A Scottish Euro MP has spent a tense four days in Iraq, visiting Syrian refugee camps and meeting senior political leaders. Struan Stevenson, who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq, travelled to Erbil in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, where he met with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s President Masoud Barzani, and the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani. He also met with leading Christian Bishops, the Grand Mufti of Iraq and some members of the Iraqi Parliament including the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee as well as leaders of the recent popular uprisings in six provinces against the Baghdad Government.
Press Release
For Immediate Release-Brussels- 27 November 2013
Back from Iraq, Struan Stevenson says:
“Maliki’s authoritarian policies are tearing the country apart”
A Scottish Euro MP has spent a tense four days in Iraq, visiting Syrian refugee camps and meeting senior political leaders. Struan Stevenson, who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq, travelled to Erbil in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, where he met with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s President Masoud Barzani, and the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani. He also met with leading Christian Bishops, the Grand Mufti of Iraq and some members of the Iraqi Parliament including the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee as well as leaders of the recent popular uprisings in six provinces against the Baghdad Government.
Speaking on his return to Brussels, Struan said:
“I was invited to address a major conference in Erbil organised by the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Christians, which over 600 people attended. The conference debated the gradual erosion of Iraq’s ancient Christian community which has now dwindled from 1.5 million to an estimated 300,000. One of the oldest Christian communities in the world, which can trace its origins back to the time of Christ, now faces extinction because of virtual ethnic cleansing and constant vicious bombings, assassinations and kidnappings. The autonomous region of Kurdistan is the only safe haven for Christians and many other ethnic minorities who have found themselves under constant attack in Iraq.
“Kurdistan has a tradition of providing a safe haven for refugees and I was able to visit some massive camps where Syrians, fleeing from the civil war in their country, have been given food and shelter. But it is a sad indictment of the Government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, that none of the aid money he promised the Kurds has ever materialised. I visited Kawregocek refugee camp near Erbil where 13,000 Syrian men, women and children have been living since August. The Kurdistan Regional Government and UNHCR have done amazing work in setting up a series of emergency camps in a very short period, to provide food and shelter for these people. But with winter approaching, there is an urgent need for additional aid to provide tent linings, stoves, heaters, winter clothing and more food. The EU must stop sending such financial aid to Baghdad, where it simply disappears, but must instead give it directly to the NGOs who are actively helping the Syrian refugees in Iraq.”
“Indeed this was not the only complaint against Maliki that I heard during my visit. Again and again I was told by representatives of many diverse religious faith and ethnic minorities and even from the larger Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities, how Maliki’s sectarian government has become deeply unpopular. Leaders of the popular uprisings in 6 Sunni provinces told me that the wave of terror which has claimed the lives of 7,000 people so far this year in Iraq is his responsibility, because he controls the military, the police, the intelligence services and all aspects of security in the country. Iraq is rapidly spiralling down towards a renewed insurgency and Maliki’s only response is to marginalise the Kurds, label the Sunnis as terrorists and turn a blind-eye to the systematic discrimination and violence against other ethnic minority groups.
“I raised the question of the horrific massacre of 52 Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf on September 1st and the abduction of 7 hostages, 6 of them women, who have not been seen since. Maliki denies all knowledge of these appalling crimes against defenceless refugees, but it is clear that such an orchestrated and savage assault could never have been planned and executed without his direct involvement. I asked leading politicians in Iraq to intervene without delay to ensure the immediate release of these hostages, who are being held in Baghdad as has been confirmed recently by Amnesty International. In my numerous meetings I realized that there is a strong revulsion amongst the Arab and Kurdish politicians towards this massacre which they repeatedly described as a crime against humanity and an insult to Arabic-Kurdish traditions of hospitality”.
Struan Stevenson MEP
President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq
