Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako Boycotts Conference in Baghdad, Iraq, and Calls on Officials to Protect Christians’ Property

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon Louis Sako boycotted a National Conference on the Protection of Peaceful Coexistence, the Ban of Hatred and the Fight against Terrorism and Extremism, held in the Iraqi parliament on Feb. 7. Sako said it was “useless to participate in conferences of slogans and mere talk that do not result in effective measures on the ground.”

Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, appeared angry at the government’s failure to take steps to protect Iraq’s Christians. According to the report, 120,000 Christians were displaced, and their properties in Mosul, which was under Islamic State control, were confiscated in June 2014. The Christians’ plight was also overlooked in Baghdad, where influential parties took over their residences.

On Feb. 5, Sako made a public statement appealing to officials and religious authorities: “I call on the conscience of officials in the Iraqi government and on religious authorities to take actions that preserve people’s lives, dignity and properties, regardless of their identity. They are humans and Iraqis.” A call to protect people who are vulnerable, whatever their faith, is central to this appeal (Psalm 82:3).

Sako went further, saying, “Practices against Christians are against religious messages and can be classified as genocide of a different type.”

The report suggests that Sako may have been limited in speaking more directly about displacement and house seizures in Baghdad, noting that his position as a religious leader calls for diplomacy. It does not describe any direct response from the government to his statements.

In a June 2015 television interview, Mohammed al-Rubaie, a member of Baghdad’s provincial council, gave statistics claiming that influential parties had taken control of 70% of the houses of Christians who had been displaced from Baghdad to destinations outside Iraq. He also said these parties had managed to change ownership of the houses in the government’s real estate records to the names of influential people.

Source: Read the original report