Iraq is everyone's problem - Christian and Muslim alike

South Africans can help the country become a blueprint for peace and justice, writes Frank Chikane, after a recent visit to that war-torn land

The brutal war in Iraq appears to repeat itself at different times in different forms, leaving in its wake destruction, poverty, pain and death.

Yet there is a community of Christians and other Iraqis who hold steadfastly to the land of their heritage, calling themselves the "original inhabitants of the region - Assyrians" and whose only desire is to live in the land of their forefathers in peace and harmony.

It was against this backdrop that I, in my capacity as moderator of the Churches Commission on International Affairs, joined a World Council of Churches visit to Iraq in late January.

Our mission was classified by the insurance company as "high risk", given the security status of the country. But the mission we had as the church outweighed our human misgivings and fortified our resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq.

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Our delegation was split in half, and the group I was part of landed in Baghdad, where we held high-level meetings with the president, the prime minister, the speaker of parliament, the head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and religious leaders, among others.

We chose not to stay in the Green Zone, where most international visitors to the country stay, so that we could be accessible to the people and church leaders.

The government generously gave us 24-hour security cover and we moved through all the zones.

We crisscrossed the biblical Tigris River over the three days of our stay in Baghdad, going from one meeting to another.

The second half of the delegation landed in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region.

They had meetings with NGOs and Christian, Yazidi and Kurdish intellectuals, attended a church service in a Syrian Orthodox church (a displaced parish and families) in Badarash and visited Dawodiya displaced persons camp.

The two halves of the delegation regrouped in Erbil, where we were hosted by the Kurdistan regional government.

Erbil is close to Mosul and the biblical Nineveh Plains where the Islamic State war happened (and which was still raging on the western side of Mosul).

Here, we visited the camps of displaced communities. One must give credit to the Kurdish regional government, humanitarian organisations, NGOs and churches, which have done everything possible to take care of the displaced.

The Kurdish government has offered land, facilities, and services (water, electricity, health) for all the displaced communities.

The pain of the victims of this war, which affected all components of these communities (Muslim, Christian, Yazidis and other minority groups) that lived in these areas was visible and deep-seated. They lost their homes, and statistics reveal that 35% of homes were damaged, 15% destroyed, and 100% looted.

In addition, they lost their land, and everything they ever owned.

The saddest aspect of what we witnessed first-hand was the loss of trust between neighbours. Some community members had been forced to turn on friends and neighbours and join the attacking forces.

With time IS grew indiscriminate in terms of religion, as it targeted not only non-Muslims but also those Muslims who did not subscribe to the extreme form of Islamism it was professing.

This resulted in thousands of people fleeing the conflict, and many walked for long distances to get to places of safety.

The machine of destruction that the war has become in this region is deplorable, bordering on evil in its brutality.

block_quotes_start Lasting security and guarantees can only be achieved if the root causes of the wars and conflicts in Iraq are dealt with block_quotes_end

The modern weaponry that is used does not differentiate between innocent civilians and soldiers - it kills everything and everyone in its path. What is even more alarming is the lack of knowledge or understanding about international conventions relating to war.

Brutality of this kind cannot go on while we hide behind the comforts of "peace" and "justice". We must get involved where there are injustices.

We as South Africans know all too well how important global pressure is in putting an end to injustices. We have a role to play in Iraq - to bring peace and restoration.

It was clear to us that our failure to intervene to assist the communities in the affected areas to return to their homes and live together again would deprive the people of Iraq and the rest of the Middle East of the components of their societies that define them.

Moreover, it would be a tragedy if the Christian communities in Iraq, especially in the Nineveh Plains, were forced to leave Iraq.

We all agreed that our greatest challenge was how to help end the war while at the same time dealing with the psycho-social trauma.

The task of rebuilding trust among community members remains a priority for us, as does the restoration of domestic and public infrastructure (houses, churches, roads, water, electricity, health services, schools).

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At the centre of all this is the need to offer safety and security to the displaced, which will give them a sense of hope for their future, mainly because the people have lost confidence in the capacity and willpower of government forces to protect them.

Lasting security and guarantees can only be achieved if the root causes of the wars and conflicts in Iraq are dealt with.

Among these are the discriminatory laws - especially those that are based on religion, which do not recognise the existence of certain sections of the population or which reflect those sections of society in a negative and derogatory light.

For many, there is no end in sight to the historical tension and conflict between the Sunni and the Shia populations. And attempts at peace are complicated by major countries - regional and international - that are pursuing their national and regional interests at the cost of the lives of the Iraqis.

We found the leaders positive about the recommendations we made to resolve this crisis and put an end to the pain and suffering of the people, and we are committed to being part of the process to see this through.

As such, a detailed and clear programme of action is being drawn up to follow up on all the matters we raised, to ensure that all the critical matters for normalisation of the lives of the people are dealt with.

The Kurdistan region had already started addressing some of these issues, and in this regard these developments could serve as a pointer to the future that all Iraqis wish for.

We also made a commitment to pursue the matters raised in our report with our respective governments and all affected governments to ensure that they become part of the solution and not part of the problem.

I am of the view that if Iraq can be assisted to overcome its challenges and normalise relationships between all its people, the country could be a pointer to what could make for peace and justice, which could be replicated in other war-torn regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East.

It is my prayer that all of us do everything possible to bring a glimmer of hope to the people of Iraq.

Chikane, a former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, was director-general in the Presidency during Thabo Mbeki's administration