[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
GENOCIDAL ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIAN
AND OTHER RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN
SYRIA AND IRAQ
=======================================================================
JOINT HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
AND THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-211
__________
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania Massachusetts
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia GRACE MENG, New York
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
TED S. YOHO, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
CURT CLAWSON, Florida
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina
------
------
Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
TOM COTTON, Arkansas DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
RON DeSANTIS, Florida JUAN VARGAS, California
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
TED S. YOHO, Florida Massachusetts
SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin GRACE MENG, New York
CURT CLAWSON, Florida LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State... 9
The Honorable Anne Richard, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State.. 17
Mr. Thomas Staal, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau
for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S.
Agency for International Development........................... 29
The Honorable Peter Galbraith (former advisor to the Kurdistan
Regional Government)........................................... 49
Thomas Farr, Ph.D., director, Religious Freedom Project, Berkley
Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown
University..................................................... 55
Her Excellency Pascale Esho Warda, president, Hammurabi Human
Rights Organization (former Minister of Immigration and
Refugees in the Iraqi Government).............................. 64
Mr. Johnny Oram, president, Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce
of California.................................................. 79
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Tom Malinowski: Prepared statement................. 12
The Honorable Anne Richard: Prepared statement................... 20
Mr. Thomas Staal: Prepared statement............................. 32
The Honorable Peter Galbraith: Prepared statement................ 52
Thomas Farr, Ph.D.: Prepared statement........................... 58
Her Excellency Pascale Esho Warda: Prepared statement............ 67
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 88
Hearing minutes.................................................. 89
The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress
from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement.......... 90
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations: Statements for the record from:
His Excellency Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Chaldean Eparchy of
St. Thomas the Apostle....................................... 92
Mr. Johnny Oram of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce of
California................................................... 94
Rev. Majed El Shafie of One Free World International........... 99
Mr. Mirza Ismail of Yezidi Human Rights Organization-
International................................................ 107
GENOCIDAL ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIAN
AND OTHER RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN
SYRIA AND IRAQ
----------
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and
Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o'clock
p.m., in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon.
Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The meeting of the subcommittees will come to
order. Good afternoon to everyone.
We are convening this extremely urgent hearing on the
desperate plight of Christians and other religious minorities
in Iraq and Syria. As images of beheaded American journalists
James Foley and Steven Sotloff are seared into our
consciousness, we would do well to honor their memories by
recalling what they saw as their mission, to alert the world to
the horrors committed by the fanatical terrorist group ISIS in
Syria and Iraq: Children forced to view crucifixions and
beheadings; women bartered, sold, and raped; prisoners lined up
on their knees to be shot. This is the ISIS legacy.
Today Christians and other religious minorities such as
Yezidis, Shabaks, and Turkmen Shiites are not just facing a
long winter without homes. They are not just hungry and thirsty
and wandering from village to village in northern Iraq and
Kurdistan. They are facing annihilation, genocide, by fanatics
who see anyone who does not subscribe to its draconian and
violent interpretation of Islam as fair game for enslavement,
forced conversion, or death.
If the phrase ``never again'' is to be more than a well-
meaning sentiment we simply give lip service to, then we must
be prepared to act when we see genocide unfold before our very
eyes. After the United States pulled out of Iraq in March 2011,
we left in charge a Prime Minister hostile to political
inclusion of all Iraqis beyond simply Shiites.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, also
known as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, saw an
opportunity to exploit Sunni sentiment at this treatment and
surged to fill the gap. We withdrew; they surged. This is not
the junior varsity team of terrorists, as the President
dismissively asserted earlier this year.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq, Brett McGurk,
has described ISIL as having unprecedented resources in terms
of funds, weapons, and personnel. We have seen what ISIS is
doing in Syria, beheading and crucifying Christians and
political opponents, taking hostages and kidnapping religious
leaders, blowing up churches and mosques, and forcing religious
minorities to convert, flee with the clothes on their backs, or
pay an exorbitant tax, or die.
When ISIS overran Mosul in June, Mosul's 35,000 inhabitants
not too old or sick fled for their lives. At checkpoints
leaving the city, ISIS took the Christians' wedding rings,
money, travel papers, medicines, and even their cars. Families
walked carrying their children, pushing wheelchairs and elderly
parents, mile after mile into the hot, barren, Nineveh Plain.
