Middle East
Christian Girls Kidnapped in Yemen Are Rescued
Parents, other abducted Christians remain missing.
By Damaris Kremida
ISTANBUL, May 18 (Compass Direct News) – Saudi Arabian and Yemeni security forces rescued two German girls yesterday, 11 months after the two young sisters, their parents, brother and four other Christians were taken hostage in Yemen.
Reported to be between 3 and 6 years old, the two girls, Lydia Hentschel and her younger sister Anna Hentschel, were part of a group of nine Christian foreigners who were kidnapped on June 12 last year. Three of the adult hostages, a Korean and two German women, were murdered shortly afterwards.
The foreigners worked in a hospital near the city of Saada. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Although the German family, a British man, and the three murdered women were Christians, it was not clear if they were kidnapped because of their faith.
There was no indication as to the whereabouts of the girls’ parents, Johannes and Sabine Hentschel, the girls’ 2-year-old brother Simon, and the Briton, identified only as Anthony.
The two girls were found in a disputed border region between Yemen and Saudi Arabia during Saudi cross-border raids in the northern region of Saada, according to Reuters. Saudi and Yemeni security forces collaborated in the operation to free the sisters.
Over the last year violent clashes have flared between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi armed group in Saada. The fighting has reportedly hindered efforts to locate the missing foreigners.
Reuters quoted the German foreign minister as saying the two young sisters were in “relatively good health” and would be transported from Saudi Arabia to Germany on Wednesday (May 19). Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he remained concerned about the safety of the rest of the German family.
Westerwelle told Reuters that learning the whereabouts of the remaining hostages remains a high priority, with efforts “continuing undiminished” and hopes still alive.
Today CNN reported that a spokesman for the German family said it was likely that the youngest sibling, Simon, was dead, since he was not found along with the two sisters.
In the last 15 years nearly 200 foreign nationals have been kidnapped in Yemen, and most have been released unharmed, Reuters reported.
www.compassdirect.org
Five Christian Seats in Iraqi Parliament Approved
Iraq in 2003 - about 1.4 million Christians of nearly 30 million but now 50% have fled the country.
The beleaguered Christian community in Iraq may see a ray of hope as Iraq's Federal Supreme Court approved recently the results of the March election, which include five Christian seats in the Iraqi parliament, Persecution.org said.
The five Christian seats comprise part of 14 seats in the Iraqi parliament that are held by non-Muslims. The legislature has a total of 325 seats. Last term, Christians only held two seats, Persecution.org said.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Council , before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 there were about 1.4 million Christians in this Muslim-dominated nation of nearly 30 million, USA Today reported.
Since then, about 50 percent of Iraq's Christians have fled the country, taking refuge in neighboring Jordan, Syria, Europe and the USA, according to USA Today. Regional manager Aidan Clay of the International Christian Concern Middle East said, "If they fail to increase security [for Iraqi Christians], we may soon see the extinction of Christianity in Iraq."
Sister Maria Hanna, who has lived in the Immaculate Virgin convent in Mosul for 52 years, said the convent has been attacked by extremists some 20 times since 2003, USA Today said.
They used to have 55 Assyrian Catholic nuns, but now there are only four. Recently a bomb exploded in the courtyard just moments after Sister Hanna received an anonymous phone call warning her and the nuns to leave, USA Today said.
Other attacks were a rocket-propelled grenade, a car bomb and a propane can that was set on fire in front of the convent gate, USA Today reported.
Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-right Catholics who are autonomous from the Vatican but still recognize the pope's authority. In many of the Chaldean churches in Iraq, services are recited in ancient Aramaic, the language of Jesus, USA Today said.
The other major group of Christians in Iraq is made up of Assyrians, like Sister Hanna. She has written letters to the Iraqi Christian Diaspora to chronicle the experiences of the remaining Christians in Mosul, and recently visited Washington to meet with several members of Congress to lobby for more pressure on the Iraqi government to protect Christians.
Yonadam Kanna, one of the five Christian Iraqi Parliament members and secretary general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said that with larger representation in the legislature, Christians in parliament will push for security, more job opportunities, the end of discrimination policies and compensation for Christians who fled Iraq, to return what was stolen and what was lost, Persecution.org said.
Kanna is hopeful that if Christians are safer in Iraq, many who fled will return.
He said, "We will now be in a much better legal condition, and much more respected than we were under the persecution and discrimination policies of Saddam times. We are full with hope that all together we will be able to do much more than we had achieved in the last seven years," Persecution.org said.
www.theundergroundsite.com
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