THE ALARMING SITUATION OF THE REFUGEES
WARNING OF A DISASTER YET MORE DREADFUL
+Louis Raphael Sako
Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon
President of the Assembly of the Catholic Bishops in Iraq
Baghdad – Iraq
10 August 2014
Death and sickness are taking hold of the children and elderly people among the thousands of refugee families spread over the Kurdistan Region who lost everything in the recent tragic developments while the ISIS Militants are still advancing and the humanitarian aid is insufficient.
There are seventy thousand displaced Christians in Ankawa [Erbil] along with the other minorities in this city that has a population of more than twenty-five thousand Christians. The families who found shelter inside the churches or schools are in a rather good condition while those who are still sleeping in the streets and public parks are in a deplorable situation…
In Dohuk, the number of Christian refugees' amount to more than 60.000 and their situation is worse than those in Erbil. There are also families who found shelters in Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, as well as some have arrived as far as in the capital city of Baghdad.
While the humanitarian needs are escalating: housing, food, water, medicine and funds, the lack of international coordination is slowing and limiting the realization of an effective assistance to these thousands awaiting immediate support. The Churches are offering everything within their capacity.
To summarize the situation of the Christian villages around Mosul up to the borders of Kurdistan Region: the churches are deserted and desecrated; five bishops are out of their bishoprics, the priests and nuns left their missions and institutions leaving everything behind, the families have fled with their children abandoning everything else! The level of disaster is extreme.
The position of the American president Obama only to give military assistance to protect Erbil is disappointing. The talks about dividing Iraq are threatening. The Americans are not up to a rapid solution to give hope specifically as they are not going to attack the ISIS in Mosul and in the Nineveh Plain. The confirmation that this terrible situation will continue until the Iraqi Security Forces will fight along with Peshmerga against the ISIS militants is very depressing. The President of the Kurdistan Region said that the Kurdish troops are fighting with a terrorist State and not minor groups! While the country is under fire, the politicians in Baghdad are fighting for power.
At the end, perhaps, Mosul will not be liberated neither the villages in the Nineveh Plain. There is no strategy to dry up the sources of manpower and the resources of these Islamic terrorists. They control the oil town of Zumar and the oil fields of Ain Zalah and Batma along with the oil fields of Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor in Syria. The Islamic extremist fighters are joining them from different countries around the world.
The choices of refugee families:
Migration: where and do they have the necessary documents and money?
To stay: in the halls and in the refugee camps, waiting the summer to end and winter to come? Will the schools be reopened and will their children go to elementary schools, high schools or colleges? Will they be welcomed in the schools in Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah? What is the future of the properties and belongings, along with the jobs, of these thousands of innocent people forced to fee overnight from their dear villages?
These are questions that should inflict pain in the conscience of every person and organization so that something should be done to save this people that have their history in this land from their beginnings.
And then there is this video from the Coptic-Orthodox (Oriental Orthodox) "General Bishop" (Generalbischof) for Germany, Anba Damian, a native of Cairo, in an interview recorded a couple of years ago:
And then there is this video from the Coptic-Orthodox (Oriental Orthodox) "General Bishop" (Generalbischof) for Germany, Anba Damian, a native of Cairo, in an interview recorded a couple of years ago:
24 comments:
I seriously can't believe anyone seriously expects a competent response from the US Government. And rather than let that concept distract or derail the real question we should look for where and how they can be helped. They must be evacuated and much farther than Kurdistan as it is now between the ISIS hammer and Turkish anvil.
Despite the raw numbers there is a need for a large scale humanitarian movement. I would cynically recommend that voter registration campaign might do the trick. In reality, someone should negotiate safe passage for them. They are not culturally suitable for the USA in such large numbers although the eventual inculcation would be good for us.
RCG, We do not need ANY more of other nation's failures and atrocities in this country. We have enough to deal with now on the border. I must admit it is fun to watch everybody who supported Obama, along with other so-called moderates and liberals, running around wringing their hands and playing "ain't it awful" when they know nothing of any significance is going to be done by Obama. That is why they voted for him…that and to try to prove they aren't "racist." LOL! LOL!
