Wednesday, 5th October 2011
Speech on oppression of minorities in Iraq, European Parliament, 5 October 2011
The follwing is the content of a speech by Struan Stevenson MEP which was presented to 14 MPs from the Minority Caucus of the Iraqi Parliament.
It is estimated that about 23% of Iraq’s population is non-Arab.
Assyrians, Arameans and other Christians
Attacks against the Assyrian community in December 2009 / February 2010 led to the deaths of over 20 Christians and the bombings of churches in Mosul, leading to 4,300 Assyrians fleeing Mosul, and about 50% of Assyrian Christians as a whole leaving the country .
70 churches have been attacked or bombed since June, 2004: 43 in Baghdad, 19 in Mosul, 7 in Kirkuk and 1 in Ramadi. Attacks have also included the abduction, torture and murder of individual Christians.
Smaller ethnic groups (All are at risk from the Arabization policies aiming to unify the Iraqi people by removing diversity.)
- Bahá’ís (approx. 1000) – considered by many Muslims as apostates or heretics due to their belief in a post-Islamic religion. Difficult situation and e.g. many Bahá’ís born in the last 30 years have no citizenship documents, including passports, and therefore cannot leave the country.
- Black Iraqis (<2million)– referred to as “abd” (slave)
- Jews – have nearly all fled, estimated less than 20 remain due to religious intolerance
- Mandeans (5,000, down from 40,000+ before 2003)- Mandaean Human Rights Group investigated 22 murders, 13 kidnappings and 29 attacks from March 2008 until Sep 2009.
- Palestinians – after being treated well under Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraqi MoI officials have arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured and, in a few cases, forcibly disappeared Palestinian refugees, as well as imposing onerous registration requirements and harassing them.
- Shabaks – different from Kurds, but Kurdish authorities have refused to recognize them as an ethnic minority, and consider them as a community of Kurdish ethnicity, an issue over which Shabaks themselves are divided. Their status and lands are disputed by both Kurds and Arabs wishing to extend land claims into the Nineveh governorate. Like other minorities in this position, Shabaks are suffering targeted persecution and assimilation.
- Turkmen (3rd largest minority) - Being rapidly assimilated into the general population and are no longer tribally organized. Post Hussein, many clashes in Kirkuk between Turkmen (who view the city as “theirs”) & Kurdish forces, who have abducted and tortured Turkmen & Arabs. A referendum on Kirkuk was set to take place in 2007, but has not yet occurred.
- Yazidis (approx. 500,000 [down from 700,000 in 2005])- Islamist groups have declared Yazidis ‘impure’ and leaflets have been distributed in Mosul by Islamic extremists calling for the death of all members of the Yazidi community. In August 2007, four coordinated suicide truck bombings destroyed two Yazidi towns, killing at least 400 civilians, wounding 1,562 and leaving more than 1,000 families homeless.
Internally Displaced Persons – est. 2.8million
IDPs in Iraq often live in squatter camps and are unable to access government-sponsored safety-net programmes. Many express interest in being integrated into their current or a new location due to a security concerns and a lack of basic services and jobs available in the areas from which they were displaced. This does not accord with the government policies which assume that IDPs will be returning to their place of origin, and include ceasing the registration of IDPs in June 2010, evicting IDPs from government property, and not extending basic services to squatter camps. It is suggested that a better policy for the government to pursue would be to enforce voluntary resettlement schemes such as land allocation initiatives.
Solutions for property restitution proposed by the government have in practice failed to pay IDPs, and do not work if IDPs wish to settle in a new location, if another group of displaced people have since commenced squatting in the property, or if the IDP was forced to sell their home or business property in the first place under duress from armed forces. A report published by UNHCR in 2009 indicates that 60 per cent of IDPs surveyed that year reported not seeking assistance from relevant institutions, as they lacked required documents, mistrusted state institutions, could not afford the required fees or feared retribution.
UNHCR surveys conducted in 2009 indicated high rates of absenteeism amongst internally displaced children, many of whom are minorities. Forty-two per cent of boys and 47 per cent of girls under 14 did not attend schools. Reasons for absenteeism ranged from needing to work, costly school supplies, expensive transportation, overcrowded schools, and missing documents for school registration. In the Kurdistan Region, IDP children are admitted into local schools, but all education is in Kurdish. However, some Christian IDPs are able to attend local Christian schools that use the Syriac language. The displacement of Christian children (and families) from Mosul in early 2010 has placed further strain on existing service.
Minorities, like other IDPs, have experienced serious difficulties in finding employment. Although there is no disaggregated data for minorities, IOM has reported general unemployment rates as high as 99 per cent in areas such as Kirkuk.
