The Latest from Iraq
Displaced Christians and Yazids gather outside the diocese of Zakho, 300 miles northwest of Baghdad. The Arabic on the banners read, “Yes Yes for Migration No No for returning,” “We ask for a quick solution and save our children from homelessness,” and “We call on immigration.”
No relief in sight as ISIS continues reign of terror
United States Ups Involvement
The U.S. has about 750 military personnel in Iraq, not counting the 100 who have worked out of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad since before this crisis began. None of the 750 are engaged in ground combat, but that does not mean they are not at risk.
Among the 750 are about 160 at what the military calls “joint operation centers” — one in Baghdad and another in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region that is near the center of the latest fighting. Those 160 military personnel are coordinating with Iraqi and Kurdish military officials in support of their efforts to defend Erbil, including the U.S. Consulate there, and surrounding territory from ISIS.
The U.S. began launching airstrikes against ISIS fighters on August 8, allowing Kurdish forces to fend off an advance on Erbil and to help tens of thousands of religious minorities escape. There’s the potential for the air campaign to expand into Syria.
The airstrikes helped Iraqi and Kurdish troops reclaim the Mosul Dam from the insurgents on August 18.
UN Puts Humanitarian Crisis at Highest Level
The United Nations has announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq in the wake of the onslaught by Islamic militants who have overrun much of the country’s north and west and driven out hundreds of thousands from their homes.
The Security Council also said on August 13 it was backing new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, in the hope that he can swiftly form an “inclusive government” that could counter the insurgent threat.
The U.N.’s declaration of a “Level 3 Emergency” will trigger additional goods, funds and assets to respond to the needs of the displaced. The U.N. said it would provide increased support to those who have escaped the Sinjar mountain region and to 400,000 other Iraqis who have fled since June to the Kurdish province of Dohuk. Others have fled to other parts of the Kurdish region or further south.
A total of 1.5 million have been displaced by the fighting since the insurgents captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June and quickly swept over other parts of the country.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the “horrific murder” of American journalist James Foley, who was beheaded in a video released by ISIS on August 19. The UN chief called it “an abominable crime.”
Pope Approves Action Against Isis
Efforts to stop the Islamic militants are legitimate but the international community — and not just one country — should decide how to intervene, Pope Francis said on August 18.
Pope Francis was asked if he approved of the unilateral U.S. airstrikes on militants of the Islamic State group.
“In these cases, where there is an unjust aggression, I can only say that it is licit [legal] to stop the unjust aggressor,” Francis said. “I underscore the verb ‘stop.’ I’m not saying ‘bomb or ‘make war,’ just ‘stop.’ And the means that can be used to stop them must be evaluated.’’
The Pope’s comments were significant because the Vatican has vehemently opposed any military intervention in recent years. Pope Paul VI famously uttered the words, “War never again, never again war” at the United Nations in 1965 as the Vietnam War raged, a refrain that has been repeated by every pope since. St. John Paul II actively tried to head off the Iraq war on the grounds that a “preventive” war couldn’t be justified. Pope Francis himself staged a global prayer and fast for peace when the U.S. was threatening airstrikes on Syria last year.
Recently, the Vatican has been increasingly showing support for military intervention in Iraq, given that Christians are being directly targeted and that Christian communities that have existed for 2,000 years have been emptied as a result of the extremists’ onslaught.
When the Vatican’s ambassador to Iraq, Monsignor Giorgio Lingua, was asked about the U.S. airstrikes, he told Vatican Radio that it was unfortunate that the situation had gotten to this point “but it’s good when you’re able to at the very least remove weapons from these people who have no scruples.”
The Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, went further, saying “Maybe military action is necessary at this moment.”
The Vatican also urged Muslim leaders to denounce the “barbarity” of ISIS’ attacks against Christians and other minorities, saying their credibility is on the line.
Pope Francis sent a personal envoy, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, to northern Iraq in mid-August with an undisclosed amount of money to help people in flight and show the Pope’s solidarity with those forced to flee their homes.
In an interview with the Associated Press on August 22 upon his return, Cardinal Filoni said Kurdish leaders don’t want foreign ground troops, just equipment to fight. The Cardinal, who delivered money and met with minority Christians and Yazidis on behalf of the Pope, said the UN or other organizations — in concert with local, regional and the Iraqi national government — should be involved in the intervention. But he said there was no question that intervention was necessary.
“The question is, if a people without guns, without any arms, if they have nothing to defend themselves, to whom comes the duty to defend them?” he asked. “In my opinion, this is not a war when you have two actors facing each other with the same capacities. This is defending the right of defending these poor, simple people who are unable to defend themselves.”
Christians Welcome to Fight
Massud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, has announced that the government of the autonomous region is ready to open its doors to the Christian volunteers among the Kurdish armed forces. This would equip them with the means to create self-defense contingencies in their villages and defend themselves against ISIS, Fides reports.
Cardinal Fernando Filoni, center, the Pope’s special envoy to Iraq, visits a school that has been turned into a shelter for displaced Christians and Yazids in Mangesh on August 16. Photos by Khalid Mohammed/AP
Mar Sako: ‘The Level of Disaster Is Extreme’
“Death and sickness are grabbing 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,” said Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako in a statement on August 10. “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,” he continued.
“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 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, Dohuk 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.