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Iraqi Christians displaced by ISIL find solace in Baghdad
[Al Jazeera] Along with 183 other families, Perus calls an IDP camp - set up by the Christian Assyrians at their headquarters in Baghdad since 2014 - home.The camp, which was established with the help of Baghdad's provincial council and the ministry of displaced families along with international NGOs and churches, provides Petrus' family with a portacabin of two rooms and kitchen. To him, Baghdad has become home and he sees no way of going back to Nineveh. "When I visited my hometown, I found nothing but a closet in my destructed flat," he says, sitting among his daughters in a small living room inside their cabin, with pictures of Jesus and a large cross adorning the walls. "I found safety and security in Baghdad," says Petrus, who now runs a little shop in the camp. "It's like how it used to be back home where I could practise my faith openly and everyone - Sunni, Shia, Christian or Yazidi - got along," he adds. STILL IN FEAR Like Petrus, Nahla Khadr, a mother of two, also from Hamdaniya, has no intention of returning to Nineveh. "We'll either stay in Baghdad or leave the country altogether," says Nahla. "But I'd never go back." Khadr, who has been living with her husband and children, Abdel Masih, 13, and Maryam, 11, at the camp Baghdad says Nineveh will never feel safe again. "I went to visit [Hamdaniya] a few weeks ago, but my son refused to join us. He still remembers what it was like to leave when ISIS stormed our village. He's afraid to go back." Although ISIS was defeated in December 2017, like Nahla and her family, most of the 148 families at the camp are unlikely to return to Nineveh. They see their future in Baghdad or abroad, where many of Iraq's Christians, and other minority communities, have gradually headed since 2003. According to Yonadam Kanna, a former member of parliament and an Assyrian Christian from Baghdad, religious tensions remain in areas overrun by ISIS, making it difficult for Christians to return. "Only 20 families went back, but even some of those returned here. They don't feel safe there and there's no opportunity or means to rebuild a life in Nineveh," he adds. LEAVING IRAQ ALTOGETHER Father Martin Dawood, head of the citizens' affairs department at the Christian Endowment Office, agrees the main obstacle in the way of Christian families returning is double-pronged: lack of services and trust. "The Plains of Nineveh were already neglected by the government even before ISIS came. The tensions have only made it worse - there are no basic services or job opportunities." "They are also afraid that ISIS or a similar group may return, and that this time they wouldn't be lucky to flee in time," adds Dawood, who says rebuilding trust between the families and the areas from which they fled is essential. Still, Dawood says he believes the families in Baghdad will only remain in Iraq temporarily before migrating abroad. "Most families in Baghdad wish to leave the country," he says. "Although in Baghdad the situation is better, for years [since the US-led invasion in 2003], Iraqi Christians have been leaving the country. "ISIS's presence only made this desire to leave more urgent." Posted by: Fred 2018-08-07 |
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