Iraq's Minorities Facing Extinction in Current Crisis - Current Crisis is the US occupation

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28528236/

CIGI special report urges creation of international monitoring committee

updated 4:38 p.m. CT, Tues., Jan. 6, 2009

WATERLOO, ONTARIO - Although all Iraqis are caught in a cycle of violence and victimhood, the extremist danger and the rise of religious parties as the main political actors in the new Iraq has left minority groups acutely vulnerable to extinction, states a special report by Mokhtar Lamani, a senior visiting fellow with The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

Mr. Lamani served as Special Representative of the Arab League in Iraq in 2006 and has recently undertaken in-depth field research in Iraqi-Kurdistan, Jordan and Egypt to examine the crisis that minorities in Iraq, and their members who have fled to other countries, are currently facing.

The report outlines some of the threats that specific groups are facing as well as the political and governance issues associated with all minorities in Iraq. It notes that the threats to minorities cannot be addressed in isolation from the broader issue of national reconciliation.