Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  2008-10-15

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

NORTHERN IRAQ (ANS) -- A British Member of Parliament is calling on Great Britain and the United States to step in to protect the Assyrian Christians of Iraq, giving them their own province, and warning Kurdish rebels not to encroach on their freedoms.

Edward Leigh, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, in the United Kingdom, has just spent a memorable week in northern Iraq as a guest of the Assyrian Christians, becoming the first British MP since 2003 to visit the lawless land north of Mosul.

Edward Leigh, British Conservative Member of Parliament

Leigh states that in Iraq are the last speakers of Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ.

"Here I saw the tomb of the Old Testament prophet Nahum, with its Hebrew inscriptions on the old stone walls. This prophet's brief book describes, in somewhat lurid terms, the overthrow of Nineveh. It is the Lord's vengeance upon the Assyrians as the enemies of God's people. Ironically, the words he applies to the pagan Assyrians could now be applied to the Christian Assyrians of Iraq: 'Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.' If they continue to be evicted from the Nineveh Plains, where they have always lived, then their language too will fade away."

He adds: "Then there is the suffocating heat, unrelieved in Ramadan by even a glass of beer, the undercurrent of violence and oppression, the small flat-roofed houses, the bare ancient churches devoid of any ornament and the ancient liturgy."

Leigh says that during his visit to Iraq, "I heard some harrowing tales of Christians being killed and kidnapped in Baghdad following our invasion. I am even more certain I was right to vote against an invasion, which has caused so much misery for minorities in Iraq."

The British MP continues: "I spoke to a number of displaced widows who shared their tragic stories. One woman told that her husband had been kidnapped and a $15,000 ransom demanded. Although she paid, her husband was never returned and is presumed dead. Another widow's husband had been killed by a bomb and she has been left to care for their son and two daughters, one of whom has Down's Syndrome. Another told me that her husband had been killed by a roadside bomb in 2006 while he was returning from church. A few days after her husband's death her daughter was kidnapped. At this point she started crying uncontrollably and we had to end the interview. I later learned that her daughter has never returned and is presumed dead."

After this he spoke to a young Christian woman who lost four of her family members in 2004, said Leigh.

"When she lived in Baghdad Muslim extremists had put leaflets through her family's letterbox calling the Christians 'pigs' and telling them to leave or be killed. A few days later they attacked her house and killed her parents and sister. One of her brothers disappeared and she believes he returned home while the killers were still there and was kidnapped. There is no news of her missing brother and he is presumed dead."

Sometimes Leigh finds British politics "inward-looking and petty," he said.

"When I go to places like northern Iraq I feel new life coursing through my political veins and I am determined to stand up for these minorities. This decimated community is under pressure from many sides. Over 700 Iraqi Christians have been killed since 2003 and half have left Iraq, leaving perhaps about 400,000 Christians in Iraq.

"Over 95 percent of them are Chaldo-Assyrian, the descendants of the Assyrians of Old Testament times. They are the indigenous people of Iraq, with a continuous presence in that land for over 6,000 years. Today, probably more than at any other time in their long history, the Assyrians are in grave danger of disappearing altogether from their ancient homeland.

"The average Iraqi faces many risks, but Christians are exposed to even more: they have to deal with the additional threat of attacks from Islamic extremists, who want to drive them out of Iraq, kill them or force them to convert to Islam; attacks by insurgents who mistakenly view the Christians as close allies of the 'Christian' West; abduction by kidnappers who think that the generally well-educated Christians are more wealthy than other Iraqis; and having large areas of their land -- and many of their houses -- misappropriated by neighboring Kurds in what appears to be a systematic attempt to take over Christian-owned land and drive Christians out of the Kurdish region."

At least 58 Christian villages have been partially or wholly misappropriated by Kurds, Leigh said.

"I visited many during my stay and was told by the Christians how their land and houses and sometimes even their sources of water had been taken by the Kurds. In every case, the Kurdish authorities failed to ensure that the misappropriated property was returned. In some cases it has even been the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which had seized it.

"For example the KDP office at the Christian village of Kany Masy was built on Christian-owned land without the owner's permission. In the area under Kurdish Regional Government control an environment of impunity prevails, where Christian-owned property is viewed as 'up for grabs.' The KDP is even encouraging Kurds from abroad to come and settle in the region as part of their systematic attempt to Kurdify the entire area and squeeze out the Chaldo-Assyrians."

While there is no danger of the Sunnis, Shias or Kurds vanishing from Iraq, there is a risk that this may soon happen to the Assyrians unless their security situation improves and they receive much more support, Leigh said.

Leigh reports that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that Christians made up 36 percent of Iraqi refugees in Syria, although they only comprised about four per cent of Iraq's population, further evidence that Christians suffer disproportionately.

"The West, particularly the US and Britain, must step in to protect the last remnant of a Christian minority in Iraq, lest they go the way of the Jews, who were all evicted. We need to give them their own province in the Nineveh Plains. We need to warn the Kurds that continued encroachments of their land will not be tolerated."

He adds: "Iraq's leading Christian political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) has long called for a self-governing province to be established for the Chaldo-Assyrians, situated in and around the Nineveh Plains, as these lands form part of the Assyrians' ancestral homeland and are still heavily populated by them.

"The ADM have received the highest number of votes from Iraqi Christians at elections, indicating that their call for a province is supported by the majority of Iraq's Christians. This province would provide better security for Christians and encourage many Iraqi Christian refugees to return and live there.

"If the Assyrians do not get their province then the KDP will probably eventually annex the Nineveh Plains to Kurdistan and the Assyrians will soon die as a nation."

Edward Leigh was born in l950. He was educated at St Phillips School, London, the Oratory School Berkshire, the French Lycee, London and at Durham University (Modern History) where he was President of the Union Society. He is the younger son of Sir Neville Leigh K.V.C.O., former clerk to the Privy Council. He is married with three daughters and three sons.

He is a barrister, and a member of the Inner Temple, practicing for Goldsmiths Chambers in arbitration and criminal law, and was a member of Richmond Borough Council and then the Greater London Council from l974 until l98l, and also worked in the private office of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from l976-77 as private secretary in charge of her correspondence as Leader of the Opposition.

First elected in 1983 for what was then the Gainsborough & Horncastle seat, as MP for Gainsborough, he represents the constituency which is a part of the European East Midlands Region and is served by six Members of the European Parliament.

Readers who are concerned about the situation Assyrian Christians are facing can help the refugees in Iraq by sending a cheque to the Assyrian Aid Society, a registered Christian charity, at 36 Crossway, London, United Kingdom, W13 0AX.

Readers in Britain may also write to their MP, urging them to contact the Foreign Secretary and asking the UK Government to give more support to Iraq's Christians, including support for the creation of a self-governing province in and around the Nineveh Plains.

You may contact Mr. Leigh by e-mail at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or by writing to him at his Constituency Office at 23 Queen Street, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, LN8 3EN; Telephone: +44 (0)1673 849003 (also fax); +44 (0)1673 844501.