UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

efuge in the three Northern Governorates, mainly the Governorate of Dahuk, and in the
Ninewa Plain. 248
iii) Current Situation
The security environment and political climate has steadily worsened for religious
minorities in Iraq since the 2003 toppling of the former regime. There have been a number
of targeted attacks on Christian places of worship, religious figures 249 as well as
individuals. After attacks on several Christian churches in 2004, several additional
incidents were again reported in 2006. 250 According to UNAMI HRO, attacks against
Christians in Iraq have intensified since September 2006 and are still on the rise.” 251
Christian clergy have reported that priests in Iraq no longer dare to wear their clerical robes
in public for fear of being attacked. 252 The Babel College, the only Christian theological
university in the country, and the Chaldean St. Peter seminary were transferred from
Baghdad to Ainkawa in Erbil Governorate in early 2007 after senior staff had been
kidnapped. 253
Acts of violence against many members of the Christian community include, inter alia,
harassment and intimidation, killings (often with extreme violence), kidnappings, armed
robbery, forced closure, destruction or confiscation of property, forced conversion to
Islam 254 and rape and forced marriage of Christian women. The Director of the Iraqi
Museum, Donny George, a respected Assyrian, says that he was forced to flee Iraq to Syria
in fear for his life and that Islamic fundamentalists obstructed all of his work that was not
248 According to the Society for Threatened People, only about 40,000 Christians have been able to find
refuge in the three Northern Governorates, while another 40,000 have fled to the Ninewa Plain; see: Society
for Threatened People, Iraq: Germany must take Christian refugees!, 22 December 2006, http://www.gfbv.de/
pressemit.php?id=788&stayInsideTree=1.
249 See “Annex I: Attacks on Christian Religious and Political Representatives”.
250 In the days following the attack in Samarra on 22 February 2006, militias shot at a church near Al-Sadr
City, lightly wounding a priest; see UNAMI HRO, February 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 5, see above
footnote 165. On 29 January 2006, car bombs targeted the Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary and the
Orthodox Church in Kirkuk, the Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church and an Anglican Church in Baghdad, killing
at least three people and wounding several. A car bomb also exploded outside the residence of the Apostolic
Nuncio in Baghdad, without causing any casualties; see: USDOS, International Religious Freedom Report
2006 – Iraq, see above footnote 28; BBC News, Churches targeted in Iraq blasts, 29 January 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4660104.stm. On 26 September 2006, attackers launched rockets
against the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit, causing no injuries; see Asia News, Second attack in three
days against a Chaldean church, 26 September 2006, http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7321.
251 UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 3, see above footnote 10. See also: UNAMI
HRO, October 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 3, see above footnote 66.
252 UNAMI HRO, October 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 13, see above footnote 66. See also: Charles
Tannock, The Assyrians: Ignored among fears of an Iraqi Civil War, The Daily Star, 10 July 2006,
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=75907.
253 Asia News, Theological university and seminary leave unsafe Baghdad and head north, 5 January 2007,
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=8150&size=A.
254 According to UNAMI HRO, “(…) and Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains in particular have been pressured
to convert to Islam”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 13, see above footnote 10.
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