IRAQ: IRAQI CHRISTIANS SAY THEIR VORES WERE NOT COUNTED DUE TO A SHOTAGE OF BALLOTS IN MOSUL

Record ID: 647193

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI CHRISTIANS SAY THEIR VORES WERE NOT COUNTED DUE TO A SHOTAGE OF BALLOTS IN MOSUL
  • Date: 6th February 2005
  • Summary: (BN08) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 6, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SV US SOLDIERS STANDING IN FRONT OF CHRISTIAN IRAQIS DEMONSTRATING IN FRONT OF A GREEN ZONE GATE 0.04 2. SLV/SV OF IRAQI CHRISTIAN DEMONSTRATORS SHOUTING AND HOLDING BANNERS AND IRAQI FLAGS (2 SHOTS) 0.14 3. SLV OF CHILD POSING FOR THE CAMERAS AND AN IRAQI WOMAN WEARING TRADITIONAL DRESS (2 SHOTS) 0.24 4. SV/MCU OF THE DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (5 SHOTS) 0.51 5. MCU (Arabic) ISMAEL BENJAMIN, IRAQI MEMBER OF THE ASSYRIAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT, SAYING: "The elections were good for the Iraqis and a victory over terrorism but for it was marred for us Chaldean Assyrians, Syrians, Yezidis and Shabak, in the Mosul region. Our right to vote was ignored and we demand that the Electoral Commission resolve this problem." 1.28 6. SV US SOLDIER IN FRONT OF IRAQI CHRISTIAN WOMEN CHANTING DURING THE DEMONSTRATION 1.35 7. MCU/LAS WOMAN DEMONSTRATOR CHANTING (2 SHOTS) 1.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 21st February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD,IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA3EFQW6LFM813L7M7SGJAJDX8B
  • Story Text: Iraqi Christians say their votes were not counted
    due to a shortage of ballots in Mosul.



    Iraqi Christians from the northern Iraqi region of
    Mosul and Ninevah protested in Baghdad on Sunday (February
    6) against the January 30 elections saying thousands of
    them were denied the right to vote in the north because of
    a shortage of ballot papers .

    The protesters, who came from Mosul, descended on the
    capital and demonstrated in front of the heavily fortified
    Green Zone which houses the foreign interests including the
    US administration and the Interim Iraqi Governing Council.

    A member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Ismael
    Benjamin, said they are demanding the Electoral Commission
    come up with a solution and allow them to vote.

    "The elections were good for the Iraqis and a victory
    over terrorism but it was marred for us Chaldean Assyrians,
    Syrians, Yezidis and Shabak, in the Mosul region. Our right
    to vote was ignored and we demand that the Electoral
    Commission resolve this problem," Benjamin said
    The demonstrators handed a memorandum to Iraq's
    Minister of Migration and Displacement, Pascal Eishu,
    demanding an investigation into the case.

    According to Eishu some 150,000 Chaldean-Assyrians,
    Syrians, Yezidis and the Shabak were deprived of their
    right to cast votes and participate in the building of the
    new Iraq, saying that the Iraqi Government and the
    Electoral Commission would investigate the complaint.

    Christians, mainly Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians,
    make up just three per cent of Iraq's 26 million people.

    Mosul, a Sunni-dominated city in the Kurdish north, has
    been one of the most violence-hit cities since U.S. forces
    drove militants out of Fallujah in November. The security
    forces had expected a difficult election day, and it was.

    But astonishingly to some, large numbers of voters turned
    up anyway to cast their ballots in this crucial first
    national election since the fall of Saddam Hussein.


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