Though the world’s attention has shifted to the devastating typhoon in the Philippines, Hétu points out that Syria is still listed by the UN High Commissioner as “one of the worst human crises in the world.”
The population of Syria, including those in refugee camps, or in the streets outside their homes are “bracing for winter,” he said. They need more heaters, blankets and food. “The situation is bad.”
“Thousands upon thousands” of new refugees continue to flood neighbouring countries, said Hétu.
In the last six months the attacks on Christians have “increased dramatically,” Hétu said.
Christians that traditionally have never been attacked and have never been touched by any wars in the region are now vulnerable. “Clearly rebels have gone to a level of attacking Christians that is very scary. It’s a taste of what’s to come if they ever win,” he said.
Extremist groups are fighting for both sides. In Syria, Hezbollah, an extremist Shiite group with links to Iran is fighting on Assad’s side; Al Qaida-related Sunni groups are supporting rebels.
One of the consequences of the Arab Spring is that the Middle East is going back to old divisions among tribes, clans and religions that existed before the arbitrary drawing of boundaries after the First World War, Hétu said.
“Christians are the big losers in the organizing and reshaping of the Middle East,” he said. “There seems not to be too many places they can live in peace and in security, except in Jordan, Palestine and Israel, and Lebanon to a certain extent, but it’s very fragile.”
“That’s where we need to be attentive to the Christians so they can remain in their home,” he said. CNEWA and the Holy See have made Christians in the Holy Land and in the Middle East a priority, he added.
Hétu said the word “on the ground” is no one expects the situation in Syria to improve in the coming year. Supporters of the Assad regime are locked in a war of attrition with rebel forces, where a city or neighbourhood is won by one side then won back in another battle.
The influx of refugees into neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan and the involvement of factions such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah Party intervening on Assad’s side, threaten to destabilize the entire region, said Hétu.
Christians, who have been in the Middle East since the time of Jesus, have been caught in the middle of this conflict, and as Islamist extremism rises, they risk being pushed out of their homes and having no place of safety in the region, he said.
“It’s not just a religious thing,” he said. “It’s about political power, about who will gain political power in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Religious fanatics see the opportunity to take power, to have Islamist states. In countries that formerly had secular dictatorships, extremist fundamentalists are saying, “It’s our turn,” he said.
When the Muslim Brotherhood was elected in Egypt, President Morsi “did not have a place for the Christians in Egypt,” Hétu said. Though popular protests deposed the Brotherhood, extremists have continued to attack Egyptian Copts.
Iraq is also devolving into sectarian violence, with explosions in Sunni, Shiite or Kurd neighbourhoods almost every day. Under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, there was space for Christians, Hétu said, but in the new constitution “the word Christian has been eliminated.”