID 10506]

Information regarding the situation of Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans and Chaldo-Assyrians in Kirkuk

Document(s): Open document

18.01.2005 - Source: BBC News

Mosul: Syrian Catholic Archbishop kidnapped outside his church; Ramadi: 2 US marines killed in attack on American military convoy ("Iraqi bishop kidnap sparks anger") [#28321],  [ID 10268]

Document(s): Open document

10.12.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Mosul: Chaldean and Armenian Orthodox churches bombed, individual attacks and kidnappings ("original document") [ID 10269]

"IRAQI CHURCHES BOMBED. Two churches were bombed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on 7 December, Al-Arabiyah television reported the same day. The bombings were carried out simultaneously. According to Al-Arabiyah, militants forced the guards of the Chaldean bishopric church and the Armenian Orthodox church to leave the buildings before detonating explosive charges inside the churches. The Chaldean church sustained severe damage, having caught fire following the bombing. Al-Arabiyah reported that 60 percent of the church was destroyed in the bombing. Reuters reported on 7 December that the attackers were not identified.

Militants have regularly targeted Christian churches in recent months. Two booby-trapped cars detonated in front of two churches in the Iraqi capital on 8 November; a bomb exploded outside a Mosul church on 1 August, killing one person (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2004); and five churches were bombed in Baghdad on 16 October (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 22 October 2004). The Christian community in Mosul has said that its members, particularly women, have been targeted in individual attacks and kidnappings in the city. (Kathleen Ridolfo)"

Document(s): original document

22.11.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

Attacks on churches spur Christians to move to Kurdish north ("original document") [ID 10270]

"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.""

Document(s): original document

05.11.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iraqi Christian leaders meet with Shi'a / Shiit leaders ("original document") [ID 10510]

"NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER, CHRISTIAN DELEGATION MEET WITH SHI'A LEADER. Recently reinstated National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i led a delegation of Iraqi Christian leaders in a meeting with Ayatollah Husayn Isma'il al-Sadr in Baghdad on 3 November, Elaph.com reported. The meeting focused on recent attempts by militant groups to drive Christians from Iraq through terrorism and intimidation. Al-Rubay'i outlined a number of initiatives taken by the interim government in cooperation with the Christian community to prevent the departure of Christians from Iraq, Elaph.com reported. Iraqi leaders estimate that as many as 40,000 Christians may have fled Iraq in recent months, seeking asylum in Syria and Jordan. The UN says that figure is too high, but concedes it is difficult to know exactly how many have left, according to aina.org. A delegation of Christian leaders met with Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Al-Najaf last week. Al-Sistani voiced his support for Christians in Iraq in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks targeting the Christian community. (Kathleen Ridolfo)"

Document(s): original document

22.10.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Baghdad: Five churches bombed ("original document") [ID 10271]

"FIVE CHURCHES BOMBED IN BAGHDAD. Five churches were bombed in Baghdad in the early morning hours of 16 October, international media reported. The bombs were all detonated within a half hour of each other, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abd al-Rahman. No one was injured in the attacks, which caused exterior damage to the buildings and blew out windows, AP reported. The denominations attacked were the Chaldean Church, the Latin-rite Church of Rome, two Orthodox churches, and a Syrian Orthodox Church, catholicnews.com reported.

Four car bombs detonated within a 30-minute period outside churches in Baghdad on 1 August, killing at least 10 people, and wounding dozens (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2004). Minister of Displacement and Migration Pascale Warda estimates that as many as 15,000 Iraqi Christians may have fled Iraq for Syria and Jordan since the August bombings, AP reported on 17 October. Some 88 Iraqi Christians have been killed since the fall of the Hussein regime, many of them in the past nine months, catholicnews.com reported. One of the killed was reportedly a 14-year-old Chaldean Catholic girl. The website contends that she was kidnapped by an Islamic group for ransom and killed "in cold blood," on 14 October.

