New York City, N.Y., Dec 4, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- The largest protests in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein signal the rejection by most Iraqis of the country’s post-2003 structure and government, the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil told the UN Security Council Wednesday.
Since the beginning of October, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis has been protesting government corruption. They have also objected to Iran’s influence over their country’s internal affairs. More than 420 have been killed by security forces.
The protests are “a rejection of a sectarian-based Constitution, which has divided Iraq and prevented it from becoming a unified and functioning country. Instead of bringing hope and prosperity, the current government structure has brought continued corruption and despair, especially to the youth of Iraq,” Archbishop Bashar Warda said at a Security Council meeting on Iraq held in New York City Dec. 3.
He added that Iraqi youth “have made it clear that they want Iraq to be independent of foreign interference, and to be a place where all can live together as equal citizens in a country of legitimate pluralism and respect for all.”
Archbishop Warda noted that Christians and other minorities “have been welcomed into the protest movement by the Iraqi Muslims,” which “demonstrates real hope for positive changes in which a new government in Iraq … will be much more positive towards a genuinely multi-religious Iraq with full citizenship for all and an end to this sectarian disease which has so violently harmed and degraded us all.”
He also highlighted the non-violent nature of the protests, especially in the face of the crackdown by security forces.
“At stake is whether Iraq will finally emerge from the trauma of Saddam and the past 16 years to become a legitimate, independent and functioning country, or whether it will become a permanently lawless region, open to proxy wars between other countries and movements, and a servant to the sectarian demands of those outside Iraq,” the archbishop stated.
He said that if the protests lead to a new government with a new constitution “not based in Sharia but instead based upon the fundamental concepts of freedom for all … then a time of hope can still exist for the long suffering Iraqi people.”
“If the protest movement is not successful, if the international community stands by and allows the murder of innocents to continue, Iraq will likely soon fall into civil war, the result of which will send millions of young Iraqis, including most Christians and Yazidis, into the diaspora,” he added.
Archbishop Warda urged the international community not to support “false changes in leadership which do not really represent change.” He chared that “the ruling power groups do not intend to give up control, and that they will make every effort to fundamentally keep the existing power structures in place.”
He said Iraq’s government has a a “broken nature,” with a “fundamental need for change and replacement.”
“The first step must be the initiation of early elections,” stated the archbishop. He call for freedom of the press before and during the elections, as well as UN monitoring and observation “by all major parties in Iraq so that the elections are legitimate, free and fair.”
For Archbishop Warda, “only in this way can a new government set a course for the future of an Iraq which is free of corruption and where there is full citizenship and opportunity for all.”
Marginalized Iraqis look to the international community for “action and support,” he added. “We hold you all accountable for this. Iraq, the country which has so often been harmed, now looks to you all for help. We believe we have a future, and we ask you not to turn away from us now.”
After his briefing of the Security Council, Archbishop Warda said that Christians and other minorities in Iraq stand with “Muslim protestors as together they seek a better life, based on equality regardless of religious belief. Either Iraq will develop as these protestors hope, moving away from political violence and the current sectarian power structure and taking its rightful place among nations who respect the rights of all regardless of their faith, or it will slide backwards, a fate previewed in the killing of protestors and most notably with the genocide and other carnage at the hands of ISIS. In this latter case, Iraqi sovereignty too will be undermined as its strong neighbors meddle in its internal affairs.”
Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, said his community will not have public Christmas celebrations, “out of respect for the dead and wounded among protesters and security forces, and in solidarity with the pains of their families,” The New Arab reported Dec. 3.
“There will be no decorated Christmas trees in the churches or streets, no celebrations and no reception at the patriarchate,” he stated.
The Iraq protests, which began Oct. 1, are largely in response to government corruption and a lack of economic growth and proper public services. Protesters are calling for electoral reform and for early elections.
Government forces have used tear gas and bullets against protesters. Some 17,000 protesters have been injured. According to the BBC, at least 12 security personnel have died amid the unrest.
Prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi announced Nov. 29 he would resign, though he will remain as interim PM until his successor is chosen. The announcement came shortly after Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shia spiritual leaders in Iraq, called on parliament to withdraw its support from the government.
Iraq’s constitution, adopted in 2005, establishes Islam as the state religion and the foundation of the country’s laws, though freedom of religion is guaranteed. The constitution was largely backed by Shia Arabs and by Kurds (most of whom are Sunni), and opposed by Sunni Arabs.
