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To: Douglas V. Fant who wrote (33530)	12/25/1998 3:30:00 AM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Respond to of 95453

drsvelte, Also say a prayer today for the Christians in Iraq who have been impoverished by the UN sanctions.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Christmas in Iraq amid deprivation, sorrow <Picture>Roman Catholic children surround Santa after his arrival Thursday at a church in Baghdad ALSO:Saddam Hussein says airstrikes deny meaning of Christmas BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A golden star of Bethlehem twinkles atop Yousif Habboush's Christmas tree, and silver and blue streamers hang from his dining room chandelier. But once again there will be no turkey on the holiday table. In a poorer Baghdad neighborhood nearby, Faris Boutros Mehdi shops for presents to put beneath his bare plastic Christmas tree. He can't afford to buy his girlfriend a bottle of perfume for 25,000 dinars ($14), about half his monthly salary. The rich and poor of Iraq's 500,000-member Christian community are struggling to celebrate the season of peace on Earth in a society devastated by eight years of U.N. sanctions. Recent airstrikes have only increased the misery. "People are celebrating Christmas Day, but inside they are not joyful," said Matti Shaba Matoka, the Syrian Catholic archbishop of Baghdad. "We hope that this year we will have a Christmas of peace." This year, Matoka will again urge his flock to stay in Iraq and preserve a community that traces its roots to the first century, when St. Thomas converted the initial Christians. <Picture: Children>Roman Catholic children pray Thursday in downtown Baghdad He is fighting an uphill battle. About one-third of Iraq's Christians have left the country since sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Priests say some traditionally Christian villages in mostly Kurdish areas of the north are virtually abandoned. Although Muslims have fled too, many Christians have found it easier to leave because they have relatives in the West who migrated earlier. Iraq is officially a secular state, and most Christians say they face little discrimination. Christians, however, make up only about 5 percent of Iraq's 22 million people, and many feel alienated in the mainly Muslim society. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz -- a member of the Chaldean sect -- is one of several prominent Christians in the government, army and security forces. For the Habboush family, which lives in a luxurious white villa, there is much to be thankful for this year: No one was hurt during four nights of U.S. missile strikes. Habboush owned a construction company before the war and has been able to sell off his equipment slowly to make ends meet under punishing U.N. sanctions. "We are living at 25 percent of our earlier standard of living," he said. "I don't want it to fall much more." His traditional Christmas lunch -- the main holiday meal in Iraq -- will consist of lamb soup, fish and chicken. Missing will be the turkey, which can cost up to a month's salary for an average family -- when it can be found.