Sunni and Shi'a leaders, including Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned the 16 October attacks, according to Iraqi media reports. (Kathleen Ridolfo)"

Document(s): original document

07.10.2004 - Source: International Christian Concern

Christians fleeing due to threats, kidnappings, bombings and murder ("original document") [ID 10512]

"Written threats, kidnappings, bombings and murder by Muslim extremists are driving thousands of Iraq´s minority Christian population out of their ancestral homeland, fleeing for safety to neighboring Jordan and Syria."

Document(s): original document

01.10.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Iraqi religious leaders: Christian leaders ("original document") [ID 10513]

"Emmanuel Deli -- Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, elected in Baghdad in 2003.

Louis Sako -- Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk; Served as a parish priest in Mosul until appointed archbishop of Kirkuk in late 2003. He is the only religious figure elected to serve on the Mosul provincial council in 2003. Sako supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Born in 1948 in Zahko, the archbishop reportedly speaks eight languages.

Shlemon Warduni -- Chaldean Auxillary Bishop of Baghdad. Born in 1943, he became a priest in 1968. In 2001, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Babylonia for the Chaldean Church, and titular bishop of Anbar dei Caldei.

Rabban Al-Qas -- Chaldean bishop in Amadiyah. Born in 1949, he has served as a priest in Amadiyah since 1973. Reportedly of Kurdish heritage. He was ordained Bishop of Amadiyah in 2002. Al-Qas has been called the "Bishop of Kurdistan" by Sunni Kurds living there, who respect his leadership.

Archbishop Gewargis Sliwa -- An Assyrian who heads the Church of the East in Iraq in Baghdad. Sliwa was born in Habbaniyah and graduated from Baghdad Universtiy in 1964. He was ordained as a priest in Chicago in 1977, and in 1981 was ordained as archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Iraq."

Document(s): original document

06.08.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN IRAQ ("original document") [ID 10272]

"CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN IRAQ. The 1 August bombings of five churches in Iraq were the first of such attacks on the Christian community in Iraq since the start of the 15-month insurgency (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2004). Militants have mainly focused their attacks on police and coalition targets until now, and the targeting of the Christian community signals a possible ideological shift. Instead of viewing the Iraqi Christian community as distinct from what the militant groups view as the "Crusader occupation," the perpetrators of these acts now appear to view all Christians as one and the same. Western press has reported that some ordinary Iraqis also share this belief. If the bombings do in fact signal a shift, the implications are tremendous for this minority group, which comprises an estimated 3 percent of the population in Iraq.

Iraqi officials speculated this week that fugitive Jordanian terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and his Jama'at Al-Tawhid wa Al-Jihad group was behind the coordinated attacks, which all took place within a 30-minute period. However, an unknown group identifying itself as the Planning and Follow-up Commission claimed responsibility. The tone of the group's statement, posted on the Minbar Ahl Al-Sunnah wa Al-Jama'ah website (http://www.islamic-minbar.com), accused U.S.-led multinational forces of proselytizing in an effort to get Muslims to convert to Christianity. "The U.S. did not stop at occupation and military invasion of the Muslim land, but they went on to establish hundreds of Christianization missions, print distorted books, distribute and spread them amongst the Muslims, with the goal to strip the Muslims of their religion and convert them to Christianity," the group claimed.

The media has reported on the influx of Christian missionary groups to Iraq since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. According to an 18 March report on latimes.com, at least nine evangelical churches had opened in Baghdad in the preceding eight months, many of which were funded by U.S. organizations that contributed up to $100,000 per church. Many groups have brought much-needed aid to Iraq, supplying blankets and food to Iraqis. While some groups maintain that their donations are free to anyone, and that they don't proselytize as part of their aid distribution, other groups made sure recipients knew they were receiving aid from "Christians in America," as one aid spokesman told washingtonpost.com, the website reported on 16 May.