This post-2003 settlement includes a quota system based on ethnicity and sect, which has fostered corruption and patronage.
In the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index 2019, Iraq ranked 13th out of 178 countries, placing it in an alert category for state vulnerability and in the company of Haiti and Nigeria.
And Iraq was ranked 168 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, in the company of Venezuela.
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According to Abp. Wenski’s own phrasing of Gov. DeSantis’ statement, “he described any comparison of unaccompanied minors from Cuba in the early 60’s with those from Central America today as ‘disgusting’”.
Then the archbishops says “no child should be deemed ‘disgusting’ — especially by a public servant.”
What public servant did, Your Excellency? Certainly not Gov. DeSantis – by your own omission. He was addressing the “parallel,” which many Floridians of Cuban heritage find contemptible.
Clearly Abp. Wenski is passionate about his advocacy, but he would likely deem it unjust if DeSantis were to twist the archbishop’s statements in like manner.
On the same subject, though: Like many Floridians, DeSantis opposes the Biden Administration’s funding with millions of taxpayer dollars the contracts that go to Catholic NGO’s to traffick the illegals throughout the country after they arrive.
Last Tuesday was the USCCB’s Day of Prayer for Trafficking Victims.
I have asked Abp. Wenski please to condemn the international Coyote drug-sex-gun-and-human traffickers who bring hundreds of thousands of illegals to the Catholic NGO’s at the border. No reply as yet – and not one other US bishop, not even the “good” ones, will do so either.
And they won’t condemn Biden, either.
These criminal Coyote abusers charge $5,000 per head (yes, like cattle) to rob them, assault them even rape them on the way to the border. If the illegal is caught and sent home, he/she doesn’t get a refund.And yet, they are the “silent partners” of the Catholic NGO’s, lawyers, and contractors that profit (check the salaries) from their crimes.
Archbishop Wenski decries a comment Desantis never made. Perhaps he would like to apologize for his deliberate distortion of what the Governor actually said. After that, he can repent of his advocacy of immigration policies that are ruining this country.
Yet more unrealistic and otherworldly comments from a high churchman who lives in a freely provided house with no worries about money and paying the bills.Reality seems incomprehensible to some of these folks. Here’s a reality check. There are many things the US can apparently no longer provide for its people: law and order, modern school buildings, mental health care for those who live on the streets, housing for our homeless. There are other issues, such as the pot holes in the roads we seem unable to fix. Fixing these things takes MONEY. All of these issues are worsened by unlimited illegal immigration. Minors or adults, the net effect is the same. These people are costing us money we no longer have.They need food, housing, medical care, education, etc. The planet contains BILLIONS of poor, and the US CANNOT accept and care for all of them. It really is that simple. This is the truth, whether or not the churchmen like it. Attempting to turn it into a racial issue, moral failing, or anything like it, is simply spreading a lie.
It is amazing how many bishops, including this one, are ignorant of human trafficking of illegal minors, and supportive of violating US immigration laws. For shame.
I wonder why so many (it seems like it could be a great majority) of the “unaccompanied” turn out to be males in their late teens and twenties. Are they truly “unaccompanied” if they are being guided across the border by Coyotes and shady NGOs like Catholic Charities? Many of the “unaccompanied minors” are soon reunited with their parents who are already here or will be coming soon. This suggests that their travels are not acts or desperation, but carefully planned criminal conspiracies. Many of the “unaccompanied” are sex traffickers or their victims. Many of them and their escorts are bringing in drugs that are killing tens of thousands every year. Perhaps the bishops and their cronies will one day address specifics rather than just mouthing leftist platitudes.
I’m reading this article in tandem with the one on CatholicVote’s efforts to get some facts. The leftist platitudes are less than helpful.
Why is grossly obese, black-leather-clad motorcycle “hog”-riding, Latin Mass-suppressing limousine liberal Wenski fawningly referred to in the headline of this odious article as the “Miami archbishop” while Governor DeSantis is demeaned as “DeSantis”? How typical of this FrancisBishop to twist Governor deSantis’ words to fit the open-borders globalist propaganda being shilled by Papa Pachamama and his Vatican Queeria.
I applaud the Archbishop’s comment. Disgusting is the word and meaning DiSantis said. Pushaw should apologize to the Archbishop. This isn’t political, it’s children’s lives.
Made a mistake, Pushaw, stop digging the hole you find yourself in.