Chaldean prelate looks forward to rebuilding Iraq after defeat of Islamic State

August 05, 2016

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako has suggested a plan for the reconstruction of Iraq, based on the possibility that a new offensive will drive the Islamic State out of the region around Mosul and the Nineveh Plains.

The Iraqi prelate said that if families who fled from that region are able to return to their homes, the process of reconstruction should be based on a rejection of violence, a determination to stop terrorism, a firm understanding that religion must not be invoked to support violence, and a commitment to peaceful coexistence.

The Chaldean Patriarch conceded that he was looking beyond current problems to imagine better days. At the moment, he said, “terrorism has not been defeated yet; the conflicts are not over; violations of human rights are still growing at different levels; the efforts for national reconciliation came to a halt; and the promises of eradicating corruption, reforming, establishing a civil government, and fighting against unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and diseases, did not go beyond being promises only.”

 

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Further information:

• Louis Sako: Two years on from expulsion of Christians from Mosul and Nineveh (AsiaNews)