call to “break the international silence on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and provide greater assistance to displaced and refugee Iraqis” was made in a “Statement on Iraq and its Christian communities” issued by the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee at the end of its recent meeting in Etchmiadzin, Armenia. According to the statement, one-third of the Iraqi population is in need of emergency and humanitarian assistance, while more than half live in “abject poverty or worse”.
The statement underlines that one Iraqi in six “is internally displaced or has fled outside the country” due to the “prevalence of violence” by non-state armed groups, regular armed forces and criminal groups. Deeming that “strategies based on the use of force have driven the country into chaos”, the statement recalls “once again that policies of occupation do not have international Church support” and calls, in a separate statement, for a “withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq and the implementation of alternative Iraqi and multilateral political, economic and security programs”.
One-third of the Iraqi population is in need of emergency and humanitarian assistance, while more than half live in abject poverty or worse
The fate of Iraq’s Christian communities, which represent only 4% of Iraq’s population but make up 40% of its refugees, “although it cannot be seen in isolation from that of other Iraqi communities, gives churches around the world particular cause for concern and reason to respond”, stesses the WCC executive committee, praising “leading Muslim clerics who are using their authority to contain the violence in Iraq”.
It suggests that “joint Christian-Muslim advocacy overseas for tolerance and co-existence in Iraq would send a powerful signal to Iraqis of all faiths”. The WCC brings together more than 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing some 550 million Christians and including most of the world's Orthodox churches, scores of denominations from such historic traditions of the Protestant Reformation as Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed, as well as many united and independent churches.
(From MISNA)