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INTERNATIONAL

bours, my friends, and people were and career-wise it would also be bet- community. Once we have got rid of
so upset. It was really the decision of ter, but they realise that no place is that, the future is very promising.
the ruler. better than home. A lot of Christians
did move back home. We were very Q: Mr Ambassador, do we living
Q: You have a long and impressive concerned when they left, because here in the West get a totally wrong
history with unique antique cities these are the original inhabitants of picture of what is happing on the
and monuments. Are they still intact the country and we do not want them ground?
or have they been suffering too? to leave, and we have done every- Unfortunately, yes. The media is not
The majority of them are still intact. thing to keep them there. They were showing exactly the progress and
Some of them have been looted dur- there before, Assyrians and Chal- the improvements happening in the
ing the changes in Iraq, but we have deans thousands of years even before country. If you go there as a person,
obtained the return of many of those Christianity, they were living in Iraq. you will see a completely different
across our embassies all over the So this is their area. picture. Obviously, the media, only
world. When people with good in- focus on killings and explosions. I
tentions found out about the things think that people now are starting
being stolen from Iraq, many came to to understand that the situation is
the embassies with the antiques ask- far better than what you read about
ing us to return them. There are still in the media. So, the answer is yes. I
some out there, and we keep tracking think that delegations to Iraq are hes-
them because we have to get them itant to go, but once they come back
back. The international community they are happy they went.
has been working with Iraq, helping "...Iraq is opening
us to locate these artefacts. Q: Finally, Mr Ambassador, where
up for tourism. do you see your country five years
Q: Due to your rich history and civi- from now, and ifyou have a message
lization, I wonder ifyou are opening In some areas for the international community,
up for tourism or is it too early. what would that be?
We have started with religious tour- tourism is growing The message that I would like to get
ism. We have religious sites, both out to the international community is
Muslim and Christian, and this is faster than in others, that Iraq is working so hard to show
going on. However, progress is to be the world that we are minding all the
worked on. There are also histori- but it's definitely guidelines of Human Rights. With-
cal sites on a smaller scale that have out that the performance in these last
stared, and we need to upgrade those. opening up." years would not have been acceptable
So yes, Iraq is opening up for tour- to the council. The records indicates
ism. In some areas tourism is grow- that we are on track. This is truly an
ing faster than in others, but it's defi- We have done what we can, and al- indication that Iraq is pursuing that
nitely opening up. though they represent a minority, very end.
they have a representation in the par-
Q: In 2003 people were concerned liament, and even in the governments, Five years from now, we are so keen
about the Christian part of the pop- even among the ambassadors. to rebuild the country so we ask the
ulation in Iraq, as they seemed to be world to come and help. There are
in the middle of two fighting frac- Q: People say that the worst is over tons of projects to be carried out.
tions. What's happened to them? for Iraq. Do you agree? Everything you can imagine is there,
Have they come back? I think so, being optimistic. When you so there are lots of things to invest in.
Obviously, owing to the hardship un- consider what we have gone through The opportunities are countless, it's a
der which we were living during the and when you witness what we have very promising land and potentially
dictatorship, everybody wanted to done until today, we still have a lot of very rich.
flee the country. The Christians are work ahead of us to rebuild the coun- Iraqis are insisting on this point,
as much Iraqis as the others. There try. With the assistance of the inter- nothing else but democracy. The
are quite a lot of people going back national community we can get rid Baath party came in 1963, and ruled
to Iraq. A lot of them leave the Eu- of Daesh this year. This is our focus the country for 40 years; this affected
ropean countries and come back to now. Militarily I think we are going many generations. Now people must
Iraq. They thought that living abroad, to get rid of Daesh, and for that we lick their wounds and rebuild their
the living conditions would be better have the support of the international country.

INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMAT - DIVA 19