We Want to Go Home; Archbishop of Mosul Calls for More Action to Dislodge Islamic State

Ankawa.com ^ | 6/11/15 | Clare Creegan and John Pontifex

[marshmallow]

GOVERNMENTS should step up efforts in Iraq to “free” Mosul and neighbouring Nineveh from so-called Islamic State so Christians and others can fulfil their dream of returning home – according to a leading archbishop from the region.

Marking the first anniversary of the fall of his city to the Islamist terror group, Syrian Catholic Archbishop Yohanna Mouche made an impassioned plea to the “people who have the responsibility” to remove IS and enable people forced out to return and rebuild their lives. In an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, the Archbishop of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan said that 12 months on from their expulsion by the militants, Christians displaced to Kurdish northern Iraq still longed to go back to home.

He insisted that forcing out IS was the “best solution” for 120,000 displaced Christians effectively expelled from Mosul on 10th June and Nineveh, where towns and villages including 13 largely Christian ones were seized by IS on the night of 6th August.

Underlining the misery of Christians who left their communities with nothing, Archbishop Mouche said: “The only solution that will make them happy and give them dignity is to go back to their homes…

“We ask everyone to put pressure on the people who have the responsibility to free the [towns and villages] as soon as possible so the people can come back and live in peace in their… homes and continue their lives there. “This is the best solution.”