translated by: Sereen

Q. your name

  A: Nadia Youna

  Q :how are you

  A: with God I am well. We faith in Jesus Christ

  Q: Tell us when did you leave, why and hoe

  A: (sarcastically” don’t you Know, as if we live a Luxurious life and going on a trip), we fled on 7:00 A.M, they wanted to capture us on the road the intersection of ( Shallalat) , well they stopped us, with us was what we had left of our money. We only had 2 million dinars left( one million Dinar is less than $1000.00- the translator), we had some money, but for as long as two months we were forced to stay home using whatever we have, banks were closed, Christians were not even allowed to collect their salaries. We tried as much as we can to save since we do not know what will happen in the future, they took it all, they took it all, when we fled my sister and I had to rap the money on our waists to keep it hidden, my brother, that one is very ill, with a thousand of illness, he had suffered a lot since the Iraq Iran war he is handicapped, ok, one of them told me “you have to undress, do you want me to believe that you do not have money?’ well he put his hand in my brother’s pocket and took the money, then he told me “ come down you and your sister” he said “ where is the money” , I said we only have some Dinars for food, and water , I said, “ consider it as charity from you to me, if you have a family would you like for them to go through what we are going through” he said” go to your people, your priests they will feed you and give you a shelter and protect you” he says “ we have respected you at the beginning, but it seems that you do not deserve our respect” he said, then I said” what wrong have we done to you”, I said” when you first came we respected you as much as your fellow Muslims did” I said,” He said we guarded your churches”, I said how so”

  Brother: “they burned them”

  Nadia” “I did not tell them that, I was not aware of it, I did not tell him that, I was not aware of burning the churches”

  Q: you are from Mosul.

  A: Yes from Mosul

Q; you are the original Native people of Mosul,

  A: our fathers and Grandfathers lived here.

  Q: So, you were expelled out of your native land.

  A: yes, from our home land. From our Owen land, they told us go, this not your land any more, go to your people, go to your priests, have them feed you, and take care of you, have them give you a home, he said”

both you and your sister, give me your money, otherwise, you will both receive a built in your heads, but before you both receive the built, you will see one going in your brother’s head, then we will throw down her on the dirt. Give up the money”.

  my mother is a handicapped very ill person, when we fled we were thinking that she might pass away any minute, then we will bury her in ( Shehk Matte) , he asked me “ are you hiding anything underneath her, are you hiding gold or jewelries beneath her, I said” go check if you want, you have taken everything we have” I said “ would like us to undress here on the road, if you have a mother or sister, would you like for the to be undressed in the middle of the road, and you say you are Muslim and, do you consider yourself a Muslim, haven’t you say, we are Muslims and we do not attack women, I said you now are attacking us”

  Q: Sir you are the brother.

  A: yes

  Q: your name

  A: Faris Younan

  Q: tell us talk about you suffering there, your sister just told us, now she is the daughter of Mosul, you are one of the original people of Mosul, what was your problem there, why do you feel that they intended to do so?

  A; well they gave us a certain time to leave, not more that some hours, they gave us ten hours to leave, what can you do in ten hours, how would you plan or prepare a destination

  Q: on their web sits, they claim that they gave you 3 days.

  A; that is not true, they announced that through the loud speakers of Mosques, Friday afternoon , any Christian wishes to stay in town after Saturday afternoon will be killed.

  Nadia: sir I would like to say that I was at home Friday afternoon, did not hear that the radio was on did not announce it. We received a phone call from a Christian family, friend of ours, they asked us to leave, they said leave, you care about your house, it is not more valuable than your lives, my sister was debating during that phone conversation weather that is a rumor, since those people have not done any harm to us then yet. we turned the TV on, on Saturday morning and saw the massif attack on Christians, my brother called his Muslim friends to get the update, they told him do not take anything with you, they are not allowing anything, food and cook where were taken from people and been thrown away.

  Nadia: we only took the necessities

  Brother: we only took pocket money, they robbed us, they stole our Mobiles, they stole the blood pressure monitor, it is a medical instrument, they stole the diabetes monitor, and they left us with nothing

  Nadia: sir, he asked me “what do you have in the trunk”

  I said you may check there is a bag of bread-it was even rotten due to the heat, there were tomatoes and two canned meat, I said “please help us, let us save them for my ill mother” I said “there is another bag full of my mother’s medication and another one for the medication of my brother” , I said that is all we have we only brought the necessary medications, there is as much as those at home” he said “ your home that became a property of the Islamic state”, well I did not replay Sir, my brother said “ good for you, you could take the house and its contents.

  Brother: he took the address of the house and said it is now a property of the Islamic State, I said well, good for you.

  Nadia: he saw keys in my hand and asked me what are these I said”

these are keys to the closets and cabinets” he said. “we opened your houses do you think it is hard for us to open a cabinet.” I said you may do whatever you desire, I said you could even burn it, I said the house is full of groceries, good enough for a big family, friend told us not to bring any food, it will be thrown to waste , I thought with myself I wish anyone could take it and benefit from it, even if Muslims, he said” we do not need your food” I said I know that you do not need our food but I am telling you that I do not mind if you take it , we have stored sugar, oil and grans for the bad days and you are welcome to take them, I also said the house dose not worth much , it is an old small house but we do not mind if you take it, and as for us we will go wherever”

  Q; you are welcomed here at the monastery of ( Shaikh Matti) hopefully soon you will have a good place to stay, is there a message that you want to deliver to anyone or request from anyone.

