Chaldeans to OBAMA - Chaldean Community's message to President Barack Obama

Local Chaldean Community Concerned With Iraq's Future

As American troops leave Iraq, things could go from bad to worse for the minority of Chaldean Christians there.

A local Chaldean community leader was summoned to the White House last week to bring those concerns directly to President Obama.

In his meeting with Obama, Mark Arabo said the situation for Chaldeans in Iraq now is dangerous and desperate.

"There's modern day ethnic cleansing. Chaldeans are being killed for being Chaldean," Arabo told 10News.

Arabo is a first-generation Chaldean-American. His parents left Iraq decades ago, and Arabo said 10 years ago there were about two million Chaldeans living in Iraq.

Today, that number has shrunk to 250,000 and it's going down every day. Many Chaldeans are getting out of Iraq because they live in constant fear of being murdered.

"Literally, they're in fear of even holding a mass. They tell them if you hold a mass, we will come and kill you," Arabo said.

Arabo said Obama showed genuine concern during their meeting and he said the U.S. would do all it could for the Chaldeans in Iraq.

"We need to make sure that the Iraqi government protects the minorities, and they said they would," said Arabo.

Arabo said he agreed with Obama's decision to pull American troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. But he also knows that decision could very well come at a price for the Chaldeans left in their ancient homeland.

"Our hearts yearn for the Chaldeans and the vulnerable," he said.

Arabo said he's trying to remain optimistic that the Iraqi government will live up to its promises to protect its Chaldean community that has been in that country since the beginning of Christianity.

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[partyiraqi]

it is true we are Victims of War with no credit shame in Iraqi government ???

[purelivon]

End the violence