Secretary-General of the United Nations 
                                                                                       His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon     
                                                                                       New York, NY 10017
                                                                                       United States of America
 
FOR THE RIGHT TO STUDY OF THE CHRISTIAN STUDENTS  OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MOSUL IN IRAQ, FOR THE SAFEGUARD OF THE IRAQI CHRISTIAN PEOPLE AND OF THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE

Rome, 8 May 2010

Your Excellency,

Italian Association, Salvaimonasteri (Save the Monasteries), is presenting this petition in consequence of a new deadly attack that  the students of the Christian village of Karakosh, in the Nineveh plain, underwent while  transferring by buses to the University of Mosul on May 2, 2010. Two bombs exploded at their passage killing one person and injuring 171. Many of the young students were left missing legs, arms, parts of faces, most of whom are undergoing major plastic surgery. Two young women are still in danger of death in intensive care.
    
As it is becoming known, the Iraqi Christians are suffering discrimination, violations of human rights, and persecution on religious, ethnic, cultural grounds and as a consequence of the country’s recent conflicts and political situation. Since the year 2004 the Iraqi Christian population has been halved with the resultant impoverishment of their social condition and of their civil and human  rights.

Salvaimonasteri Association has been active in Iraq since 2005 through communication projects to alert the international community of the annihilating conditions facing the Christian population, the disappearance of these important  communities with their unique cultural heritage, and the urgent situation of the refugees in the neighbouring countries. Notwithstanding the commitment of U.N. , of the  Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other international institutions, the situation of the Iraqi Christians is getting worse. Especially in the city of Mosul and in the villages of the Niniveh plain the daily murder of ordinary Christian people continues as well as the attack and the destruction of churches and convents of religious sisters. These wild acts usually remain unpunished. The majority of Christians in this area have lost their jobs and property and have been done away with as a result of harassment, blackmail, and persecution. The young Christians will have no future in their country and their precious 2000 year-old cultural heritage is condemned to vanish.   
    
We require the intervention of the United Nations in order to guarantee the right to study of the Christian students of the Governatorate of Mosul, in order to safeguard the Christian heritage in the plain of Niniveh and in all Iraq, and in order to re-establish the respect of the human and civil rights of the Iraqi Christians in their fatherland.
    
We require the United Nations to act with the Iraqi and the international governments and  institutions in defense of the existence, and for the respect of the life and history, of the Iraqi Christians.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN IN 

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

LIST OF COMMENTS BY SUBSCRIBERS  

Salva i Monasteri nasce come una libera iniziativa di privati cittadini. Più di 200 studiosi, artisti, donne e uomini di cultura, amanti del patrimonio artistico-religioso del Kosovo e Metohija e di ogni altro paese del mondo, hanno aderito all'appello a favore della salvaguardia dei monasteri ortodossi ( vedi "Adesioni appello Kosovo"). Salva i Monasteri prosegue l' impegno di salvaguardia del patrimonio culturale in aree di crisi con  progetti in Kosovo, in Iraq, in Medio Oriente, in Asia.

Salva i Monasteri (Save the Monasteries) is an Italian association of academics, scholars, artists, media experts. Our main interest and activity focus on the cultural heritage through media and cultural  projects for the safeguard and promotion  of historical and religious sites, for preserving and divulgating  cultural patrimony and  traditions, with a specific regard to the Christian heritage in areas of crisis.

Our  tools :
The Media (campaigns of information, film documentary production, web site management and publishing,  book publishing).
The Historical - Artistic Documentation (scientific cataloguing,  art and cultural strategies for  development, safeguard planning).
We are  acting  in eastern Europe and in Middle East. Since 2004 we started an information campaign    and realized the film documentary ENCLAVE KOSOVO about the Christian monasteries and Churches in Kosovo,  in 2007/2008 two film documentaries on  the Christian sites and communities  in Iraq CHRISTIANS OF NINEVEH and IRAQ’S CHRISTIANS,  in 2009 the documentaries IRAQ SOS REFUGEES and CHRISTIAN WITNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST realized  in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.

Our committment :
it goes on with the production in 2010 of the  documentaries PAKISTAN'S CHRISTIANS and INDIA'S CHRISTIANS. 

Elisabetta Valgiusti
President of the Association "Save the Monasteries"