  Naida ;" I only plead to God, I do not plead to a human being, I plead to My Lord, My creator, Jesus Christ, Christ who created me, He knows what is going on and how to take care of us, I plead to His mother, His great honorable mother who helped us, I do not plead to a man, and I turn to my church and it will take care of me, my church will feed me, my church will bury me if it’s time for me to go and to bury my family once they die. Mom was about to pass away yesterday, she was vomiting and the man was asking me if there is anything hidden beneath her” I said she is ill, would you like it for your mother, , I said, you claim that you know God, you Muslims, and us are the unbeliever, atheist you call us unbeliever, atheist, well one of them approached and I have to be honest and say the truth before God, that other man was much better than the first one, that other man was nodding get in the car, he said they will kill you otherwise” then my brother said” we do not want to be killed and thrown here on the dirt” there were another Christian family were shouting as well the woman was telling them that her mom is paralyzed,. The woman was shouting, then the man told her" do not get me mad", then he took her into the caravan, and we do not know what happened to them afterwards, my brother said it is better of us to be killed here together, that they take you and sister into the caravan.

That is what we went through, for many years Christians of Iraq are not stable and threatened, every couple years we go through this unfairness, we think and say it is over and passed , but it starts over again, we have been through a lot, my brother have served for ten years in the army during the Iran war and was injured, he is our only brother, our father passed 30 years ago, my sister works, I had to quit work in order to take care of my ill handicapped mother, why do you treat us with this much of injustice,, what have we done wrong to you, what have all these Christians done to you, what did the Christians harmed you with, we are as our lord said “ I have send you like sheep in the mouths of wolves” I have send you as sheep in the mouths of wolves” what have we done that is the crime that we have committed?

  Second interview

  Q; name

  A; Sinan Mowafaq

  Q; tell us how did you flee why

  A; we fled 2 days ago, in the morning at 8:30 A.M when we reached the ( Shallalat ) intersection ISIS approached us, asked us to give up our money, lab tops, mobile phones, give up everything they said, my wedding ring, my gold cross necklaces I had cash about two and a half million dinars the took it all, then at the end we were about to leave they said” leave your car you are unbelievers, you are against Islam, we gave a date to your priests to come to us and they did not, as a retaliation we will do that “

  Q you talked with them, have you figured out from the dialect are they from Mosul or not, or where are they from

  A; there were Afghanis, from other minorities, the one talked to me was not Arab, Afghanis and Lebanese were among them, armed men with beards, everything was done under the threat of weapons, he ordered me to take my clothes of, he took my ID, my wedding certificate, they took some other documents as I told you jewelries, cash 2 1/2 million dinars, my car I had just bought it six months ago that worth about 2000.00 dollars, who is going to pay me back. What will happen to us I do not know, there is no organizations that supports us, what is our fault, what have we done wrong, we have served Mosul, sacrificed our lives and families, why is this happening to us I do not know.

  Q’ from which area are you, and where did you flee

  A; from ( Hay al- Sukkar) , we fled to (Sheikh Mattie) we thank the monks here, they have welcomed us and offered everything to comfort us, but you know, even though we are still thinking of and missing our houses, you know we have lived there so many years and it is not easy to give it up like that to an armed group, they came in took our houses and wrote on them ( property of the Islamic state)

  Q; you told us about your personal suffering, how about your family, your job

  A; I have lost my job, no salaries, my family and I are staying here waiting for the unknown, we do not know what will happen to us, there isn't any organization that took care of us, no governor, we have not received any assistant

  Q; in your opinion, who is to blame

  A; the government is responsible, it allowed that otherwise how is it possible to those armed groups to enter Mosul with their vehicles, and armed forces, they were powered with a capacity of a state behind them , it seems that they are supported by many states. It is an irony, misery, we live in a big irony especially for Christians

  Q; where do you wish your voice to reach

  A; well to the big countries, we want them to feel our pain, we were forced to migrate and this is not the first one by the way we have been through a lot in the past, we cannot afford to migrate again, every time we come back, we say this is our home town, we do not want to leave Mosul, but what can we do? We are forced to leave

  Q; in your opinion is there anyone in Iraq who may stand for you

  A; I do not know , we have not seen anyone yet, they all kept silent, no governor, some only said words, but we want action, I for instance, I have just got married, But I lost everything, my Jewelries, my money , who will pay me back, where should I go, no salary, no money, I have nowhere to go, we are not even allowed to receive our share of grocery because we are Christians, we live in a mockery, we ask the officials to look at us with respect and care, heads of the church, they have to care about us, we are all young men and women sitting with no work, no jobs , how long can this last, how long can we wait, they have to come up with a solution, because it is really hard, really hard

  Q; anything you wish to add

  A well we ask the officials, everyone in the USA, Canada Australia, anyone who cares about us the minority Christians of Iraq

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=340520656100699&fref=nf