44 FMR IRAQ special issue The plight of the Iraqi Christians by Nineb Lamassu

The Assyrians, the last concentrated pocket of Assyrio- storeowners, hairdressers and music Aramaic-speaking people in the world, are the victims of storeowners have been murdered. a systematic religious and ethnic cleansing which is going Dora and other Assyrian largely unnoticed. neighbourhoods of Baghdad have been emptied. There could now be up to 150,000 Assyrians refugees Iraq’s Christian population, which Known also as Chaldeans and in Jordan. The exact number is numbered over a million at the Syriacs, the Assyrians are the most impossible to determine as a result beginning of the war, has been educated of Iraq’s many minorities. of Jordan’s refusal to acknowledge increasingly targetted by extremists The Assyrians are singled out for and register refugees. After at and insurgents. Church bombings, retribution because many worked first saying there are no refugees, kidnappings, extortion, beheadings, for the UN prior to 2003 and because Jordan has now commissioned the rape and forced taxation for being the Americans have made use of Norwegian research institute Fafo to non-Muslims have forced hundreds their skills. Assyrians have worked investigate how many Iraqi refugees of thousands of Assyrians – together as interpreters, construction workers, there actually are. It is far from with other Christians – to abandon contractors and maids and many used certain that the Fafo investigation their ancestral land and flee to to commute to the Green Zone and will find out. Many Iraqis are Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon. to US bases. Many Assyrian liquor afraid of being repatriated and will therefore not meet Fafo’s personnel.

This Christian woman fled from Baghdad Sargon ran a music shop in Baghdad. to Kurdistan The Shi’ite Mehdi militia forbade all in 2007 with music and sent a threatening letter to her husband him. He ignored it, but when they put and children. a bomb in a wheelchair by his shop he knew he had to leave. He arrived in Amman having abandoned everything. Money from a sister in Australia pays his rent and Caritas pays for his wife’s post-natal care. Like so many refugees, they hardly ever leave their apartment as they are afraid of being arrested. UNHCR have given them protection cards but they know of others forcibly repatriated to Iraq despite having them. He has sought a visa for almost all European countries without success. He feels the entire refugee situation is yet another show for the galleries – like Operation Freedom, the Iraqi government and the Jordanian refugee policy. The Americans, he says, allowed them to become sitting ducks for the criminal gangs and fundamentalist Islamists.

A relative is even more bitter. “The US went to war with a Christian rhetoric but they left Iraq’s Christians to die. The war has developed into a war of religions; everything else is a manipulation of the reality. In the apartment next to ours lives a young Assyrian man whose father was killed in a Hummer along with American UNHCR/K Brooks FMR IRAQ special issue 45

Saddam Hussein changed the Iraqi fought together against the regime. soldiers. He has become an orphan constitution in 1978, establishing that Today the Assyrians have no allies because of the Americans but when there were only two peoples in Iraq: and are safe nowhere in Iraq. he applied for a visa to the US he was Kurds and Arabs. The Assyrians, turned down. He lives on gifts from us the indigenous population of Iraq, Nineb Lamassu (nineb@firodil. others who lack food ourselves. That were thus to be called Christian co.uk) directs the Firodil Institute, is America’s way of saying thank you.” Kurds or Christian Arabs. Those who a London-based centre for the accepted it were tolerated, allowed study of the Assyrian language, to exercise their religion, culture culture and civilisation. “They do not call us Christians, they and language freely. Those who call us crusaders! But we Middle opposed and wanted to maintain This article draws on testimonies Eastern Christians have never been their Assyrian identity were accused in ‘By God: Six Days in crusaders. On the contrary we have of treason and risked death penalties. Amman’, by Nuri Kino www. always taken the consequences Assyrians in northern Iraq therefore aina.org/reports/bgsdia.pdf of the West’s crusaders.” joined the Kurdish opposition and

Education crisis for Iraqi children by J R A Williams

Displaced Iraqi children – both those inside Iraq and barriers to attendance and enrolment in primary schools – Out of School in neighbouring states – are being denied their right to in Iraq – observes that while findings education. It is vital to gather accurate data on displaced cannot be generalised for the whole children and to engage children and adults in displaced country, it is clear that the appalling communities in pragmatic ways to provide education despite security situation in Iraq is not yet the main factor excluding children the current circumstances. from basic education. Reporting from settled communities, the In 2005 UNHCR reported that in are up to 60 children in classes in survey notes that the high cost of Lebanon, 55% of Iraqi households do refugee-hosting areas. The foreign schooling in terms of uniform and not send their children to school; a ministry in Syria estimates it has had transportation keeps children away. further 25% of households reported to spend an additional $60 million Demand for children to contribute to that some of their children were to provide education for Iraqis. the household economy is identified missing school. Syria allows Iraqi as the major factor causing drop- children access to school but the Poverty and uncertain legal status out and non-enrollment. Only Ministry of Education found only appear to be the main reasons for improvements in family living 26,124 children enrolled, some 13% families not enrolling their children standards will provide the necessary of the estimated population of 6-14 in school. Children stay home to economic security to ensure that year-olds presently in Syria. While no look after their siblings or generate children enter and stay at school. quantitative information is available additional income. Where children in Jordan, anecdotal evidence have access to school, families have suggests that substantial numbers are to pay school fees and for school Challenges facing out of school. Within Iraq, enrolment uniforms, books and school materials. those in school of children in urban areas is estimated There may be little money left for at less than 78% (68% for girls). education after paying rent and for Displaced Iraqi children face essential food, medicine and basic challenges in the classroom on a daily There is massive pressure on schools household items. With the ambiguous basis. Teachers cannot provide the in host areas. Some schools in the legal situation of many refugees, psychological support the children northern provinces in Iraq are children may not be registered or need and schools are not able to running four shifts in an attempt to may be withdrawn from school in accommodate children from different accommodate displaced children. case their families are identified as learning systems, with different Shifts have been introduced in illegal residents and deported. languages, accents and abilities. host schools in Syria where class Children out of school in Iraq cite sizes have increased from 24 to The situation inside Iraq is similar. a long list of concerns including 44 students, and in Jordan there Save the Children’s recent survey of poor educational methods, violence