We the undersigned ChaldoAssyrians, members of the new Iraq Broadcast Radio
Station in the city of Kirkuk, hereby withdraw our staff members as of
8/2/2004.
The decision to withdraw
from the radio station came as a direct result of accumulated issues that do
not support the current efforts to establish a Democratic Iraq, free from
censorship and oppression. These issues have been selectively ignored by
both the Administration and the Iraq Broadcast Radio Station which is
composed entirely of Kurdish members.
The Station's Management
is not composed of staff reflective of the diverse population of Kirkuk. The
absence of this diverse makeup has resulted in biased and negative treatment
of our staff. Our air time has been reduced from three to two hours per day
with no explanation as to the circumstances leading to this decision. Our
petition to reinstate our time has been ignored outright by the Management.
The behavior of the
Kurdish inspection guards at the radio station also displayed the
intolerance targeted at our group by continuously harassing the female
broadcasting personnel of our staff and treating them with disrespect
bordering on sexual harassment. This treatment is totally unacceptable. Our
requests to the Management to address the questionable behavior have also
been ignored. We can only deduce the reason behind the Management choosing
to ignore the behavior of the guards as stemming from prejudice and racism.
They simply do not correct the situation because they (the Management) are
also of Kurdish background.
We hereby demand the following actions to be implemented:
- Diversify the Management to reflect the ethnic makeup of the city of
Kirkuk.
- The Radio Station must reprimand the guards guilty of sexual harassment,
prejudice, racism and chauvinism. Guards hailing from diverse backgrounds
other than Kurdish must be hired they must include Arabs, Chaldo-Assyrians,
and others.
- The ChaldoAssyrian Group must be allotted equal airtime as all other
broadcast entities at the station.
Johnny Dawood, Group Responsible
Youkhanna Gewargis Yousif, Announcer
Amer Poulis, Translator
Ramziya Aprim Goriel, Announcer
Shameram Asya Yalda, Announcer