A top official with Catholic Relief Services, visiting northern Iraq, said new life is evident for those who suffered the injustices and atrocities of the so-called Islamic State invasion of their ancestral lands but some grave challenges remain. “I see the hope of the Resurrection, while still the experience of the Cross is the reality for many people,” William O’Keefe of Catholic Relief Services said from Irbil, Iraq.
“Yazidis in Sinjar have no security. Christians in the mixed areas have insufficient security. There are political problems. Sunnis in central Iraq experience tribal insecurity issues,” said Mr O’Keefe, vice president of government relations and advocacy for CRS, the US bishops’ international humanitarian aid organisation based in Baltimore.
“There are also people who haven’t returned to their villages or who are not able to return, and that is a serious problem that will fill my prayers,” he said ahead of the Easter holiday.
“And yet there are signs of life. People I spoke with six months ago see a lot of progress and evidence of shop openings, cars, and all that is good,” Mr O’Keefe said. “But there needs to be more economic activity to feel like there is momentum.”
Three million people remain internally displaced in Iraq, particularly religious minorities who were victims of the so-called Islamic State terrorists in 2014. Many Christians were threatened with death if they did not leave; others, like the Yazidis, were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam to save their lives.
O’Keefe said CRS is helping Christians, Yazidis, Arab Sunni Muslims and others who have been displaced to return to their villages with programmes that include housing reconstruction programme and assistance to vulnerable individuals to upgrade their houses to the minimum accepted standards so they can re-establish their lives.
“It’s amazing, the destruction and the meanness of ISIS occupiers who, on their way out, intentionally burned the interiors of these homes to make the return as difficult as possible,” Mr O’Keefe said of the town of Bashiqa, located on the Ninevah Plain.
There, he visited a Christian family and a Shobak or Shiite household, to discuss the renovations taking place in their houses with CRS help.
“People are excited about the possibility of returning and having a significant part of their house: living quarters, kitchen, and common room fixed, so they can come back and rebuild,” he said.