Kirkuk (Agenzia Fides) – The Christian politician Imad Youkhana, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) and member of the Iraqi parliament, denounced some officials of the Nineveh province after collecting documented evidence on the corrupt system where many properties – land and houses – belonging to Christians change hands in an illegal and secret manner, without any mandate on behalf of their legitimate owners. Fraud, connected to a system of bribes, is facilitated by the fact that most of the Christian owners left the Country years ago. According to official sources of the Zowaa party, Youkhana urged quick action of local and federal governments aimed at dismantling the fraudulent system, identify those responsible and return the property to their respective owners. The politician also called on Iraqi Christians who emigrated to check the status of the property they left in Iraq and reaffirm their full rights on them.
Last September 50 people were wounded in a bomb attack near Youchana’s home. In early 2006, the 70-year-old Yaqo Youkhana, Imad’s father, had been killed by U.S. troops.
Last November, the first conference sponsored by the organization “Bartala’s friends” to denounce demographic balance tampering in the Plain of Nineveh (and other areas where indigenous Christian communities in Iraq are historically concentrated) had also called for the introduction of measures of control to prevent the real estate market and the sale or acquisition of land to assume an illegal character of intimidation against Christians. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 03/03/2014)
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