As ISIS continued to gain territory in July and August, the
Christians fled further north joining Yezidi and many other
minorities trying to find safety in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
More than 1.7 million people have been displaced in Iraq this
year, many were Christians who fled the brutal Syrian Civil
War, now on the run again. Where will they be safe?
Kurdistan, a region of 8.35 million people, currently hosts
nearly 750,000 refugees. The Kurdish militias are underfunded
and underarmed now that ISIS has captured U.S. heavy weapons
across Iraq, yet they soldier on. I have received emails from
bishops and nuns chronicling the dire needs of their flocks who
are being exterminated and expelled from regions their people
have occupied for millennia.
The U.S. has, in the last few weeks, geared up for the
humanitarian crisis. As of September 5, the U.S. has dedicated
nearly $140 million in humanitarian assistance to Iraq, and
USAID airlifted more than 60 metric tons of humanitarian aid
into Kurdistan's capital of Erbil. We need, however, to make
sure that the aid gets people to need it most. This means, of
course, working with religious leaders who are the closest to
those in need.
We also have to invest more in our relationship with the
Kurdistan Regional Government, a regional government which has
taken on the aspects of a de facto national government and one
whose brave militia have stood up against ISIS while members of
the Iraqi Armed Forces have folded and fled.
It must also be remarked and remembered with gratitude that
the Kurdistan Regional Government has extended protection to
Christians and other victims of religious persecution. While
their record has not been perfect, the Kurds appear to be more
tolerant of diversity, of thought, and belief than many of
their neighbors.
But aid alone is not the solution. The U.S. has already
spent some $2.4 billion on the Syrian humanitarian crisis that
rages on. We need shrewd power, a strategy for action that is
in touch with reality on the ground, a strategy borne of
thinking ahead and preparing in advance for the contingencies,
so that we are not playing catch up while the enemy rapes,
pillages, kidnaps, massacres, and amasses wealth and weapons.
The reality for religious minorities is that their very
lives are at risk as long as ISIS controls territory and
continues to gain strength on the ground, drawing funds and
fighters from around the globe. As Pope Francis has noted with
regard to this crisis, and I quote, ``where there is unjust
aggression . . . it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor.''
Of course, that may indeed require the use of force, but it
also requires using other means that are at our disposal. I
have called for the establishment of a Syrian war crimes
tribunal, introduced H. Con. Res. 51 to hold all sides
accountable for the heinous atrocities they have committed.
H. Con. Res. 51 introduced last September calls for the
creation of an international tribunal like in Sierra Leone, the
former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, that would be more flexible and
more efficient than the International Criminal Court--it has
already been vetoed by the Russians anyway--to ensure
accountability for human rights violations committed by all
sides.
I believe with a herculean effort pushed by the United
States and other interested nations, past success in creating
war crime courts can indeed be prologue. Such a tribunal would
also draw upon past experience. We had two hearings, one by the
full committee and one in my subcommittee, in which we heard
from David Crane, the former chief prosecutor at the Sierra
Leone tribunal. He and his tribunal were the ones that put
Charles Taylor behind bars who has entered into the 50 years of
his sentence. Nobody ever thought in the beginning that Charles
Taylor would be behind bars, especially after the atrocities
and the power that he wielded.
Such a tribunal, like I said, would draw upon these past
experiences, but it would also be a mechanism that is robust
enough to right, or at least bring some justice, to the most
egregious wrongs, yet minimal enough not to derail changes for
peace due to rigidity.
The Foreign Affairs Committee approved H. Con. Res. 51 on
April 30, and our hope is that the House will take it up, but
frankly the administration can take this up and do this any
time it pleases.
As ISIS does not respect borders, of course the idea behind
this would be Iraq and Syria. Today, the black flag of ISIS
flies over vast swaths of northern Iraq and even cities such as
Fallujah, which we had won at such great cost. Indeed, ISIS
says that they intend to see the black flag fly over the White
House. Where the black flag flies, there is only death and
misery. We have to do everything humanly possible to stop this
cancer from spreading.
Ms. Bass.
Ms. Bass. Mr. Chairman, as always, thank you for your
leadership and convening today's hearing on an important issue
that is growing in severity and affecting various religious and
ethnic minority populations in the region.
ISIS continues to violate the human rights and religious
freedom of minority groups in significant swaths of territory
in both Syria and Iraq. Oh, I did want to acknowledge our
colleague, Mr. Deutch, since this is a joint hearing, is not
able to be here yet. Hopefully, he will join us, but he is in
another hearing of the Ethics Committee, so he is not here with
us today.