Missionaries have also handed out thousands of Arabic Bibles -- latimes.com put the figure at 900,000 -- and distributed videos and religious tracts designed to "save" Muslims from their "false" religion, telegraph.co.uk reported on 27 December. Missionaries interviewed by Western media in Iraq all expressed a belief that they needed to gain a foothold inside the country before last month's transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi interim government. "Iraq will become the center for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to Iran, Libya, throughout the Middle East," Kyle Fisk, executive administrator for the National Association of Evangelicals, told latimes.com. "[U.S.] President [George W.] Bush said democracy will spread from Iraq to nearby countries. A free Iraq also allows us to spread Jesus Christ's teachings even in nations where the laws keep us out," he added. Fisk said that he and other missionaries intended to do just that: train Iraqi missionaries to discreetly proselytize in other Arab states. What is perhaps the most troubling is the sense that some missionaries fail to see Islam as a monotheistic religion that worships the same God as Christians. One missionary told telegraph.co.uk that Islam is a "false" religion, adding, "The Muslim religion is an antichrist religion."

This is not to say that proselytizing groups are responsible for the targeting of Christians in Iraq. The Christian community, and in particular, liquor-store owners, have been targeted dozens of times since the fall of the Hussein regime. Media reports in recent months have depicted the worries of the community, and many Christians interviewed have said they intended to seek asylum outside Iraq. What is troubling is that the missionaries may have inadvertently helped enhance the notion that the war in Iraq was a holy war targeting Islam, not Saddam Hussein."

Document(s): original document

03.08.2004 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Report documenting the increasing frustration of thousands of displaced Kurds, as well as Turkomans and Assyrians, who are living in desperate conditions as they await a resolution of their property claims/ report also details how the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority failed to act even as the situation grew more volatile ("Claims in conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq") [#24467],  [ID 10515]

Document(s): Open document

02.08.2004 - Source: Integrated Regional Information Network

First coordinated attack against Iraq's Christian population ("original document") [ID 10274]

"Members of the Christian community in Iraq said they were shocked and in fear following four separate bomb attacks on churches in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing 11 and wounding more than 50 others, according to media reports.

Four explosions were detonated around 6:30 p.m. local time as church-goers were attending services in the capital, Baghdad. One bomb left a crater more than six feet deep. Explosions sent black smoke billowing into the air and shattered stained glass windows as bleeding church-goers ran to get away from the carnage.

Iraqi police found an additional unexploded bomb of 15 mortar rounds near a fifth Baghdad church that they were able to detonate before it went off. Another person was killed and 11 others wounded when another bomb went off in front of a Catholic church in the northern city of Mosul about 400 kilometres north of Baghdad at around the same time.

“I’m really angry and scared,” Wisam Sagman, 46, a Christian whose windows were blown out by a blast in front of the Armenian church in the Karrada district of Baghdad, told IRIN. “I expected something would happen, but I tried not to think about it.”

The explosion tore apart a six-foot high cement wall in front of Sagman’s house. Two burned-out cars left by the explosion were still smouldering in the street. “We had many threats on Easter, so we curtailed our celebrations then,” Sameer Mehti, 30, Sagman’s brother-in-law, told IRIN. “But we don’t understand why this was done now. It is something terrifying.”

It was the first coordinated attack against Iraq's 750,000-member Christian population in the 15 months since the insurgency began. However, Christian liquor store owners and others have been bombed in the past, especially in the southern port city of Basra.

Religion-affiliated aid agencies condemned the act but vowed to continue work in the country plagued with violence. Edmond Adam, interim director of the Middle East Council of Churches aid agency, looked visibly shaken by the previous day's attack. But as workers chipped broken glass out of a frame in the front window that faces the church across the street, Adam insisted he would continue his work.

“We cannot stop, because this is our faith as (Christian) churches in the Middle East,” Adam told IRIN. “We will not give up.” A woman walking by the rubble outside the Syrian Catholic Church near the Armenian church said she could not understand who would coordinate such attacks.

“I don’t know who can stand behind this. It’s bad to do such things when so many people are killed,” Hilana Jousif, 55, told IRIN. Jousif works at a nearby Christian-run hospital.

