worries among the country’s Christians about what they see as growing Islamic violence directed against them. Al-Jaffari became part of Iraq’s first democratically elected government, since the ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by a United States-led invasion in 2003.
One by one, al-Jaafari and members of his Cabinet walked up to a podium and pledged to defend Iraq and its people, according to news reports. But a number of ministries — including the key defense and oil industries — reportedly remained in temporary hands as bickering persisted over how to include members of the Sunni minority.
It came after a series of bomb explosions in recent days killed nearly 170 people, injured many more, and added to concern among Christians as they have been seen as allies of the US-led coalition. Recently the Washington based human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC) claimed that especially the "ChaldoAssyrian Christians in Iraq," who are believed to be the country’s indigenous people, were "continually singled out by insurgents."
CHURCHES ATTACKED
The Christians already "endured suicide bombings at their churches, acid thrown on women for not wearing the hijab, kidnappings for profit, and the murder of store owners," ICC said. Christian entrepreneurs selling alcohol are among those targeted by Islamic gunmen, BosNewsLife established in Baghdad.
At least one bomb, which was detonated Monday, May 2, in the Huriya district of northwest Baghdad, was linked to Iraq’s al Qaeda wing. The group apparently targeted a small convoy of vehicles carrying Major General Fuleih Rasheed, the head of a police commando unit of the Interior Ministry, and contained an anti Christian and anti-Semitic message.
"(We tell) the criminal…Fuleih…there is no success in this life or the next to allies of Jews and Christians," the group’s statement reportedly said, although it could not be immediately authenticated. Police said the explosion wounded Rasheed and three of his bodyguards, but none of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening, Reuters news agency reported.
DELEGATE KILLED
Earlier in Baghdad one of the delegates to the assembly was killed, the first assassination of a legislator since the election results were announced in February. Lamia Abed Khadouri al-Sakri, a representative of Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi alliance, was shot to death at her home by gunmen who knocked at her door and then opened fire. And on Sunday a suicide bomber rammed his car into a funeral procession for a Kurdish official in the northern town of Tal Afar, killing at least 30 people and wounding around 50, Reuters and other news sources said.
Since Monday, May 2, coalition forces have confronted suspected members of al-Qaida in Iraq, killing a dozen militants and injuring a 6-year-old girl, the military said.
Apart from suicide car bombings and shootings, militants are pressing on with a campaign of hostage-taking of foreigners as well as many Iraqi Christians, according to human rights groups. An Australian hostage flanked by masked gunmen pleaded for his life in a tape released on Sunday, April 1, the latest of more than 150 foreigners taken captive in Iraq over the past year.
While the government pledged to end the violence, tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians have already fled the nation in recent months. Many of them for fear, others because they feel left out of the political process in the mainly Islamic country, Christian politicians say.
MINORITIES "NEGLECTED"
"The people from minorities who have been neglected after the [30 January] elections are some of the oldest residents in Iraq," Santa Mikhail, a member of the Assyrian Women’s Union (AWU), told the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) in a recent interview.
"We [Christians] want to have a clear vision through the media and through the people who believe in our rights as Iraqi citizens and [we want] civil society foundations that care about minority rights," IRIN quoted al-Azawi as saying.
Christians, many of whom are of Assyrian descent, comprise roughly 3 percent of Iraq’s population, according to current estimates. Several organizations representing religious minorities have set up a committee which will liaise with the new government to ensure that their rights are genuinely protected under the new constitution, IRIN said. (With reports from Iraq, BosNewsLife Research and Stefan J. Bos).