And, Mr. Chair, you have named this hearing the Genocidal
Attacks Against Christians and Other Religious Minorities in
Syria and Iraq. And, you know, frankly, obviously I am very
concerned about this, but the phenomena of ISIS and seeing them
attack Muslims, I mean, one thing we know is that they don't
seem to discriminate in their terror and what is going on in
these countries.
I recall, the whole world saw the video of them capturing
the soldiers, the 250 soldiers, and marching them down, and
then later the videos of them being executed. And I can assume
that many of those soldiers were Muslims. So the phenomena in
ISIS and to hear that al-Qaeda thinks that they are too extreme
is really an ominous situation.
Of course, I would like to thank our distinguished
witnesses, and I am interested in hearing your perspective on
the grave reality on the ground; specifically, how widespread
the attacks have been on soldiers, women, and children, among
other vulnerable groups. I am also interested in hearing your
perspective on the atrocities that have recently occurred like
the one that I just mentioned with the 250 soldiers, and of
course we have to remember the two American journalists.
In addition, thousands of individuals from minority
religious groups have been forced to seek refuge across
borders, and the chairman spelled that out in quite a bit of
detail. I do hope that this hearing sheds light on the
important nuances of the situation and what is needed going
forward in order to protect human rights and religious freedom
in the region. I am committed to working toward this end and
look forward to working with my colleagues to find the most
effective and sustainable solutions.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Member Bass. Thank you very much.
Next we will hear from the co-chair of this hearing, the
chairman emeritus of the full committee and the chairwoman of
the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Chairman Smith,
Ranking Member Bass. Thank you for your passionate words and
for your longtime leadership on this important issue. You, Mr.
Smith, have been a vocal and steadfast ally for all those who
suffer and are denied their basic and fundamental rights,
especially those who are targeted for persecution and
harassment because of their religious beliefs.
We, on this committee, have had several hearings focusing
on religious minorities in the Middle East and on the
humanitarian crisis in Syria and now in Iraq. Last September,
Mr. Smith, I remember you remarked in your opening statement
about how the Christians are not dying because they are in the
war or as collateral damage. No. Their communities are being
deliberately targeted, and it is important to remember that the
Christian communities in Syria, as well as in Iraq, are both
ancient communities that have long had their roots in the
region, and even pre-date Islam by several centuries. But as we
have seen, these communities are quickly dwindling in number as
they face the ISIL threat in Iraq and in Syria.
These vulnerable populations are taking the brunt of the
unending humanitarian crisis in Syria as Assad, ISIL, other
rebel groups, and the opposition, all continue to struggle for
supremacy. Just 10 years ago, the Christian population in Iraq
numbered 1.5 million people, and before Assad began his
campaign to quell calls for reform and democracy with military
force and upended the entire country, Christians numbered close
to 2 million in Syria.
Today, after 3\1/2\ years of brutality and unending
violence, about one-third of Syria's Christians have been
forced to flee their centuries old homes with many having been
beaten, tortured, forced to convert, or murdered. Their
churches have been destroyed, their homes robbed, their
children raped or kidnapped, and the plight of Iraq's
Christians is just as bad, if not worse.
There are now less than 400,000 Christians in Iraq. Many
faced the same fate as those in Syria, forced to flee, convert,
or be killed. Tens of thousands, if not more, have fled to
Erbil to seek refuge in Kurdistan, away from the ISIL scourge.
What was once Iraq's most populated Christian town is now down
to just a few dozen, and this is not something new.
The persecution of Christians, and in fact many other
religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa and
elsewhere, has been rampant and prevalent for years. But it
took the threat of the extinction of the Yezidis in Iraq just a
few weeks ago for the administration to finally take any
meaningful action in defense of a persecuted religious minority
in Iraq or Syria.
It was certainly the right thing to do, but my question is:
Why did it take so long for the administration wake up to the
realization that it isn't just the Yezidis who are being
targeted for extinction by these radical and fundamental
Islamist ideologues, but it is Christians, too, who have
suffered greatly.
This is not a political issue, Mr. Chairman, this is about
right and wrong, about a belief in our ideals and our morals
that everyone everywhere, that is about justice, that is about
freedom of religion, everyone should be able to live freely and
openly without fear of persecution and be able to practice
their faith.