A link to where one can donate to help out:
http://emergencies.crs.org/iraq-crs-caritas-reach-displaced-families/
Gee I guess that bright idea of a "prayer" summit with the muslims in the Vatican didn't work. Oh wait the Muslim prayed for the overthrow of nonbelievers while the pope just sat there, so I guess that's working. Way to go Bergoglio, the rock of stability.
Yep, better run them Muzzies by the Pope again. Maybe it will take this time...
This situation is very troubling. It is a direct result of the seculazation of the Europe and now America. We as society need to wake up sooner rather than later before it is too late. We have made it a crime for our Military to Pray publicly. What would happen it a one our Generals would bring the thr troops together and have them take a knee and Pray to The Lord before the next great battle as they did in World War II. This is exactly the kind of thing we could be counted on to defend!
Fr, this situation should answer the question posed in your Saturday post about taking political stands. That is all we have unless we want civilization to break apart.
Jim,
I fear that the situation is rather the direct result of recent Western (especially U.S.) meddling and the promotion of regime change. Here again is an article I posted yesterday that lays it all out:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/10970-christian-massacres-a-result-of-us-foreign-policy
There is more Western meddling in deeper history that is also relevant. Here is a link to an NPR series I have just discovered. I have not listened to it yet but look forward to doing so:
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/mideast/the_west/
ISIS is brutal and, in the view of many Muslims, quite un-Islamic. However, I believe it represents one extreme trajectory that can be taken within Islam. But to keep things in perspective: There is nothing peculiarly Islamic about brutality as even a passing familiarity with world history makes clear. There is plenty of brutality to go around, and the West has engaged in its fair share. Just looking at the twentieth century, for example, Western brutality was on evident display in World War I and World War II.
The roots of such brutality, including our own brutality, lie in our fallen human nature, the beast within, and our failure to submit to the will of God and his redeeming Grace. And we are just fooling ourselves if we project it away from ourselves and onto others. I don’t believe in the leftist sport of bashing the West but I do believe in trying to face the truth.
I just love watching Anon 2 wring his hands, run in small circles, and feel guilty about being Western and white. If we could get him together with Ignotus, we might see some kind of new dance or something…LOL!
And I just love to see Gene with his head . . . buried in the sand, all the while engaging in armchair pop psychology. I have no guilt at all about being Western and white. Guilt is not the relevant response. That is for children when they are caught with their hands in the oil field, I mean cookie jar. Accepting responsibility is the adult response.
Speaking of accepting responsibility....our President does not accept any responsibility for things that happen under his watch.
Neither does HIllary. Both blame the only person they consider an adult: George Bush.
He's apparently both an idiot and an evil genius.
If regime change in Iraq is such a disaster then why in the world did Obama push for regime change in Libya, Egypt and Syria? If toppling dictators led to looting, bloodshed, civil war, and loose stockpiles of weapons in Iraq (which was all blamed on Bush being a cowboy), then why did the Obama admin follow the same script in Libya (allowing various sundry rebels to arm up and destabilize the whole of western Africa)? Why in Egypt (which when run by Muslim Brotherhood allowed similar mischief) and why arm Syrian rebels (who are now ISIS)?
If what Bush did was bad, why do 2x as much of it? If deficit spending was bad under Bush, is spending two times as much better?
If drones in Pakistan are bad under Bush is killing 10x as many civilians subsequent to 2009 better?
When have we seen ANYONE currently in power accept responsibility for any scandal?
Not for Fast and Furious, not for MERS, not for MF Global, not for Benghazi, not for the IRS scandal... at no time has any one of significance accepted responsibility for crimes and misdemeanors.
A2 @ 12:02,
If your goal is to influence anyone's thinking on this very complex subject (although I do understand such may not be your goal), perhaps you ought to consider quoting more "balanced" sources than New American and NPR?
So, Anon 2, do you accept the responsibility for the mess we are in as a result of your vote for Nobama? Did you feel really good after you voted for him…maybe just a little less white and Western? Did you go grab some soul food after you voted and maybe try to listen to a little rap music? C'mon, 'fess up…didn't you go home and wear your NPR baseball cap backwards and maybe check out some of the sisters on MTV? LOL!
