Iraquian government protects christians

"Iraq. Christian community of the third and more dangerous city of the country - Mossul, bastion of the Al-Qaeda - is since friday target of violence. The situation led to the escape of five thousand people. Bagdad's Government sent 900 policies for the capital of Ninive and ordered the detention of the responsible ones for the occurrence " The Christians have the right to live in security and with dignity; they are one component of the iraquian people." This statement is contained in the official notice emitted yesterday by the head of the Bagdad's Executive, Nouri al- - Maliki. The text of the account of the governmental decision to strengthen the security in the Christian quarters of Mossul, city of the North of the country from where 936 families had left, since friday. Mossul, capital of the province of Ninive, is a stronghold of the Al-Qaeda. According to the governor of the province, the city it's the place for the most violent antichristian vacant of last the five years, already condemned by Bento XVI. The first-minister still commanded to the forces of security in the province of Ninive " that they take the necessary measures for the return of the people who had left" and that investigates and punishs who is responsable for making the Christian families runaway. In the sequence of the governmental decision, 900 policemen had been sent for Mossul for, specifically, making the security to the four quarters who's population is in it's majority Christian and to it's churches. During the night, barriers to the entrance of the quarters have been created, where the police controlled all the cars that passed thru. The security, according to the BBC correspondent in the Iraqian capital, was also reforced in Bagdad and Baçorá. Khalid Abdel-Satar, spokesman of the military command in Mossul, said that the Christians " had started to leave their houses without a direct threat from the insurrect groups" but as a consequence of the selective murders that had occurred in the last weeks. For its turn, Duraid Kachmoula, governor of Ninive, recognized that exists a campaign of antichristian propagand and acts against the related community. Since September 28th, 11 Christians were killed and, on Saturday, three houses of Christians were destroyed with explosives. Situated 370 quilómetros the north of Bagdad, Mossul is the third and one of the most dangerous cities of Iraq. In February, the Chaldean archbishop of the city, monsignor Faraj Rahou, was abducted and found dead some weeks later. Friday, when the exodus of the Christians of Mossul started, monsignor Louis Sako, bishop of Kirkuke (North) and a controller of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, denounced " campaign of liquidation with political objectives" orquestrada against the Christians in the country, specially in Mossul. A total of about five thousand people of Mossul have been taking refuge in the Christian villages on the outskirts of the city. Yesterday, in the Vatican, the Pope Bento XVI condemned " violence against the Christians in Iraq and Índia". Since 2003, year of the American invasion, 250 thousand Christians, of a community of 800 thousand, had left Iraq."

Source: http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/10/13/internacional/bairros_cristaos_mossul_segur...