FATE OF SYRIAN CHRISTIANS KIDNAPPED BY ISIS STILL UNKNOWN
Aleteia
Feb 25 2015
Aid groups gear up to help more internally displaced persons.
John Burger
Christian aid groups were expecting to hear about the fate of some
150 Syrian Christian hostages today, but a promised ISIS announcement
about the captives was not forthcoming.
According to activists and state-run media in Syria, however, Islamic
State group militants moved the hostages to a city they control in
northeastern Syria, while they continue to battle Kurdish and Christian
militiamen for control of a chain of villages along the Khabur River,
according to the Associated Press.
Hassakah province, which borders Turkey and Iraq, has become the
latest battleground for the fight against the Islamic State group in
Syria. It is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs
and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
In pre-dawn attacks, the group on Monday attacked communities nestled
along the river, seizing at least 70 people, many of them women and
children. Thousands of others fled to safer areas.
However, the state-run SANA news agency and the Assyrian Network for
Human Rights in Syria said the hostages have been moved to the Islamic
State-controlled city of Shaddadeh, south of the city of Hassakah. The
United States and a coalition of regional partners are conducting a
campaign of airstrikes against the group, and have on occasion struck
Shaddadeh, a predominantly Arab town.
Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of the Christian Aid Program Northern
Iraq told Aleteia partner Aid to the Church in Need that 24 families
from Tel Gouran, 34 families from Tel Jazira, and 14 fighters from
Tel Hormizd were captured and taken to the Arab Sunni village of
Um Al-Masamier.
“Um Al-Masamier is another Syrian example of what we witnessed in Iraq
on how the Arab Sunni joining and supporting IS to attack their long
years Christian and Yezedian neighbors, Archimandrite Youkhana said.
He said that Assyrian Church of the East Bishop Aprem Athniel of
Hasseke hasn’t left his city despite the difficulties and is doing
its best to host and support the displaced. “However, due to the lack
of resources and the long years of the disaster, there is an urgent
need of action to support the displaced families through the Church,”
the priest said.
Michel Constantin, regional director for Lebanon, Syria and Egypt for
Catholic Near East Welfare Association, has been coordinating efforts
for emergency assistance to families in Iraqi Kurdistan. Speaking to
Aleteia from Beirut Wednesday, he said his organization is arranging
for food packages to reach the displaced families tomorrow.
What are you hearing about the Assyrian Christian villages that have
been threatened by Islamic State militants?
I contacted the Assyrian bishop in Hassakah, whose name is Mar Arpem
Athniel, and he informed me that already 700 families have been
displaced from the Christian villages to Hassakah, and another 200
were displaced to Qamishli, and at present the Pontifical Mission is
conveying funds to buy food packages for 900 families. It will be going
through Iraq because you cannot convey the money straight to Syria.
The families are not in tents or camps; they are settled in homes of
relatives, or in some cases Christian families have recently fled from
Hassakah because of fear of the security situation. So the bishop
opened individual houses, and families were settled in individual
houses within the city. … Of course, they lack everything: they
don’t have any food, heating fuel, medicines. They need many things.
We will try to respond to the emergency by tomorrow to convey some
money, and we will try to coordinate our efforts with other partners.
We expect another 200 families within a few days.
From: A. Papazian