The Chairperson of the Shabak Committee in North Iraq visited Göttingen

Göttingen, Victor-Gollancz-Haus

„We do not want asylum in Germany, but to stay in our homeland. For this we need support from Europe.” Clearly and precisely Khaled Mahmud, Chairperson of the Shabak Committee in North Iraq, directed his wish at the German politicians. On Tuesday 22nd December 2009 Mahmud reported at the Victor Gollancz House of the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) in Göttingen on the situation of the people in his home-country. He spoke to representatives of the local press, the University of Göttingen and with Tilman Zülch, the Chairperson of the German section of the STP. Mahmud had already spent several weeks in Germany, providing information on the position of the Shabaks and other North Iraqi minorities.

The Shabaks are an ethnic minority of 60,000 to 100,000 (according to Mahmud some 400,000) who for the most part live in the North Iraqi province of Ninawa. They had to undergo great suffering under Saddam Hussein and in the Iraq of today they are almost helpless in the face of the aggression from Arab Islamist terrorists. About 1000 Shabak have been murdered since 2003, reported Mahmud: „The terrorists want to drive us out of our homeland and take over our land.” The Shabak no longer have any trust in the Iraqi central government. Their only allies in the country they see in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, which lies just to the north of the province of Ninawa.

Mahmud set off for Germany in search of support for the Shabak. The STP certainly supports the call of the Shabak for humanitarian and economic aid for their native region, said the Near-East consultant, Kamal Sido, who has been observing Mahmud’s visit. All ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq must be given self-government and freedom of worship. Germany and the EU are also obligated to take up their share in securing peace in Iraq.