Iraqi minorities long wait for freedom

If you have never been to a party thrown by Iraqis, I'd recommend it. They sing, dance and make sure everyone enjoys themselves.

When Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003 some enjoyable street parties were thrown by Iraqi residents in Fairfield, which is in my electorate.

Thousands of Iraqi refugees live in the area, and these street parties celebrated the downfall of a brutal dictator many had fled. That initial joy has turned to despair as the relatives of many Iraqi Australians have been killed, injured or persecuted in Iraq.

So bad did the situation become that it was not uncommon for Iraqi Australians to tell me that, as bad as Saddam's regime was, the chaos and anarchy that followed was worse.

Bookshops are full of exposés of the lack of preparation for the development of post-invasion Iraq, and that lack of preparation had a human cost.

Even casual observers of the international situation would be aware of the conflict between Sunni and Shiite communities in Iraq.

But what has achieved less prominence in the national and international media is the fate of other Iraqi minorities: Assyrians, Chaldeans and Mandaeans.

Mandaeans, followers of John the Baptist, have non-violence as one of the tenets of their religion. Any form of violence, even in self-defence, is forbidden. They have thus been particularly vulnerable to attack. The much more numerous Assyrians and Chaldeans have also suffered significantly.

This group are descendants of the ancient Assyrian empire, but no longer have a nation state to call their own. They predominantly live in Iraq's north and are Christians.

It is hard to pinpoint the numbers of these minorities in Iraq. However, credible estimates put Assyrians and Chaldeans as 4 per cent of the population of Iraq, while they have constituted 40 per cent of the refugees leaving Iraq.

Jordan and Syria have 2 million Iraqi refugees living within their borders, and they are not allowed to work. They live, by and large, in squalor, and they often rely on their children to bring in a little income. Thousands of children are being turned to crime to support their family.

It is estimated that there were 1.5 million Assyrians and Chaldeans in Iraq before the war; 600,000 are left, at most.

Two thousand Assyrians and Chaldeans are still leaving Iraq every day. Churches have been bombed, priests and bishops kidnapped and murdered.

As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said, "The situation of members of non-Muslim religious communities has been noticeably aggravated since the invasion of coalition forces".

Hundreds of thousands of Assyrian and Chaldean refugees live in desperate circumstances in Syria and Jordan. It is simply too dangerous for them to return.

There are of course, many millions of people from different groups around the world who face diabolical human rights and humanitarian catastrophes, all of whom deserve greater attention.

However, in all the public debate about Iraq over recent years the Assyrian and Chaldean minorities have received scant attention from both governments and the media. Their plight is one of the untold stories of the narrative of post-Saddam Iraq. Their situation as minorities in Iraq has substantially worsened since the war.

As others have pointed out, the exodus of refugees from Iraq has been greater than that after the Vietnam War.

But because the exodus has occurred quietly and to other Middle Eastern countries, as opposed to by boat, the crisis has become largely invisible.

There is no monopoly of suffering in Iraq. But the suffering of these minorities has received scant international attention.

Of course, as a relatively small country on the other side of the world we are limited in what we can do to help.

However, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, has recently met two delegations of Assyrians and Chaldeans to discuss what more can be done, and he raised the issue with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq on his visit last month.

The plight of Iraq's minorities is part of the reason that the $165 million Federal Government program for humanitarian and capacity building is so important.

There are also signs that the issue is gaining more international attention. The US Congress voted last year for $10 million in aid for Iraq's religious minorities.

We invaded Iraq on the basis that there were weapons of mass destruction to be found. When this turned out to be untrue we were told the war was necessary to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq.

My constituents from Iraq are still waiting to see the fruits of that freedom for their relatives.

Chris Bowen is the federal Assistant Treasurer and the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs.