letter to the Honorable Nuri al-Maliki

Date: 2009-07-16
No;081
The Honorable Nuri al-Maliki
Prime Minister
Federal Republic of Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq
Dear Prime Minister al-Maliki,
I am in great distress over the latest attacks perpetrated against our churches in Iraq.
This contemptible action is clearly ethnocide and is intended to intimidate and
dishearten the Assyrians and drive them out of our ancestral lands.
We are extremely concerned that attacks like these will continue to plague Iraq
unless your government takes firm and immediate action to secure and protect this
helpless segment of IraqÂ’s population. We demand that the Iraqi government
convene an emergency assembly to discuss and unanimously approve and ratify the
Assyrian right to autonomy and grant us the requested autonomous region on our
ancestral lands in North Iraq. As you know and have agreed in principle to its
formation, this autonomous region is essential for the protection and survival of our
people.
We further reiterate our demands as outlined in the petition we submitted to Your
Honor during your visit to Australia in March of 2009. We appeal to you and IraqÂ’s
federal government to establish, train, arm and further support an Assyrian security
force as part of IraqÂ’s national security and/or local police force to serve as a defense
for Assyrian towns and villages.
The recent recognition of autonomy rights for Assyrians by the parliament of the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and these vicious, inhumane attacks on
innocent church-goers have now redirected the eyes of the world back to Iraq and the
actions of its government. We urge you to lead the government of Iraq in taking
immediate and conclusive actions in creating an Assyrian autonomous region in
North Iraq. This is a decision that will be an outstanding model to the world not only
of the strict enforcement of human rights in the new Federal Republic of Iraq, but
also of the high value Iraq places on its ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples.