WORLD | AUG. 28, 2020
Archbishop Warda and Iraq’s Christians Denounce BBC Documentary for Omissions
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda said the documentary’s failure to discuss the plight of Iraq’s persecuted minorities ‘is tantamount to showing we do not matter and should have no voice.’
Edward Pentin
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The program was also a “dereliction” of the BBC’s commitment to impartiality, the archbishop added. The commitment, which dates back to its founding, aims to ensure a “range of views is appropriately reflected” so that “no significant strand of thought is under-represented or omitted.”
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‘False Representation’
John Neill, a volunteer aid worker for the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, noted that not only was there “no mention of the Yazidis in the whole series” but that it also ignored the presence of Iranian militias, which are “causing a huge issue of security, resulting in the minorities fleeing for the diaspora.”
The most used words in Iraq are “hope” and “voice,” Neill told the Register, but the series “denied the minorities both.” The Yazidis, a small ethno-religious minority who were targeted for genocide by ISIS because of their syncretistic religious beliefs, are a “deeply damaged and traumatized people,” and all Iraq’s ancient minorities are in “desperate need” of “education, livelihood programs, capacity building, rights and security,” he said.
