Kurds offer Christians help

Opinion: October 29, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Samah Samad

Institute on War & Peace Reporting

BAGHDAD, Iraq

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is offering to provide homes to poor Christian families uprooted by nearly a decade of sectarian violence. But some are questioning the motives behind the humanitarian gesture.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have often been the target of violence by Islamist extremists. More than 200,000 have fled the country.

Those who remain live in constant danger of attack, such as the al-Qaida-led attack on a church in central Baghdad that left 60 dead.

Recently, the Kurdish party announced that it was offering 200 plots of land in a gated compound in Se Ganian, a village about six miles north of Kirkuk, and $10,000 per family to encourage low-income Christian families to settle there.

So far, 40 families from across Iraq have taken up the PUK offer and moved into the village, with more expected to follow suit.

Motives

Observers say the Kurdish party is driven by two separate motives.

“This initiative is humanitarian, but also a political move to get more votes for the party’s next campaign in Kirkuk,” said Mohammad Ameen, a political analyst and a professor at Kirkuk University.

The campaign involved a long-delayed referendum that will decide whether the oil-rich Kirkuk region joins the Kurdistan region or remains in Iraq. Billions of dollars in oil revenue are at stake.

Ghafoor Salih Sameen, a party official in Kirkuk, denied that the current move was an attempt to curry votes among Christians in the upcoming referendum, and argued that Kurds have a long history of aiding the Christian community.

“We are working hard to serve Kirkuk residents in general and the Christians in particular, as they are an important part of the identity of Kirkuk,” said Dilshad Beirut, chief of the projects committee on the Kirkuk provincial council. “We will do our best to stop their exodus by providing all necessary services.” Sleewa, 38, who lost his brother two years ago when Islamic extremists kidnapped and killed him, has moved his family to Se Ganian.

“I decided to live (there) even though it is far from downtown Kirkuk where I work,” he said. “But it is better than living where we are exposed to risk at any time.” There are currently 200,000 Chaldean Christians in Iraq, three times fewer than before Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003.

There are currently six church-funded projects running in Kirkuk and neighboring villages to support the Christian community. They include rehabilitating old churches and building entertainment clubs and youth centers.

Samah Samad is a reporter in Iraq who writes for IWPR, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClaqtchy-Tribune Information Services.