Washington, Jan. 2, 2007 (CWNews.com) - An American archbishop has protested that international officials are ignoring the suffering of Christians in Iraq.
 
 Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, writing in the Washington Times, observed that the Christian minority in Iraq has endured “a disproportionate burden of violent attacks and other human-rights abuses.” The archbishop co-authored the Times essay along with Felice Gaer, who chairs the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
 
 The Times column observed that religious minorities in Iraq are being subjected to intimidation by extremist Muslim groups, who have attacked their churches, shops, and homes. As a result many Christians have fled the country. The archbishop noted that while Christians constitute only 3% of the Iraqi population, they account for 40% of the refugees leaving the country.
 
 The plight of these Christian refugees is aggravated, Archbishop Chaput and Gaer continued, because the UN has not yet recognized them as constituting a class of refugees in special need of protection and aid.