Swedish Aid Org does not support Assyrian claims of persecution & discrimination
- KurdishMedia.com - By Lise Storm Grundon
- 31/08/2001 00:00:00
Certain groups of exile Assyrians have accused the Iraqi Kurds, especially the Kurdistan Democratic Party, of denying them their rights. The Assyrian International News Agency has published various articles in which it claims that Assyrians are being persecuted and that Assyrians are only given their rights when they conform to Kurdish views.
In a previous article I argued on the basis on my own experiences as a student of political science with the Kurds as my main field that the Assyrians are not being persecuted or denied any of their rights. This article support the views expressed in the previous article, however, this time the article is not based on my own experiences, but on the experiences of the Swedish aid organisation Diakonia. Diakonia is an aid organisation established by 7 Swedish Free Churches. The aid organisation is one of the largest in Sweden; it operates in approximately 45 countries all over the World except Europe and North America. Diakoni operates in the entire Iraqi Kurdistan Region with base in the Dohuk Region.
As stated above AINA has accused the Iraqi Kurds of denying the Assyrians and the Chaldeans their basic rights and of persecuting the two communities. According to the project leader of Diakonia, Ms. Grethe Grimstad, none of these two accusations are true. All minorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region are allowed to form their own organisations and parties. At the moment there are several organisations and 3 established Assyrian political parties. Moreover, all minorities are allowed to publish their own newspapers and journals, to have their own radio- and TV-stations, and to broadcast in their own language. The Assyrian and Chaldean communities have their own periodicals and TV-stations, and they broadcast in their own language.
Previously all minorities were also allowed to have their own armed forces, though, with the attempt to transit to democracy such private armed forces were made illegal. This counts for all private armed forces or guards, only official government forces, guards, and policemen are allowed. However, the old armed forces and guards are often performing the same functions as they did before. “They are the same forces and guards as before but they are now labelled as “official” forces, guards or police and are paid by the Kurdistan Regional Government. This is also true for the old Assyrian forces and guards”, states Ms. Grethe Grimstad of Diakonia.
Assyrian and Chaldean Schools
The Assyrian and Chaldean communities are not only guaranteed basic rights such as the right to free speech and the freedom of association; the two communities are also guaranteed their cultural rights. When it comes to cultural rights a good indicator of the degree of rights given is whether or not the minority is given the right to open its own schools and teach in its own language.
The Assyrian and Chaldean communities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region are given full cultural rights. They are in no way discriminated against; in fact, they are often favoured when it comes to the school area. Not only has the Assyrians got their own classes in many ordinary Kurdish schools, in Dohuk they also have their own private school “The Private School for Assyrians”. This particular school is located in a building given to the Assyrians by the Kurdish Ministry of Education in Arbil. The ministry pays the teachers’ salaries and all Assyrian school books used in teaching, including those books that are used in private schools, are printed by the KRG Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education in Arbil has issued various statistics on education in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. From these statistics it is evident that the Assyrian schools are doing better than the ordinary Kurdish schools. According to Diakonia, one of the reasons is that in the Assyrian and Chaldean schools the classes are much smaller than in the ordinary Kurdish schools. This means that each student is given more attention, which is helping to improve his or her studies. By funding the Assyrian and Chaldean schools the Kurdistan Regional Government is helping the Assyrian community maintaining its culture. With this extensive funding the Assyrian community has been able to open a great amount of schools in proportion to the minority’s size. In fact, by comparing the class-size of the government funded Assyrian schools with that of the government funded ordinary Kurdish schools it is evident that the Assyrians are actually given extra favourable conditions.
The existence of Assyrian schools does not mean that all members of the Assyrian community in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region wish to send their children to Assyrian schools. “Last Winter more than 500 parents of children attending the Assyrian and Chaldean schools wrote the Ministry of Education in Arbil and asked for the permission to let their children attend the ordinary Kurdish schools”, says Ms. Grethe Grimstad.
Tolerance and the Freedom of Religion
When it comes to freedom of religion a similar picture emerges. All minorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region – including the Assyrian and Chaldean communities – are given full freedom of religion. There are many churches in the region, and in Dohuk a new Catholic Church was build a few years ago. This church is bigger than the largest Mosque in Dohuk, and it is stunningly beautiful.
According to Diakonia, the religious tolerance in the Middle East in general and in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in particular is much greater than in the West. One of the reasons is old customs. A good example is Christmas. At Christmas Kurdistan TV in for instance Dohuk shows movies on the life of Christ. The Muslims in the Region go to visit their Christian friends to celebrate the Christian festivals with them.
This does not only take place at Christmas but at every religious festival. If it is the time of a Muslim festival such as the Ramadan, Christians go to visit their Muslim friends and celebrate with them. This is a very old tradition in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, a tradition that goes back several centuries.
Because of this great religious tolerance in the Region Diakonia has been very surprised to hear the Assyrian accusations. According to Diakonia the picture of persecution drawn by AINA is very different from the picture of the situation in the Region that Diakonia has. Ms. Grethe Grimstad says, that there have been problems with the building of new churches, but these problems have been within the Christian minority itself. Catholic Assyrians and Chaldeans protested heavily against the building of a new Protestant church in Dohuk, and the Protestants finally gave up their project.
“Never in history have the Assyrians and the Chaldeans had so many rights as they do now. The current situation is unique. When Iraq had control of the area there were officially no Assyrians, only “Christian Arabs”, and under Iraqi law it is prohibited that a Christian person becomes a governor. The current situation is much better. The Kurdish authorities acknowledge the existence of an Assyrian community and various other minorities, and they are all given their basic rights on equal footing with the Kurdish population in the Region. Additionally, the KRG also appointed the Christian Assyrian Mr. Franso Hariri as the governor of Arbil, and on top of that Mr. Hariri was the group leader of the KDP in Arbil. Accordingly, the accusations of discrimination and persecution came as a big surprise to us”, concludes Ms. Grethe Grimstad.
Moreover, in some articles published by AINA, AINA claims that the Iraqi Kurds are behind political assassinations of Assyrians and Chaldeans. According to Diakonia, more than 10,000 people were killed and injured in the civil war between the KDP and the PUK, among the casualties were many Assyrians and Chaldeans. However, there are absolutely no signs that there were special forces sanctioned by the leaderships of the KDP and the PUK and organised with the sole purpose of assassinating Assyrians.
Fundamentalist Islam
Today the civil war has ended. The Iraqi Kurdistan Region is as peaceful as it can be expected to be after decades of war. The KDP and the PUK are co-operating in an effort to bring democracy to the Region. However, in the shadow of the fighting in the civil war Islamist organisations grew stronger and stronger. Some of these organisations have issued violent assaults on liquor stores and women’s hairdresser’s shops. These assaults have not only been targeting Assyrians and other Christians; many Muslim Kurds have also been victims. The rise of fundamentalist Islam is not only a threat to the Christian minorities; it is a threat to the democratic process in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, states Mr. Ferda Turan, regional co-ordinator of Diakonia.
Lise Storm Grundon, is BA and Student of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen
- KurdishMedia.com - By Lise Storm Grundon
- 31/08/2001 00:00:00