Late is better than never

The Daily Clarity has been covering the sectarian violence against Christians this week and seems the Iraqi government might have just caught up with our story. They announced today that they will send 1,000 police to Mosul to put an end to the Christian persecution there. Sunni dominated Mosul is the center of the problem and at least 11 Christians have been killed there since September 28.  An alarming number and one the Iraqi government needs to address urgently.

At a time when Iraqis abroad are being encouraged to return home as the situation is safe this is not playing well in the regional press. The once 800,000 strong Christian community is now estimated to be down to less than 250,000 remaining in the country. 4.2 million Iraqis have been displaced since the war began and over 2 million of these are now living outside Iraq. To date only 120,000 have returned.

Maybe the locals are smarter than we are told. They are cynical of the government’s assurance that things are safe again. Most of the politicians live in the heavily fortified Green Zone and things outside of that area are not as peaceful. One  story of many told by a local graphically illustrates the point. One Shia family which returned to their old Sunni neighbourhood in west Baghdad found it stripped of furniture, electrical plugs and even taps. “They decided to sleep on the roof of their house,” recalls Menas Mohammed Ibrahim, a secondary school teacher. “But in the night some Sunni came and cut off the husband’s head, threw it off the roof and told his wife and children: ‘This will happen to any more of you Shia who try to come back.’”

The sectarian violence is still a reality. 1,000 police sent to Mosul to address one problem is a step in the right direction. The Sunni ‘Sons of Iraq’ assimilation will be the test for the Iraqi government and controlling the lawlessness and sectarian reprisals are key to the solution.