BEIRUT: Assyrian Christian refugees from northern Syria are streaming into Lebanon but remain reluctant to speak about their plight publicly, fearing this might undercut efforts to free relatives still being held by ISIS. Thousands of Assyrian families fled their villages along the Khabour River in Hassakeh province to avoid capture by the Sunni militant group after an estimated 220 were abducted in the early hours of Feb. 23. Men, women, children and elderly are among the captives.
Approximately 75 Assyrian families have come to Lebanon from the region in recent weeks, according to Archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East Yatron Koliana, a relatively low number due to the considerable geographical distance separating Lebanon from northern Syria, which borders Turkey and Iraq. These families have been instructed by their church not to speak to media about relatives still in militant custody.
In March, 19 of the abducted were released by ISIS, reportedly in exchange for money. Of that number at least three have come to Lebanon, according to Koliana.
“Those [19] won’t talk because, although they were released their sons, brothers or parents are still in captivity and that is why the church took an internal decision, in coordination with the church in Hassakeh, to keep this issue in the dark for the safety of the others,” Koliana told The Daily Star. The released were told by militants that they would be killed if recaptured.
Assyrian refugees have to drive to Qamishli, near the Turkish border, in order to come to Lebanon. From there they take a domestic flight to Damascus and often drive to Masnaa.
One man, who identified himself as Jameel, took the plane route. He arrived in Lebanon with his family just a day before speaking to The Daily Star. Three of his relatives, including an 80-year-old woman, were kidnapped by ISIS in February.
The last he heard from his acquaintances who were among the released was that they were being kept in relatively good condition in the ISIS-held town of Shaddadi, southern Hassakeh.
Jameel refused to disclose from which of the 35 villages along the Khabour River he hails. “I can’t say because it might hurt my family.”
But the former clerk and member of the local village militia remembers the last frenzied moments he spent in his hometown. It began around 4:30 a.m., he recalled, when dozens of militants attacked the village. The village militia fought ISIS for around 50 minutes before surrendering. Jameel took his family and ran to the river’s edge, and waited there until nightfall. “They were shooting over our heads,” he said.
A small boat came to collect them from the river and they eventually made their way to Hassakeh city and a temporary sense of freedom. The family couldn’t travel by land because fighting was ongoing between the Kurdish peshmerga and ISIS in several villages along the way. Rather than stay in Hassakeh or escape to Turkey or Kurdistan, Jameel decided to take the longer route and come to Lebanon. “It’s safer here,” he said.
The Interior Ministry had previously instructed General Security to facilitate the entry of Assyrian refugees from Hassakeh province in particular, considering theirs to be an exceptional humanitarian case.
Once in Lebanon, Jameel went directly to his church, the first destination for most Assyrian refugees. His was among the hundred or so families who came to pick up food baskets distributed by the non-profit organization In Defense of Christians, whose mission is to protect Christians in the Middle East. The relief effort targeted both Christian Iraqis displaced from Mosul earlier this summer and Assyrian refugees.
IDC representative Alexi Moukarzel told The Daily Star that the aid distribution was made possible by generous private donors, but that more international assistance was necessary to keep the relief efforts alive.
Bishop Koliana said the Assyrian Church was not involved in negotiating with ISIS to release those they are holding captive. “We have no links to any party that is [negotiating],” he added. But the church is imploring ISIS to release their community members, as Koliana explained, according to their rules. “They said: convert, pay tax or leave. Well, they won’t convert, they can’t afford the tax, so they should be released.”
“We’re asking ISIS to apply their own beliefs, even though we don’t agree with them. Even if it means we lose our homes and our churches,” he said.
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