Page 2 - aruba-today-24dec-2016

A2 UP FRONT
Saturday 24 december 2016

The Aruba Today Newspaper announces that due to the holidays, we will not be in circulation Monday, Decem-
ber 26th. We will be back on newsstands everywhere bright and early to serve our readers and advertisers first
thing in the morning, Tuesday, December 27th. Until then, Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays from the team
at the Aruba Today Newspaper, Aruba’s ONLY English Newspaper!

For Iraq’s Christians, Christmas cheer tinged with despair

HAMZA HENDAWI but still vibrant Christian The Islamic State group’s Now, he somberly speaks “We miss praying in our
Associated Press community in Iraq. They onslaught across northern of the plight of the town’s churches, sitting outside
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The Na- enjoyed protection and Iraq in 2014 devastated people away from home our homes in the sum-
tivity scene and Christmas near equal rights with the unique communities in and without hope of re- mer evenings, tending our
tree are in place on the Iraq’s Muslim majority un- Christian-majority town like turning soon. gardens and living in our
corner of the street. Some der Saddam Hussein, but Karamlis, Bartella and Qa- “They are crammed four homes,” said 73-year-old
of the children proudly their numbers rapidly dwin- raqosh — all in the Nineveh families or more to an Youssef.
wear red Santa Claus hats dled after the U.S.-led in- plains. apartment, with no privacy “We bear the wound in
or show off new toys, mostly our hearts, but life goes
plastic guns for small boys. on,” said Youssef, holding
Windows and balconies an old painting depicting
are festooned with colorful St. Barbara, Karamlis’ pa-
balloons. tron saint who is thought to
It is unmistakably Christmas have lived in the 3rd cen-
on Friday at the Ankawa tury.
camp, home to thousands “We found it buried un-
of Iraqi Christians who have der the rubble when we
been displaced since the returned to the town,” he
Islamic State group seized said.
their towns and villages For Victoria, the 79-year-
in the Nineveh plains of old woman from Karamlis,
northern Iraq in 2014. life in a camp for the dis-
But the holiday spirit is placed may well be the fi-
tinged with a mix of home- nal stop in a life defined by
sickness and despair. They tragedy.
still can’t go home even She lost her husband to a
though their towns and vil- murderous gang of Mus-
lages have been wrested lims when she was 24. She
back from the militants by had not seen her two chil-
Iraqi forces. dren — a daughter in Brit-
The towns are too dev- ain and a son she thinks is
astated, with no water or in Jordan — in 30 years, she
electricity. The Christians said.
are also haunted by mem- On this Thursday, Dec. 22 photo, s man helps a boy to put some Christmas lights in a camp Raheel Georgis is another
ories of their flight under where Christians displaced by Islamic State militants in Irbil, Iraq. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) elderly woman who re-
cover of darkness to es- fused to leave with the rest
cape the IS onslaught. of the town in 2014, prefer-
“I just want to go home,” vasion of Iraq toppled the The Iraqi offensive or space,” he said, stand- ring to stay home.
said a tearful 79-year-old regime of the late dictator launched in October to re- ing in the part of Ankawa After living for three months
Victoria Behman Akouma. in 2003, ushering in the rise take Mosul has recaptured where more than a 100 under IS rule, the militants
She was among a handful of religious militancy with most Christian areas. families from Karamlis have placed her at an old peo-
who briefly stayed behind the al-Qaida terror network But so far, the Christians lived in two-story apart- ple’s home in Mosul.
after IS seized her town of taking the lead. have only gone back for ment buildings since 2014. Later, they took her before
Karamlis in August 2014. The Sunni militants fre- visits, to see homes or at- “When we went back to a Sharia court and gave
“They asked me to convert quently attacked Chris- tend services in churches the town after Daesh left, her the choice of convert-
to Islam, tians and churches, ter- that were not as badly we expected it to have ing to Islam or paying a
but I told them I will die a rorizing the community damaged and deemed been looted, but we found special tax for non-Muslims.
Christian and that they and forcing many to flee safe. Returning home for it destroyed too,” he said, She rejected both op-
can kill me if they want to,” abroad, some to the West, good appears a distant using the Arabic acronym tions and, as a result, was
she said. some to the Kurdish re- prospect. for the extremist group. dumped on the border
After 11 days under IS rule, gion where tolerance for The Rev. Khouri Youssef, a That means that the Chris- with the Kurdish region
the militants escorted her religious minorities is much Catholic Chaldean priest tians of Karamlis, like others, from where she was taken
to the border of the self- greater than in the rest of from Karamlis, was one of would continue to endure to Irbil.
ruled Kurdish region in Iraq. two priests who organized the indignities of living in “I humored them the
northern Iraq. Of the estimated 1.5 mil- the exit of the town’s esti- camps for the foreseeable whole time,” the 72-year-
The Christians of Nineveh lion Christians who lived in mated 3,000 population in future, relying on govern- old Georgis said of the IS
province, of which Mosul Iraq on the eve of the U.S.- 2014 when news spread ment handouts, assistance militants.
is the capital, were once led invasion, about 500,000 that IS was about to take from aid organizations and “But I refused to be a
members of an ancient are left. the town. the church’s benevolence. Muslim.”q