This year's holy Christmas season has been marred by escalating violence against Assyrian Christians. According to news reports from the Ankawa Homepage released on December 19, 1999 and the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) released on December 16, 1999, another Assyrian was assassinated in Arbil on December 15, 1999. Described as a well-liked and humble man, Mr. Habib Yousif Dekhoka was a sixty-year-old Assyrian man of the Chaldean Church and a lifelong resident of Ankawa. According to the two independent press releases, Mr. Dekhoka was a merchant in the Sheikh Allah business district in the Arbil city center. Apparently, Mr. Dekhoka was an Assyrian businessman in an area of the Sheikh Allah retail district dominated by Behdanani and Sorani storeowners.

Mr. Dekhoka had been threatened several months ago by armed thugs attempting to force him to give up his business. On one occasion, Mr. Dekhoka's store had been firebombed. He survived that attack and succeeded in rebuilding his business all the while withstanding escalating harassment and intimidation. On December 15, 1999, however, a bomb planted in his store exploded and took his life. Following the blast, Mr. Dekhoka endured several hours of excruciating pain until his burned and bloodied body finally succumbed.

The ADM press release also noted that another bomb had been recently placed in the car of another Assyrian produce merchant in the Sheikh Allah business center of Arbil. Although the car was destroyed, the victim of the attack survived despite sustaining serious injuries.

The Ankawa Homepage press release attributed the attack against Mr. Dekhoka to "Islamic Kurdish Fundamentalists" without specifying which specific ethnic group while the ADM press release apparently mindful of possible violent reprisals stated that it was not clear who were the perpetrators of the attacks. Mr. Dekhoka was known to be extraordinarily vigilant and probably anticipating another attack. The fact that his assailants were able to inconspicuously plant a bomb powerful enough to destroy the store and kill Mr. Dekhoka despite his heightened vigilance suggests a technical sophistication beyond the capability of rogue bandits or business competitors. It is widely believed that politically organized and motivated terrorists with an agenda to further intimidate and eradicate Assyrians from the area are responsible for this as well as numerous other attacks.

This year's Christmas bombings follow the same pattern as last year's attacks against Assyrians (AINA 12/10/98 and 1/17/99). During Advent of last year, Mr. Najat Toma's home was bombed leading to the deaths of Mr. Toma's wife Ms. Nasreen Hana Shaba and his three-year-old daughter Larsa. An Assyrian convent in the Al Mal'ab district of Arbil was also bombed in December 1998. Still more, Fr. Zomaya Yousip's house was bombed on January 6, 1999 but fortunately Fr. Yousip survived.

Both last year's and this year's attacks are believed to target Assyrian Christian institutions and individuals during the holy Christmas season of Advent in an effort to demoralize and terrorize the remaining Assyrian population of Arbil. As is customary in such attacks against Assyrians, there is no effort on behalf of the Behdanani authorities to condemn, investigate or prosecute the attackers. Involvement by the authorities is suspected because once again there is no genuine effort to improve security for Assyrians. The sophistication required to carry out such a series of attacks necessitates an organized effort with technical, logistic, and financial resources- resources readily available only to the authorities in northern Iraq. 

Assyrians in Arbil are once again being targeted because Arbil is one of the three provinces in northern Iraq that the KDP and PUK hope to ethnically purge of Assyrians. However, Arbil lies within the historic heartland of Assyria, within the Assyrian Triangle. The attachment of Assyrians to their ancestral homeland remains unshakable and Assyrians are determined to continue their uninterrupted four thousand-year history in Arbil. Despite enduring countless massacres throughout their more than four thousand year history in Arbil, the Assyrian community continues to have a robust presence with a vibrant culture.

In their 1995 report on "Human Rights Abuses in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991," Amnesty International (AI Index 14/01/95) stated that "Amnesty International has received numerous allegations attributing these killings to special forces within the KDP, PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), and IMIK (Islamic Movement in Iraqi Kurdistan). The security apparatus of the KDP, Rekkhistini Taybeti, and that of the PUK, Dezgay Zanyari, are said to have units akin to assassination squads, whose members receive orders from senior party officials. There is also widespread conviction that such unlawful and deliberate killings could not have been perpetrated without the knowledge, consent or acquiescence of the leaders of these two parties, to whom the security and intelligence apparatuses are ultimately responsible (page 94)."

Quite regrettably, rather than openly investigating the scores of attacks against Assyrians, the armed tribal militias of the predominantly Behdanani KDP and the predominantly Sorani PUK have instead intensified their efforts to intimidate vulnerable villagers and to threaten Assyrian political leaders into denying that the repeated attacks, murders, land expropriations, rapes, abductions, and bombings against Assyrians actually occur. This egregious policy of intimidation and political blackmail against vulnerable Assyrians literally held hostage in their homes represents a dangerous escalation in the Behdanani and Sorani scheme to silence Assyrian protests against their continued victimization.