Baghdad archbishop says violence part of 'tragic daily life' in Iraq

Published: 2005-09-06

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The latest violence in Iraq is part of "tragic daily life" in the country as it tries to avoid slipping into full-scale civil war, a Baghdad archbishop said. "In essence, from the end of the war to today, we have lived in a great confusion. We are in a country that is truly without rules," Latin-rite Archbishop Jean Sleiman told Vatican Radio Sept. 2. "The confusion is fed by a violence that I would not call 'blind,' because it instead seems to be well-planned and therefore perverse," he said. Archbishop Sleiman said he has witnessed the reappearance of "many realities we thought had died, such as tribalism." While Iraqi authorities are trying to steer the country away from civil war, there are serious risks that the fighting could widen, he said. Complicating the situation in Iraq, he said, is that the current violence has roots in a culture and history marked by conflict. "To heal all this, we need another effort to help this population reconcile with itself, with its past and its problems, and to encourage a new culture and a new mentality," he said.

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