Iraq: US spending bill to arm so-called Christian anti-extremist militias

Training of a Christian militia in Baghdad in July 2015.

As part of the fight against extremists on the plains of Nineveh, Fides announced on May 19, 2016, an American defence spending bill to finance and distribute weapons to so-called “Christian militias”. The new bill specifically refers to “Christian militias” as privileged recipients of American logistical and military support. “The Committee believes that the US should support local groups, equipped in operational and adequate fashion, such as Iraqi Christian militias with a national security mandate.”

According to American site Christian Today, the initiative follows the House of Representatives’ vote condemning the atrocities committed against Christians and the other religious minorities of Iraq and Syria by terrorist group Daesh as “genocide” (see DICI no. 333, 25/03/16). Steve Oshana, CEO of A Demand for Action, a group lobbying for protection of Christians, has called this initiative “major progress”. According to him, “Christian forces in Iraq and Syria have spent the last 18 months building themselves up and one group has already benefited from American support in Syria.”

Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon Louis Raphael I Sako is opposed to this bill. He believes that the decision to provide arms to so-called Christian militias “is a very bad idea. It shows what this declaration of genocide is truly tending towards.” He explained to Fides, “There are no Christian militias but only politicized groups and private individuals who desperately need a salary. The Christians remaining in Iraq are only the poor and those in the middle class. Among them are 100,000 refugees.”

Patriarch Sako resides in Bagdad. He added that many Christian refugees had been forced to “declaration of allegiance” in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan and its President, Masud Barzani. “Now,” he continued, “Sunni Arabs want to establish an autonomous region of Mosel with the support of Turkey, while the Kurds want to emphasize the process of independence of Kurdistan. Another Christian political group is supported by the central government of Bagdad. Total confusion reigns. Everyone wants to use the Christians on the plains of Nineveh to serve their own ambitions and political interests. This zone is at the limit. It is a region including various ethnic groups and religious communities, a buffer zone between the region under Kurdish control and that under Sunni control. Everyone considers the Christians in this sector according to their own economic or political interests. I am afraid this rhetoric will transform the plain of Nineveh into a region of constant conflict, and if this is the case, no Christian will return to his home.” The Patriarch continues, “If Christians wish to have a future, they must join official institutions and follow the legitimate authorities who govern the place where they live. The US, if it wishes truly to vanquish the so-called Islamic State, must support the regular armies that depend on central government and the autonomous government of Kurdistan instead of creating sectarian militias.”

Already in March 2016, Patriarch Sako published a letter addressed to the Chaldean faithful in which he condemned these Christian militia, which call themselves “Assyrians,” saying that they must not “think the solution can be found in setting up isolated armed factions that fight for our rights,” since in reality such confessional militias are “sponsored and supported by the same powers that ignited the conflict.”

(Sources: Fides – Christian Today – DICI no. 337, 17/06/16)

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