Anon 2, if you really want to demonstrate your openness, flexibility, and non-racism, you should try speaking in infinitives and random tense…as in:
Who he be? What dat be? Whut have he did? Where you be goin', etc. Then one of your long, meandering justifications for Obama and Muslims might read like this: "We be havin' to consider dat Muslims is much diversified and dat they has a different way of lookin' at de world. I mean, we caint be a judging' on them 'cause we be white and Christian. They beliefs is just as good as ours is. And, Obama, he be a fine president and I vote fer him cuz I ain't bein' no racist."
Anonymous:
Please explain your point. Is it to exonerate George Bush in the face of changes that he stupidly took the lid off Pandora’s Box, let the genie out of the bottle, breached the dam (choose your favorite metaphor)? Is it to distract from those charges by diverting attention onto Obama’s missteps?
Let’s do this: Tell us precisely what Obama has done wrong regarding those episodes and what he should have done differently? In doing so please explain why he is accused by the Right of “leading from behind” if he has been just as aggressively stupid as Bush.
Personally, I do not doubt that Obama has made mistakes but everything can be traced back to the worst foreign policy blunder in U.S. history.
On the more general point indicting our political class for failing to accept responsibility, I agree with you 100%. I am disgusted with the state of our politics. In fact, it does not even deserve the name of politics.
JGJ:
My goal is very simple. It is to help everyone understand (myself included – I am still learning all the time) just how dreadfully complex all of this really is and to help guard against simplistic perceptions such as “The persecution of Christians in the Middle East is all Obama’s fault” as if it was not occurring before under Bush.
I am very much open to suggestions for better sources. Please also tell us what precisely is incorrect in the New American article, which criticizes both Bush and Obama.
Gene:
Ask me a sensible question and I will do my best to answer you.
Gene:
I just read your second comment after posting my response to your first.
You really cannot get over the fact that Obama is black can you? Unlike you, however, Obama’s race is irrelevant to me – always was, still is, will continue to be. Sorry to disappoint.
It isn't his race, Anon 2, it is his incompetence and hatred of this country and white people. There are a number of conservative, patriotic blacks for whom I would happily vote for political office…among them Condoleeza Rice, Walter Williams, Ken Hamlin, Ben Carson, Herman Cain, J C Watts, and, in terms of competence and qualifications, though he is too liberal for my tastes (but I could live with him as President) Colin Powell. So, drop the racist innuendo.
Now, you still got your NPR cap on backwards?
Gene:
“So, drop the racist innuendo.”
That is, as the expression goes, the pot calling the kettle black. You alleged that I voted for Obama because he is black as an act of white self-hatred to prove I am not racist. In fact your comments in this thread (and in other threads) make it clear that you cannot conceive of anyone voting for Obama unless at least part of their motivation was to prove they are not racist. No, Gene, you cannot get over the fact that_Obama_is black. So, drop the reverse-racist innuendo.
Dear Fellow Bloggers:
Please note that, if Father McDonald fails to prevent posting of the comment in accordance with his stated policy, from now on I will respond to any uncivil and gratuitously insulting ad hominem comment that Gene directs at me by reposting this notice.
Thank you,
Anonymous 2, August 12, 2014
May I suggest that all this back and forth shows that anonymous blog comments really are best not allowed. (I assume that everyone here knows who Henry and Pater Ignotus are, but in case any southernorders neophytes are lurking, I'll occasionally link my web site, though it takes 23 extra keystrokes.)
Anon 2, I believe there are other reasons that people like you voted for Obama than to prove they are not racist.
1. They are mentally disabled.
2. They hate this country.
3. They are Leftists AND hate this country.
4. They are Afro wannabes.
5. They were drunk or high when they voted.
6. They just love effeminate black males in positions of authority.
7. They are lazy, unmotivated loads on society who want to be handed everything and have money taken from people who work hard to earn it and given to them so they can spend it on crack, cheap whores, rims and wheels, wine and liquor, Nike shoes, Glocks, and anything else they cannot procure by stealing it.
8. They are simply stupid.
Had Obama used his heralded diplomatic brilliance to negotiate a treaty with Iraq that kept some combat troops and an air base or two in Iraq, then ISIS would never have invaded from Syria in the first place and none of this current tragedy would have happened.
So it's not Bush's fault that civilians are being slaughtered, it's entirely and exclusively Obama's.
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