When President Obama spoke to the American people about his
decision to intervene in Libya he said, ``Some nations may be
able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The
United States of America is different. And as President, I
refuse to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves
before taking action.''
But where has that leadership been in Syria and Iraq? Why
have we allowed the Christians to be persecuted and murdered to
the brink of extinction without taking action? Taking action
against ISIL is an important step further, but leaving Assad in
power will not fix the problem because he is part of the
problem.
Now we are left with even more difficult decisions than
ever, and we cannot, for the sake of the Christian communities
in Iraq and Syria and the other religious and ethnic minorities
in the region, dither and remain indecisive or non-committal
any longer. These crises are not new, and we on this committee
have been highlighting them for years now.
The administration has had plenty of time to hash out a
clear set of objectives and map out a strategy, and it is way
past time that the President presented that to the American
people, to those who need our assistance, and to those who seek
to harm us.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, Ms. Bass, for this
joint hearing.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, for
your very eloquent statement.
Mr. Vargas.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I want to
thank both you and the other chair and the ranking members for
holding this very important and very timely hearing.
We have seen ISIS seize the land of the Nineveh Plain and
force Christians and other religious minorities to flee, to
convert, or to be killed. We have seen the horror and now we
need to act.
I have recently introduced the Nineveh Plain Refugee Act of
2014, which would provide asylum relief for religious
minorities in ISIL-held territories. This bill lowers the
threshold for admission and allows religious minorities in
ISIL-held territories to apply directly to the United States
for admission.
I would also like to thank those that are here to testify,
but I would like to add this, that America has always been a
refuge for those that have been persecuted around the world.
And I hope that we can open our doors for these people that
need a place to go. Many of them have family members here in
the United States that are begging for them to come and join
them. So I proposed this bill. I hope that we can act on it and
save lives.
Again, thank you very, very much for this hearing.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Vargas, thank you very much.
Mr. Schneider?
Mr. Schneider. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
calling this hearing today on a crucial issue. As my colleague
from Florida indicated, the United States is different. We do
not turn a blind eye. And I think of the line from scripture,
``Justice, justice, shall you pursue'' and the importance that
we, not just in the United States, but around the world, do
seek justice by not turning a blind eye, reflecting on Martin
Luther King's words of injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere.
And what is happening in Syria and Iraq, not just the
Yezidis, but so many religious minorities who are coming up
severe persecution and threat, it is unacceptable. We, as a
nation, the United States, are a nation of many diverse
peoples, and we celebrate and embrace that diversity. But we
can't just focus on the United States; we need to make sure
that we are supporting minorities and religious minorities to
make sure that they have the freedom to practice their faiths
and do so in security.
So thank you again, and I look forward to hearing from the
witnesses.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
Mr. Yoho?
Mr. Yoho. No comments.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Cotton?
Mr. Cotton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to make a brief statement. Obviously, the barbaric
actions of the Islamic State have brought the persecution of
Christians more immediately in front of the American people,
crucifying Christians or even burying them alive, cleansing
them from Mosul, the ancient Biblical town of Nineveh, this is
not a new phenomenon. This is something that has been happening
for many years.
When I served in Iraq in 2006, we saw the persecution of
Christians in the neighborhoods in Baghdad where my soldiers
and I patrolled. It is something that the United States cannot
stand idly by and tolerate, especially when it is perpetrated
by enemies that mean to strike the United States here and the
United States homeland. It is a reminder that they are our
enemies not because of anything we have done in the world but
because of who we are and what we stand for.
We are a country built on freedom, and the first of those
freedoms is the freedom of religion, and they want to strike us
because of those freedoms. It is important that we have the
courage to stand up for our own national security and for the
oppressed minorities in places like Iraq.
Thank you very much. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Cotton, thank you very much. And thank you
again for your extraordinary service to our country, both in
government as well as in the military.
I would like to now recognize Mr. Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are
witnessing in Iraq and Syria is a form of genocide. Consider
the options fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant force upon religious minorities living within territory
under the group's control. Individuals and families must decide
under threat and duress if they are going to pay a special tax,
evacuate, convert, or be executed.
While the targeted persecution of religious minorities is
hardly the sole transgression of ISIL and similar radical
groups operating in Iraq and Syria, it is certainly one that
has commanded the world's attention. In addressing this
immediate threat, we can take steps to protect both religious
and ethnic minorities as well as the broader population.
