Christians seek greater role in government, Ulemas condemn terrorism
Baghdad (AsiaNews) At the convention held yesterday in Iraq's capital 5 Iraqi Christian parties made up of Chaldean Catholics as well as Assyrian, Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Church members, asked for the "fair representation of all ethnic and religious minorities" in the future Iraqi government.
Representatives of the some of Iraq's most powerful tribes participated in the convention, in addition to other religious leaders from the Sunni and Shiite communities. Participants stressed that a compromise is necessary regarding the election issue and the country's future political set-up, one which reflects the desires of all members of Iraq's melting pot of communities.
Christians are concerned that ethnic or religious majorities will snuff out minority participation in Iraq's future government. Therefore, at the end of the convention, Christian parties asked to be able to represented in the future Iraqi parliament and transition government, which will be launched into power after changeover from the current coalition government next June 30.
On other fronts today, Iraqi Ulemas Muslim scholars trained in Islamic law and theology condemned the terrorist attacks which have struck many Iraqi cities and killed dozens of citizens over the past few days. They called the attacks "criminal and of a suspicious nature". The Ulemas also asked for security forces to "capture the authors (of such massacres) at all costs in order to shed light on the truth and to find out who their instigators are."Even Shiite Muslims have been making noise again after they seemed calmed and satisfied last week by statements made by UN special envoy, Al-Ibrahimi. Sheik Abdelmahi Al-Karbala'i, Ayatollah Al-Sistani's spokesman, said the Shiite community has come up with 9 proposals should the United Nations decide that elections prior to June 30 are impossible.
The request for elections before any transfer of power to the Iraqi people was advanced by Al-Sistani and his supporters. However, Al Karbala'I did not wanted make any advanced statements on the Shiite proposals. (PB)
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