A/HRC/34/53/Add.1 Christians 31. The Christian communities in Iraq consist of Armenian Catholics and Orthodox Christians, members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Assyrian Orthodox Christians, Chaldean Catholics, Evangelicals, other Protestants, Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and other distinct religious groups that fall within the category of “Christian”. Christian communities have historically been targeted because of their faith and their perceived ties with the West. 5 Following the 2003 invasion, attacks against Christian communities led to an exodus of Christians from the country. Christian representatives stated that the population had declined dramatically, from up to 1.4 million people prior to 2003 to only some 350,000 by 2014. 32. The population is thought to have declined further since mid-2014 with the rise of ISIL in areas of Christian populations, including the Ninewa plains. As places such as Mosul fell to ISIL, thousands of Christians fled. Those who remained or were unable to flee faced demands for the payment of protection money while others faced forced conversion or execution if they failed to comply with demands. Christian property was marked with an Arabic “N” (for Nusairi, the word used in the Koran to refer to Christians) and was later seized, and Christians were given an ultimatum to leave the city by 19 July 2014 or face execution. 33. While the Government emphasized the generally good relations between those of different faith communities, some Christian representatives noted their experiences of antiChristian incidents and sentiments. A Christian priest from Mosul stated: “After 2005 I heard people say ‘don’t buy the properties of the minorities because they will be free later’. People are happy about what has happened to the Christians in Ninewa and Mosul.” One Christian representative alleged receiving death threats and demands for protection money in Mosul even before the fall of the city. Kaka’e 34. The Kaka’e are ethnically associated with the Kurds while maintaining a distinct religious identity. Representatives stated that they numbered some 200,000 people scattered throughout different regions, with most in Iraqi Kurdistan. They stated that they lacked political representation in both the Iraqi and the Kurdistan Parliaments. They were not referred to in the Iraqi Constitution or the Kurdistan Regional Constitution. However, Kurdistan Law No. 5 of 2015 protecting the rights of groups recognized the Kaka’e as a religious group. Representatives stated that Kaka’e had suffered historic persecution, including under the Saddam Hussein regime, with lands and villages confiscated and given to the Arab populations. People had to relocate to the south of Iraq, beginning to move back to their former regions only after the fall of Saddam Hussein. 35. Community representatives stated that some 300 Kaka’e had been killed by ISIL in Mosul and other areas because of their religious identity and that a large area normally occupied by Kaka’e was under the control of ISIL. All Kaka’e who formerly lived in Mosul and in the Ninewa plains had reportedly become internally displaced persons in Kurdistan. In March 2016, local sources reported that ISIL had made new threats to “pursue and kill” Kaka’e in northern Iraq.6 Leaders stated that 65 of their villages had been destroyed and that Kaka’e internally displaced persons were scattered in different locations. One representative stated that the Kaka’e faced challenges to their identity in Iraq, with other communities “trying to make Kaka’e Shia”. 5 6 10 Minority Rights Group International, From Crisis to Catastrophe: The Situation of Minorities in Iraq, 2014. See http://aranews.net/2016/03/isis-threatens-eliminate-kakai-religious-minority-iraq/.