ASIA/IRAQ - Northern Iraq's displaced get own radio station

Erbil (Agenzia Fides) - A radio station at the service of the refugees in northern Iraq, belonging to different ethnic and religious groups - Christians and Muslims, Kurds, Shiites eyazidi - forced to flee their homes before the offensive of the jihadists of the Islamic State. Radio Al-Salam, the radio of peace, began broadcasting on April 5 in Erbil. "This radio station is for all those who were forced from their homes, for all the refugees", Fr. Pascal Gollnisch said in Radio Al-Salam's inaugural broadcast. Gollnisch is a French Catholic priest whose organisation L'Oeuvre d'Orient helps Christians in the Middle East and backed the new station.
"As its name suggests - added the French priest - it is a radio station for peace, that also gives practical help in the daily lives of all the displaced".
Radio Al-Salam broadcasts from Ankawa, a suburb of the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan inhabited mostly by Christians. Some 2.5 million people have been displaced by conflict in Iraq since the beginning of 2014. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 13/04/2015)