ZURICH, Switzerland -- Joining Vatican officials and other religious leaders in condemning the kidnapping of Archbishop Basile Gorges Casmoussa of the Syrian Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, Rev. Hans Stukelberger, president and founder of Christian Solidarity International (CSI) greeted the release of the Archbishop today with thanksgiving, and called the kidnapping "an appalling act of barbarity."

"This act of terrorism has capped a long and increasing series of attacks on Christians and other groups in the last several months," Stuckelberger said.

The Assyrian Christians, Chaldean and Syriac, are the indigenous people of Iraq. Increasingly they are being forced from their homeland as the result of attacks by Kurdish paramilitaries and Islamic extremists. According to reports received by CSI from Al-Hamdaniya (Bakhdeda), a strategic district capital in northern Iraq, an armed group of the Kurdistan Democratic Party recently attacked St. John's Church in Bakhdeda during Christmas mass. Churches in other parts of Iraq have also suffered attacks during the past several months.

U. S. Representative Anna Eshoo of California and twelve other members of Congress petitioned the Iraq Out of Country Voting Program Director, Peter Erben, to open more voting locations to accommodate nearly 100,000 for the upcoming elections on January 30. The letter argued that the process threatens to disfranchise Iraqi Christians who comprise between 85 -90% on Iraqis living in the United States.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the survival of the ChaldoAssyrian Christian community in Iraq is dependent upon the implementation of a self-administered district under the terms of Article 53 d or the Transitional Administrative Law," said Rev. Stuckelburger. "We will not stand by and watch this ancient Christian community disappear as a result of the competing political pressures in the new Iraq." CSI also seeks to highlight the continued neglect of the Christian communities in regards to international assistance.

CSI also urges reconsideration of the decision by the Iraqi government to prohibit voting by up to 90,000 Jewish-Iraqi exiles who reside in Israel. The independent electoral commission noted that the new Iraqi government does not recognize the state of Israel and will therefore not allow voters from that country to participate in the January 30 elections.

The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick
Christian Solidarity International
Washington, D.C.