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GENEVA — The main governing body of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Feb. 21 welcomed the January election in Iraq but warned that efforts were needed by churches around the world to assist thousands of Iraqi Christians who have fled their country.
“The embrace of a democratic process is a vote for a new Iraq, one freed both from dictatorship and from occupation,” the WCC central committee said in a statement adopted on Monday during its Feb. 15-22 meeting here.
“We see a ray of hope for the future in the millions of citizens who went to the polls last month, even though others did not participate including some Christian communities that were prevented from voting,” the committee noted.
It urged the WCC’s 347 member churches to “assist Christians to stay in Iraq by speaking out on their behalf and on behalf of all who suffer violence, killings, attacks and kidnappings there.”
Christians account for up to 3 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people but several Christian churches have been attacked by insurgents since the 2003 invasion. Emigration by Christians is reported to be increasingly common.
“We recognize Iraq’s Christian communities for their unique role in Iraqi society today, for the time-honoured witness to the Gospel and for their commitment to live in harmony with their neighbours,” the WCC governing body said.
Christians in other parts of the world could assist by “providing help to churches and agencies in neighbouring countries that have welcomed tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians forced to flee; and praying and working for their safe return,” the committee noted.
It added, “We are deeply concerned at violence that targets innocent civilians in order to kill people by category -- in suicide bombings at community gatherings, in summary executions of new job applicants, by the bombing of churches and mosques, and in the taking and murdering of hostages.”
Still, the statement said, “The overarching violence in Iraq arises from the disproportionate use of force by coalition armies, causing up to 100,000 civilian deaths and destroying whole towns and neighbourhoods purportedly to save them.
“We note that such strategies of occupation and subjugation engender further violence, work to excuse adversaries from their own barbarities, inflame public opinion across the region, and lower the political threshold for state-sponsored violence in conflicts around the world.”
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