Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mossul (Agenzia Fides) – One passenger dead and at least 120 injured, including three in serious conditions (one girl student is in coma): Fides sources in Mossul report on the tragic outcome of a bomb blast yesterday, 2 May, on three busses carrying Christian students from the mainly Christian town of Qaraqosh to classes at the University of Mossul.
“Christians feel fear, shock and indignation ”, the local sources told Fides, reporting that the injured were taken to various local hospitals around Mossul and Erbil and that the Christian families of Qaraqosh rushed in great alarm to find sons and daughters.
Redemptorist Father Bashar Warda, from Erbil, told Fides about the sentiments and the sadness in the local Christian community: “The attack was brutal, unprecedented. We are all the more shocked because the victims were not soldiers or militants, they were innocent students carrying school books and pens and dreams of growing up and serving the country. Christians are still targeted, they are very often the chosen victims of violence”.
With regard to the events, Fr. Warda told Fides: “The attack has raised many questions. First of all it happened along a road set between two security force control posts. As an Iraqi citizen I ask myself, we all ask ourselves, how can such a thing happen? How do our security forces work? As citizens we demand an inquiry and clear answers”.
What is more “unlike other attacks in the past, we are stunned by the silence of the government and the authorities. There has been no public statement from the central government to condemn the attack, no official statement, or intervention by the political leaders. It would seem that an attack of this size has met with general indifference. This is inadmissible and it generates anger in the local community, which feels defenceless, abandoned, at the mercy of extremists. The government has the responsibility to guarantee protection and security for all citizens”.
Many say “Christians are targeted like all Iraqis” however, says Fr Bashar, “Christian minorities are easier to strike, they are innocent, they have nothing to do with local conflicts and struggles, they carry no weapons. Under difficult conditions, Christians react by praying for security, for stability in Iraq and for reconciliation”.
Now that the situation is deteriorating, the priest concludes, “political leaders should come together with Christian religious leaders to demonstrate unity, to assume a common stance, strong and unified, on matters which concern the life and the rights of Christian minority groups in Iraq”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 3/5/2010)
