JUBILEE CAMPAIGN RAISES PLIGHT OF IRAQ'S MANDAEAN COMMUNITY AT THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

On April 11 Dr. Layla Al-Roomi, representing Iraq's Mandaean community, gave a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on behalf of the Jubilee Campaign, describing the numerous attacks against the Mandaeans in Iraq, including rape and forced conversions to Islam.

Dr. Al-Roomi told the UN Human Rights Commission that Iraq's numerous religious minority groups are suffering horrific persecution at the hands of fundamentalist insurgent terrorist groups and the religious clerics who have condoned their actions.

She told the Commission, "Today the country of Iraq is undergoing significant historical changes as it begins to enjoy the new fruits of democracy. However these fruits have not come without struggle and tragedy for the Mandaeans. Unfortunately, Iraq's transition to democracy has given rise to hundreds of attacks and grave human rights abuses by resisting insurgents and radical Islamic clerics. Although the transitional Iraqi government enumerated constitutional guarantees for civil liberties and religious freedom, the rule of law has been disregarded. Insurgent groups have purposely targeted Iraqi religious

minorities in an effort to destabilize the foundations of democracy, while the radical clerics in some public fatwas as recent as last week have encouraged their actions.

Accounts of the murders, rapes, kidnappings and financial coercion of hundreds of Mandaeans necessitate an immediate investigation. Mandaean women suffer the most persecution at the hands of male insurgent terrorists

who consider them products of pleasure. The escalating kidnappings and rape of Mandaean women has gone unpunished and unreported due to a lack of stability in the Iraqi judicial system. Young girls (some as young as 14 years of age) are being snatched from their homes, repeatedly raped over the span of numerous days, and thrown in the streets with threats of death if they make any mention of what has happened to them.

Currently over 35 Mandaean families have been forced to convert to Islam in Falouja."

Jubilee Campaign urged the U.N Human Rights Commission to call on the new Iraqi government to stop the insurgents and sympathising religious clerics from continuing their systematic attack on the foundations of democracy in Iraq.

Mandaeanism is a religious sect of great antiquity that is comprised of a monotheistic belief system whose main elements emphasize marriage, family and living a peaceful existence. Neither Christian, Muslim, Jewish nor Zoroastrian in their religious dogma, the Mandaeans today represent the last of a once widespread religion that has existed since pre-Christian times and whose boundaries extended from Egypt to Palestine and down through the Mesopotamian lands. Today Mandaeans can be found in most large cities in Iraq and in the lands of the lower Euphrates, the lower Tigris, the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab, and in the adjacent Iranian province of Khuzestan. Mandaean doctrine claims no founder, instead asserting that they are descended from Adam, who they believe was the first to receive the complex religious instructions of the Mandaeans. They regard John the Baptist as their last great teacher and healer.

The Mandaeans also had productive meetings with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, concerning Mandaean refugees in Indonesia, who were initially denied refugee status because the UNHCR there had used a different standard of adjudication than for the Mandaean refugees in Yemen and Jordan, who were approved. The UNHCR gave assurances that they would give another review to the cases of the Mandaean asylum seekers in Indonesia. The UNHCR also stated that they would recognize the Mandaean community as a "people of concern".

Jubilee Campaign has also been campaigning for Iraq's besieged Christian minority, who have been targeted by Islamic terrorists, fundamentalists and neighbouring Kurds for violence. Over 90 percent of Iraq's Christian community are made up of ChaldoAssyrians, the descendants of the ancient Assyrians of Biblical times.

Jubilee's Researcher and Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, "The desperate plight of Iraq's Mandaeans appears to be very similar to that of the Iraqi Christian community. Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq are exploiting the instability following the US-led invasion of the country to attack, intimidate and try to forcibly convert religious minorities such as the Mandaeans and Christians. The British, US and Iraqi governments should do all they can to enhance the security of these beleagured communities. "

http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/world/wilf41.htm