The violence in Syria and Iraq and the commensurate rise of
ISIL threatens what 2,000 years of history has failed to do--
the illumination of a culturally rich, ancient Christian
community. America cannot stand idly by as religious fanatics
destroy other religious communities who have lived side-by-side
for almost two millennia.
Tonight the President plans to address the nation regarding
our path forward against ISIL. Bringing this issue before the
Nation, he will no doubt address the public butchery emanating
from ISIL-controlled regions of Syria and Iraq. This includes
the well broadcast videos of the beheadings of American
journalists James Foley and Steve Sotloff, as well as the
aggressive programs of genocide ISIL has carried out in the
region.
I know we wish the President well, and I know we have an
opportunity, Mr. Chairman, finally for this Congress to come
together on a bipartisan basis to provide some basis of support
for the President's proposed actions. But I do think it is
really important we also manage expectations.
This is not going to be an easy enterprise. And, frankly,
the goals and objectives are nowhere near as clear as those we
faced in the post-9/11 world and Afghanistan with al-Qaeda.
But ISIL has to be pushed back. Communities have to be
protected, and the interests not only of the United States but
of its regional allies must be also protected. So I look
forward to this hearing, Mr. Chairman. I know we are about to
call votes. I thank you for hosting it. I think the timeliness
of it is very important, and I know we all look forward to the
President's remarks tonight for further guidance and
leadership.
And with that, I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
Mr. Clawson.
Mr. Clawson. As I prepared for today's committee meeting, I
was struck by how difficult of a map this is, how difficult and
tough of a neighborhood this is, the ruthless nature of the
opposition that we face, and the vulnerable nature of many of
the religious groups, including those of you here today. I
welcome you because we stand with you.
I think that in times of great challenge we need even more
fortitude and strength. Now is a good time for leadership, to
protect vulnerable Christian groups, to back up our friends,
and to restore a little bit of order in the world. So I hope
that the U.S. will step up and show the leadership that the
world needs and you who have come today are clearly asking for.
I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Kinzinger, any opening comments?
Mr. Kinzinger. I will just say quickly, it is--and thank
you all for being here. Thank you for holding this hearing. It
is a very important issue, and I hope to hear, as was said
earlier, from the President. As Mr. Connolly said, I hope to
hear from him tonight a very solid plan on how to eradicate
this cancer in the Middle East.
And with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Meadows. I just wanted to thank both chairmen for their
leadership on this particular issue. Thank you for being here
to testify.
I know about 4 weeks ago I listened to a number of folks
come in about the genocide that was happening in Iraq, and it
wasn't covered in the media, and it wasn't even being really
talked about. Now we talk about it every day.
But, sadly, there is persecution that goes on each and
every day, more than just with ISIS. It happens--people in this
room have experienced it for years and years, and so we must do
what we can and I remain committed to do all that I can to make
sure that this issue doesn't just disappear, that it is not
just a hearing, but that we take real decisive action to make
sure that those who are being persecuted don't have to live in
fear any longer.
I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Okay. I would like to now introduce our three
distinguished witnesses for the first panel, beginning first
with Tom Malinowski, who was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of
State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, in April 2014.
Previously, from 2001, he was Washington director for Human
Rights Watch.
Prior to that he served as senior director on the National
Security Council at the White House, and was a speechwriter for
Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright,
and a member of the policy planning staff at the Department of
State. He began his career as a special assistant for Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
We will then hear from Ms. Anne Richard, who is the
Assistant Secretary of State, for Population, Refugees, and
Migration, a position she has held since 2012. Ms. Richard's
previous government service includes time in the State
Department, the Peace Corps, and the Office of Management and
Budget. She also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations,
the International Rescue Committee, and was part of the team
that founded the International Crisis Group.
She testified before a subcommittee hearing earlier this
year on the Central African Republic, and so welcome back.
We will then hear from Mr. Thomas Staal, who is currently
Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for
Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S.
Agency for International Development. His previous experience
with Iraq includes serving as USAID's Mission Director in Iraq
from 2012 to 2013, serving as USAID regional representative for
southern Iraq, where he oversaw all USAID projects in that part
of the country, and as the director of Iraq Reconstruction
Office in Washington.
Before joining USAID, Mr. Staal worked for World Vision as
their country representative in Sudan.