At Islamic Relief, a British-based aid agency, Mohammed Makki Fathi, operations manager, told IRIN he hoped things would get better soon. “This is the political situation,” Fathi said. “I feel sorry about it. This is not a good situation for us.”

Peter Dula, a worker at the US-based Mennonite Central Committee, which works with local aid agencies on various programmes, told IRIN he was committed to staying in Iraq, although it was too soon to tell if he would be allowed to.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my headquarters asked me to leave,” Dula said. Explosions hit churches in two predominantly Christian neighbourhoods in central Baghdad - two in Karrada, one in Daura and one in New Baghdad. The Armenian church and the Catholic church are only about 500 metres apart in the Karrada neighbourhood.

US military officials said the attacks did not appear to be suicide bombings. Christians are seen as well-to-do members of society. The attacks triggered fears that Christians may be targeted as collaborators with American forces as many speak English too.

“Christians are like the Jews of Iraq,” an Iraqi-American businessman who runs a security firm and an information technology business used by foreign companies, told IRIN. He declined to be named for security reasons.

"Iraqi police provided a professional, rapid response to each of these attacks," Lt Col James Hutton, public affairs office for the 1st Cavalry Division US military, said in a press statement. Hutton condemned insurgent activity targeting Iraqi civilians. "Iraq's movement to a better future will not be undermined by the cowards who built these weapons to attack innocent Iraqi citizens," he maintained."

Document(s): original document

08.2004 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Report on the current security and legal situation, material safety, displacement situation, human rights and protection situation as well as an overall analysis ("Country of Origin Information (COI) paper on Iraq (as of August 2004)") [#24717],  [ID 10517]

"It was unanimously acknowledged by all persons interviewed that the situation of Christians in Iraq has dramatically deteriorated since the fall of the previous regime. This change may be attributed to one or several of the following:
­
- The Coalition Forces are predominantly made up of persons from Christian nations. Christians are therefore seen to be de facto supporters of the Coalition Invasion of Iraq;
­
- Christians are regarded as “infidels ” by the more Islamic fundamentalist and or extremist elements of Iraqi society;
­
- Christians have traditionally been involved in the alcohol trade in Iraq. The combination of economic benefits and non-Islamic values of this activity is resented by both the more fundamental elements of society, as well as for those who are unemployed.

Resentment towards Christians appears to be particularly hard felt in the South, as well as in the so-called Sunni triangle, where there is currently a trend towards a stricter interpretation of Islam. Persons interviewed reported several incidents of Christianowned alcohol shops being targeted by small explosive devices and or ransacked, with the end result being that the families had decided to leave the area. While it is possible that these stores were targeted for religious reasons, many people felt that it was also possible that the perpetrators were simply jealous of the economic benefits these shops procured to their owners and wished to appropriate the shops for themselves. Due to the perceived ineffectiveness of the police as well as the religious element of these crimes, most such crimes are never reported to the police. Those targeted prefer to remain discreet and seem to be opting to leave rather than to face further harassment. The latest explosions aiming at churches in Baghdad and Mosul on 1st August 2004, as well as the increased number of Iraqi Christians who have sought refugee in neighbouring Syria in the past three months is indicative of a turning point in the deterioration of the situation of Christians in Iraq.
Christian women have also been harassed and pressured by the extremists groups to adopt a certain type of dress which includes wearing a headscarf."

Document(s): Open document

09.06.2004 - Source: UN Human Rights Council (formerly UN Commission on Human Rights)

Report focused on political, military, security and human rights situation ( treatment during arrest, detention) and the situation of children and women ("Report of the High comissioner for human rights and fallow-up to the world conference on human rights E/CN.4/2005/ 4") [#25826],  [ID 10518]

Document(s): Open document

11.04.2004 - Source: Human Rights Without Frontiers

Threats against and killings of Christians ("original document") [ID 10519]

Document(s): original document

16.01.2004 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Turkomans, Communists, Assyrians, Islamic Union part of unified administration ("original document") [ID 10521]

"(...) Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), have reportedly reached an agreement to merge the administrations of their two regional governments in northern Iraq, international media reported on 13 January.

