Iraq's Christians and Yazidis still haunted by ISIS atrocities, says Patriarch Sako

Shafaq News/ Ten years after Islamic State militants forced hundreds of thousands of Christians and Yazidis to flee their homes in northern Iraq, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church said on Thursday the trauma of the genocide continues to cast a long shadow over the country.

Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, the Patriarch of Baghdad, told Vatican News that while the extremist group had been defeated militarily, its ideology persisted.

It was a "collective tragedy" for the Iraqi people, Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, told Vatican News. "A tragedy involving Christians and other minorities that remains etched in people's minds."

"ISIS has been defeated, but its ideology remains strong, and not only in Iraq," Sako said. "People do not have much faith in the future. Everyone keeps asking themselves: When will we finally have a modern, democratic, and civil state where everyone can be citizens with equal rights and duties?"

"This is why many leave Iraq, not just Christians," he added. "I try to talk to people, reassuring them that this evil will not last and that they need to be patient."

""This memory will never be easy to erase. There continue to be many acts of hatred, such as the attack last year in Qaraqosh, which caused over 133 deaths during a wedding celebration," he admitted. 

The patriarch also criticized the West for its "indifference" to the plight of Iraq's minorities. "The West is somewhat timid towards those who think the only solution is war," he said. "As Pope Francis says: war is never a victory. Everyone loses!"

Sako called for greater international support to help Iraq rebuild and reconcile its divided communities. "We need to change the mentality that underlies wars and revenge," he said. "We need to learn how to dialogue and solve problems not with weapons but through dialogue."

On August 6, 2014, 120,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes. Simultaneously, the entire Yazidi population suffered an attempted extermination. Over 3,000 men, women, boys, and girls were killed, and at least 6,800 people, especially women, boys, and girls, were abducted by so-called Islamic State. This assault has been recognized by the United Nations as genocide.