April 8, 2008

Jacob Kramer says the kidnapping and subsequent death of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop has made Iraq "even more unsafe and unwelcome for his followers and other Christians." Kramer is the Christian Reformed Church World Relief Committee's international relief director. He says he knew Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahno, whose body was discovered in late March in a grave near the northern city of Musol, because the two had worked in 2003 and early in 2004 distributing food to needy Christians and others in northern Iraq.

"He was their spiritual leader. He was a warm man. He was very appreciative of the work we were doing," says Kramer. Rahho was kidnapped outside of his cathedral on February 29 in Mosul after a deadly shootout in which three of his companions were killed, say news accounts. "It looks like he died in custody. From what I read, his body showed no signs of violence," says Kramer. Rahho was only one of many Christian clerics to be abducted in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Two priests were kidnapped in the city in October, and last June a priest and three deacons were attacked in front of their church.

Late last week, Father Yusef Adel, a Syrian Orthodox priest, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The campaign of violence and intimidation against Christians has taken an enormous toll. The number of Christians living in Iraq today is estimated to be less than 500,000 – roughly half what it was before the start of the war in 2003, according to news accounts.

Kramer says Christians were protected under the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein. But once the Unites States and coalition forces invaded the country, that protection ended. Meanwhile, says Kramer, Christians have become targets because some Iraqis see them as being connected to Christians in the United States. Others are attacking Christians to get their homes or other resources.

Those who are kidnapping and killing Christians are not necessarily members of any of the organized militias. "You have criminal elements. If you read some of the news about this issue, you see that some of this is done on impulse," says Kramer.

Christian Reformed Church in North America