The parties will now run the three northern provinces of Irbil, Dahuk, and Al-Sulaymaniyah under a unified regional administration. Officials said that a few details still need to be worked out, including the assignment of ministerial posts and the establishment of a unified judiciary, KurdSat television reported. The plan calls for a rotating Kurdish presidency, which will first be chaired by the PUK.

The new cabinet will consist of 14 ministries, six run by KDP officials, four by PUK officials, and four by officials from the Kurdistan Communist Party, the Islamic Union, the Turkomans, and the Assyrians, "Al-Sabah" reported. While plans for a unified administration have been under way for years, the Kurdish parties in northern Iraq see the move as part of a larger drive for autonomy. (...)"

Document(s): original document

30.12.2003 - Source: Berliner Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Kurdologie

Northern Iraq (Dohuk): Risk of attacks by Islamist groups against former Muslim/convert to Christianity, especially in case of missionary actions; KDP cannot provide effective protection (expert opinion, in German) ("Stellungnahme vom 30.12.03 an VG Greifswald - 5 A 1278/00 As -") [#20743],  [ID 10277]

Document(s): Open document

27.11.2003 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Assyrian politician abducted and killed ("original document") [ID 10523]

"(...) ASSYRIAN POLITICIAN KILLED IN AL-BASRAH. An Assyrian politician working with coalition authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Al-Basrah was abducted and killed on 18 November by unknown attackers, AP reported on 20 November. Sargoun Nanou Murado, a representative of the Assyrian Democratic Movement party and member of Al-Basrah's city council, was reportedly ambushed while en route to work. The assassination was one of two that day in southern Iraq involving people working with coalition authorities. In Al-Diwaniyah, gunmen on 18 November killed the Education Ministry's director-general for that province. Guerrillas have warned that they will target any Iraqi who collaborates with occupation authorities. The Assyrian Democratic Movement, which represents Iraq's long-oppressed Assyrian minority, is represented on the 25-seat Iraqi Governing Council set up by the U.S.-led coalition authorities (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 17 July 2003). (Meagan Hassan) (...)"

Document(s): original document

20.11.2003 - Source: International Christian Concern

Bombs found in Christian Schools - Pupils warned to become Muslims or die ("International Christian Concern (ICC): Bombs found in Christian Schools - Pupils warned to become Muslims or die") [ID 10278]

"The bomb at St Thomas' School in Mosul was discovered on 11 November; it was a cluster of low explosive hand grenades that could have caused significant injury or even death. The school has around 500 pupils of whom approximately 450 are Christian and 50 are Muslim. Thankfully the bombs in both schools were successfully defused. The schools have received intimidating written warnings demanding that the children should become Muslims. If they failed to do so, the warnings read, they should expect to be killed. It is thought that a Saudi backed Wahhabi Sunni group are responsible for both the warnings and the bombs."

Document(s): International Christian Concern (ICC): Bombs found in Christian Schools - Pupils warned to become Muslims or die

11.2003 - Source: Human Rights Without Frontiers

Report focused on the Chaldoassyrian community ("The Chaldoassyrian community in today`s Iraq") [#19314],  [ID 10524]

Document(s): Open document

13.08.2003 - Source: UK Home Office

Christians as second class citizens, Killings of Christians [ID 10279]

"Since the fall of Saddam, Islamic radical groups have been flexing their new-found muscles and acts of violence have been committed against Christians including the killing by unknown militants of two shopkeepers for selling alcohol."

Document(s): Open document

19.05.2003 - Source: US Citizenship and Immigration Services

Query response on the post-war situation [2003] and on the Christian community ("Information on the Post-War Situation [2003] and on the Christian Community [ IRQ03004.ASM]") [#16929],  [ID 10281]

Document(s): Open document

03.2003 - Source: International Christian Concern

Country Profile - Christian Persecution in Iraq ("Country Profile - Christian Persecution in Iraq") [#17187],  [ID 10525]

Document(s): Open document