Vatican says UN must act to protect Middle East Christians

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Friday told the United Nations Security Council that Christians are facing an “existential fear” in the Middle East.

The Security Council was hosting an open debate on “The victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious grounds in the Middle East”.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, said urged the international community to do all it can to prevent further victims of attacks and abuses for ethnic and/or religious grounds.

“Faced with the unbearable situation of living in a conflict zone controlled  by terrorist and extremist organizations who constantly threaten them with death, and  with a  deep sense of feeling abandoned to their fate, by the legitimate authorities and the International  Community,  entire communities of Christians, especially from Northern Iraq,  have been brutally  forced to flee their homes and they have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in the neighbouring countries of the region,” said Archbishop Auza.

He called on all “leaders and people of goodwill in the region and throughout the world to act before it’s too late” to prevent genocide, war crimes,  crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and their incitement.

Archbishop Auza reminded the Security Council  “when  a  State  is  unable  or  unwilling  to  uphold  this  primary  responsibility [to protect its population from these crimes],  the  International Community must be prepared to take action to protect populations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”

 

The full text of the intervention by Archbishop Auza is below

 

Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza,

Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN

United Nations Security Council Open Debate on

“The victims of attacks and abuses on ethnic or religious grounds in the Middle East”

New York, 27 March 2015

Mr. President,

At the very outset, the Holy See wishes to express its sincere gratitude to your Presidency for  having  convened  today’s  Open  Debate  on  “the  victims  of  attacks  and  abuses  on  ethnic  or  religious  ground  in  the  Middle  East”.  This  debate  is  not  only  timely  but  it  is  most  urgent,  especially when we call to mind those who have already lost their lives, for whom this Open  Debate has come too late. Their fate urges us to do all that we can to prevent further victims of  attacks and abuses for ethnic and/or religious grounds.  Christians and other religious minorities  of  the  Middle  East  seek to be heard by this Council and other International fora, not in some  abstract  form,  but  in  a  manner  that  is  truly  conscious  of  their  pain  and  suffering  and  their  existential fear for their survival in the Middle East and beyond.

We must acknowledge that the problem exists and that the hour is grave. Ethnic and religious  communities  ---  including Turkmen, Shabaks, Yazidi, Sabaeans, Kaka’e, Faili Kurds, Shi’ite  Arabs  and  even  Sunni  Arabs  and  Kurds  ---  face  extreme  pressures,  abuses  of  human  rights,  torture, killing and all forms of persecution purely for the faith they profess or for the ethnic  group to which they belong.

The Christians in the Middle East have been specifically targeted, killed or forced to flee from  their homes and countries. We have helplessly watched Assyrian Christians kidnapped in Iraq  by the so-called “Islamic State”  group, Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIL-affiliated  organizations in Libya, and the near elimination of Christians in Mosul. Only 25 years ago, there  were nearly two million Christians living in Iraq; while the most recent estimates are less than a  quarter of this figure. Faced with the unbearable situation of living in a conflict zone controlled  by terrorist and extremist organizations who constantly threaten them with death, and  with a  deep sense of feeling abandoned to their fate, by the legitimate authorities and the International  Community,  entire communities of Christians, especially from Northern Iraq,  have been brutally  forced to flee their homes and they have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in the neighbouring countries of the region.

The Holy See expresses profound gratitude to countries and leaders in the region who openly  defend the Christians as an integral part of the religious, historical and cultural fabric of the  region. For 2,000 years, Christians have called the Middle East ho me; indeed, as we all know,  the Middle East is the cradle of Christianity. 

Thus, it pains us so deeply that these ancient Christian communities in the region  ---  many of  whom  still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ  ---  are among those threatened  with  extinction.  Their  uninterrupted  existence  in  the  region  is  testimony  of  many  centuries  of  coexistence,  side  by  side,  with  Muslims  and  other  religious  and  ethnic  communities.  These  communities are an integral part of the cultural religious identity of  the Middle East, thus their disappearance  from the  Middle East would not only be a religious tragedy but a loss of  a rich  cultural-religious patrimony that contributes so much to the societies to which they belong, and  which the whole world has much interest to preserve.

The Holy See, therefore, calls on all the  leaders and people of goodwill in the region and throughout the world to act before it’s too late. In 2005, at the United Nations World Summit, the entire  International Community agreed that  every State has the primary responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes,  crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and their incitement. Moreover, the International  Community recognizes its responsibility to assist States in fulfilling their primary responsibility.  However,  when  a  State  is  unable  or  unwilling  to  uphold  this  primary  responsibility,  the  International Community must be prepared to take action to protect populations in accordance  with the Charter of the United Nations.

As Pope Benedict  XVI  underlined in his Address to the United Nations General Assembly in  2008, this responsibility to protect is not a novel creation in international law, but rather is rooted  in the ancient  ius gentium  as the foundation of every action taken by those in government with  regard to the governed.

Building on this ancient tradition and its reiterations in the international  humanitarian law and in today’s United Nations fora, Pope Francis has  repeatedly  called upon  the International Community  “to do all that it can to stop  and to prevent further  systematic  violence against ethnic and religious minorities.”

The Holy See avails of this opportunity to convey its deep appreciation to countries in the region  and to all those who work tirelessly, even risking their lives, to provide assistance to some two  and  a  half  million  internally  displaced  persons  in  Iraq, to  12  million  Syrians  in  need  of  humanitarian assistance, of which four million are living as  refugees and seven and a half million  are internally displaced. Let us help these neighbourly countries as they care for and welcome  the refugees.

Mr. President,

Delay in action will only mean more people will die, be displaced or persecuted. Pope Francis exhorts us all to join our efforts to support a Middle East that will continue to be a welcoming  home for all its ethnic and religious groups.

Thank you, Mr. President.

(from Vatican Radio)

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