Secretary Malinowski, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE TOM MALINOWSKI, ASSISTANT SECRETARY,
BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF STATE
Mr. Malinowski. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much, Madam
Chair, members of the committee. In the State Department,
especially in my little bureau dedicated to human rights and
religious freedom, we have been watching this nightmare unfold,
including growing sectarianism in Iraq, attacks on members of
religious minorities for some time.
As you know very well, Christians in Iraq and other
minorities have been under severe stress well before the
horrors of this summer, and we have been in very close touch
with these communities, working with them, assisting them, for
a great period of time.
And when ISIL started taking territory, first in Raqqa in
Syria last year, on to Mosul this year, when it started forcing
people to convert to its warped vision or be killed, when it
started crucifying even members of its own Sunni sect, when it
started a targeted and systematic drive to eradicate entire
religious communities from their ancestral homelands, we were
horrified, but we also saw it as the logical extension of the
cancer that groups like this represent.
Now, in early August, we faced a particularly dramatic
moment. Thousands of people, members of the Yezidi ethnic
minority group in the Sinjar district of Iraq, found themselves
driven from their homes and trapped on a mountain, a discrete
geographical space, surrounded but not yet assaulted by ISIL
fighters, with just days left before they ran out of water or
food and would face certain death.
Representatives of the Yezidi community contacted my staff
to share the stories of their suffering and their plight on
that mountain. Our contacts told us about hearing children
crying for water in the background of phone calls. One man told
us how he was on the phone with his brother, called him back 5
minutes later, his brother had been shot in the head by ISIL
forces who were chasing the group at the time.
Messages relayed from that mountain by cell phones with
dying batteries, messages that told us exactly, with GPS
coordinates, where the survivors were hiding, where the ISIL
forces were amassing, made their way through my office,
throughout the State Department, to the White House, to the
Pentagon, on to CENTCOM.
And, as you know, on August 7, within days of this crisis
beginning, President Obama authorized, first a humanitarian
airlift, then a series of strikes, to break the seizure of the
mountain and protect the evacuation route as people were
escaping.
Shortly thereafter, a similar situation arose in the town
of Amerli, where we again acted to break the siege of the
minority community that was surrounded by ISIL. One woman who
spoke to us recently, who had made a 50 kilometer hike from the
village where she and her family had been held captive, through
the wilderness to get back to Mount Sinjar and to this
evacuation route that we had opened, told us, ``. . . my
husband my two children, and I--were on the run from ISIS.
After 20 hours of walking . . . everyone was terrified,
everyone was shaking, crying. We could only calm down after
hearing U.S. jets above us. We felt `There is still someone
there to save us.' ''
Now, a lot of people weren't able to flee. Those are the
happy stories, and there are many, many unhappy ones that are
unfolding still today. We are especially anguished by the
plight of thousands of women who have been kidnapped by ISIL
from a variety of groups and held as spoils of war or sold in
markets as sex slaves.
This is obviously still the beginning. These discrete
rescues are not enough. We need to defeat ISIL. We need to
mount the effort that the President is mounting to eradicate
this threat. And as we look to that, let me just make a few
simple points.
First of all, ISIL is unique, not because it uses bombings,
assassinations, beheadings, which are sadly commonplace among
terrorist groups, but because it targets entire groups of
people simply because of who they are. This casting aside of
all limits, that is what makes this so particularly dangerous,
and that is why it is absolutely imperative that those who
commit such acts not be allowed to project a narrative of
invincibility and success to others who may follow their
example.
Second, ISIL is not self-limiting. It is not going to
exhaust itself. People with the power to stop it are going to
have to take action to stop it.
Third, that is what we are going to do. As President Obama
has said, and as he will explain further tonight, these murders
have stiffened our resolve and repulsed and united the entire
world as well. And that creates an opportunity out of this
disaster and tragedy, to build a coalition that includes the
countries in the Middle East most immediately threatened and to
confront these killers with allies from all the communities
that ISIL has terrorized--Christian, Shi'a, Yezidi, Sunni, and
others--and that is what we are doing.
Finally, very, very importantly, we know that if we want to
protect religious minorities in Iraq and Syria and beyond, it
is not going to be enough just to defeat ISIL militarily. We
have to insist the governments in the region govern for all
their people. That is why we insisted that additional action in
Iraq depended on a more inclusive government there, and I think
that was the right thing to do.
