Bishop Warduni from Baghdad: "It Is Urgent to Defeat ISIS"

by Carlo Giorgi | September 25, 2014

 
Bishop Shlemon Warduni. (foto C. Giorgi)
 

“Be careful! The day will come when, if these terrorists are not stopped in Iraq, they will go elsewhere. They behave like cannibals! Their action is against the whole of humanity not just against Iraq.” The words of Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary Chaldean bishop of Baghdad show no mercy and echo like those of a prophet... Bishop Warduni, as well as his pastoral duties for the diocese of Baghdad, is also President of the Iraqi Caritas and is very familiar with the sufferings of his people. In Iraq, from January to September 2014, the war accounted for 12,336 victims, according to Iraq Body Count, a London-based organization which counts the dead since 2003, the year of the Anglo-American invasion of the country and the dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Violence in Iraq has increased tremendously: the victims in the first nine months of 2014 are 24% more than those killed in the whole of 2013; and the triple of those of 2012. In particular, the hike in the number of the killed came in June (2,534 victims), when the terrorists of ISIS launched their offensive, conquering large cities such as Fallujah and Mosul in a few days and proclaiming an Islamic caliphate. The violence is continuing without stopping, if we consider only the victims of the past few days: on 23rd September, 36 people were killed by bombings, firearms or car-bombs; on 22nd September, 58 people were killed and 45 were killed the day before, 21st September.

“The urgency today is to stop the advance of the terrorists of ISIS,” Bishop Warduni explains to Terrasanta.net. “They are terrorists and they have done great harm to the Christians and to the minorities. First of all we have to have guarantees from those nations which at the moment are helping them to immediately suspend their support and to stop supplying them with arms. Then it is necessary to guarantee our human rights which at the moment are not ensured. Chasing people out of their homes, forcing them to cut off their roots, this is something terrible in the 21st century… They chased us out of our villages, they humiliated our people, especially when they sold the women at the market for $100... They are cannibals! Such a thing had never been heard of! Yes, before people had been sold into slavery. but now they are selling women because they consider them unworthy, to trample on their rights; and then there are the children who have died of thirst and starvation, the men buried alive… How can such things happen? We ask the international community to put an end to all this. The international community must take the question seriously. A day will come – if these terrorists are not stopped in Iraq – when they will go somewhere else. Their action is against the whole of humanity, not just against Iraq. I am launching a plea in the name of our children, our sick, our women,” concluded Warduni: “An end has to come to this situation and our villages and our city Mosul, which has been Christian for two thousand years but for three months (or when, on 11th June, it was taken over by ISIS – Ed.’s note) no Christian prayer has been heard there, have to be liberated. First of all I ask everyone to pray for us, then to kindle respect for human rights in the heart of all men of good will and to make everybody aware that these terrorists want to harm the world and they have to be stopped.”

Source: http://terrasanta.net/tsx/articolo.jsp?wi_number=6896&wi_codseq=%20%20%20%20%20%20&language=en