Syrian Christians are ‘vulnerable’ says peer

CHRISTIANS IN Syria are particularly vulnerable during the violence in the country, the former bishop of Oxford has warned.

In the House of Lords, Lord Harries of Pentregarth also raised the plight of Kurdish minority in the wartorn country and asked what the Government was doing to help protect minorities.

He said: “Christians are particularly vulnerable at the moment because they have been relatively protected under the Assad regime, they are disproportionately represented among refugees and people who are internally displaced and of course they are particularly at risk with the wholesale outbreak of sectarian violence.”

Lord Harries added: “Since the First World War the Kurdish people have been seeking their own country, which they feel they have been denied.

“There are reports that they will look for an opportunity to bring this into being now.”

He asked Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi: “In what way are the Government bearing this possibility in mind?”

Lady Warsi said the inclusion of minorities in the national coalition had formed a large part of Government discussions.

“The president of the national coalition is Sheikh alKhatib; below him are four vice-presidents, one of whom is from the Christian community,” she said.

“A further two have been appointed from the Muslim community and a fourth position has been reserved for the Kurdish minority.

“However, that appointment has not yet been made because there are discussions within the Kurdish minority as to who would be the most appropriate person.

“The rights of all minorities, including the Christians and Kurds, have formed part of the discussions in relation both to the way in which the national coalition has been set up and to how those reforms are to be taken forward.

“On the wider question about the Kurds, I hope that, in the discussions that we are having with the national coalition, those are matters that we can move towards resolving.”