Secretary Kerry is in Baghdad today, and this is a central
part of his message. Just a few hours ago he said, ``. . . the
fundamental principle of organization for this entire new
government thus far has been that we must move in a different
direction from the direction that has existed in these last
years. And that direction was one of sectarian division, of
exploitation of divisions, of political retribution, even
political arrests, political accusations.''
Those who have been driven from their homes by ISIS should
be able to return to their homes in safety and security with a
say and a stake in the Government of Iraq.
So I will just end by saying ISIL abuses human rights, but
it is also the product of abuse of human rights in Syria and
Iraq, and that is a lesson for all of us, and that is a lesson
that is going to guide our strategy going forward.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Malinowski follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
Anne Richard.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ANNE RICHARD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY,
BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF STATE
Ms. Richard. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith, Chair
Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member Bass, other members of these two
subcommittees. Thank you very much for holding the hearing
today on this important issue.
My bureau, the Population, Refugees, and Migration Bureau,
depends on and benefits from your support all year round on a
number of issues and crises all around the globe. Please accept
my full testimony for the record.
In June, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, announced that for
the first time since World War II the number of refugees,
asylum seekers, and displaced people worldwide exceeds 50
million people. The list of complex crises is long. The
chairman well knows the list in Africa includes instability and
violence in the Central African Republic and South Sudan,
refugees also fleeing longer term crises, the spread of Ebola.
In the Middle East, we are in the fourth year of the Syria
crisis, and also have witnessed conflict in Gaza this summer.
We welcome the opportunity today to discuss the situation
in Iraq, particularly for minorities, our response to it, and
how it relates to our response to the Syria crisis. My remarks
will focus on aid to displaced people fleeing the violence, and
in my testimony for the record we outline the advance of
Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or ISIL, forces. But the main
point I want to make is that it has driven an estimated 1.8
million Iraqis from their homes.
Included in these numbers are members of minority groups
who have, as you said, deep roots in Iraq. Mr. Chairman, you
said they have occupied area there for millennia. Mr. Connolly
said they are ancient, they go back to ancient times there.
According to the State Department's 2013 International
Religious Freedom Report, approximately 3 percent of Iraq's
population is composed of Christians, Yezidis, Sabean-
Mandaeans, Baha'is, and others, and a very small number of
Jews. In addition, Iraq has sizeable Turkmen and Shabak
minority communities, many of whom reside in northern Iraq.
While the United States tries to help all vulnerable people
in war-torn areas, we know that minority communities can face
special peril, and they deserve our special attention. Prior to
the 2014 conflict, there were an estimated 500,000 Christians
and 500,000 Yezidis living throughout Iraq with large
communities living in Nineveh. Now, most members of religious
minority communities have fled Nineveh.
In just 1 week in August, 200,000 Yezidis from Nineveh,
Sinjar District, fleeing ISIL advances, poured into the Kurdish
region, and many fled with little more than the clothes on
their backs. In the Kurdish region, they joined hundreds of
thousands of other displaced Iraqis, including approximately
100,000 Christians who escaped the brutal occupation of Mosul
and nearby communities.
UNHCR estimates that the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq
now host more than 1 million people, and it is a mixed
displacement, mostly Iraqis who are displaced but also over
200,000 Syrian refugees. ISIL has demonstrated unbounded
bigotry and brutality toward ethnic and religious minorities. I
don't have to tell you this. You all know it and have included
that in your statements, as has my colleague, Tom Malinowski.
Our main message is: We care. The U.S. Government has long
focused on the rights and safety of Iraq's vulnerable religious
and ethnic minorities, and that is especially true today. The
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and Consulate in Erbil are in daily
contact with the Iraqi Government, the U.N., and other aid
agencies in Iraq to ensure that they can reach, protect, and
aid displaced Iraqis, including minorities.
My testimony goes into some detail about the humanitarian
assistance efforts we made this summer. Tom Malinowski has
already told you a little bit about the extraordinary measures
taken this summer to aid imperiled civilians, including air
drops of aid to Yezidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and then also
later the town of Amerli received air drops after ISIL
attempted to starve the town's Shi'a Turkmen population.
While military deliveries of humanitarian aid are a last
resort, and not recommended if other options are available,
these were desperate situations where people were in mortal
danger, cut off from assistance by land, air drops were the
only possible means of getting them lifesaving aid, and we are
very grateful to our colleagues in the U.S. military who staged
those.
We also have faced challenges because families have had to
flee multiple times, as the places where they initially sought
refuge turned into battle grounds. In late June, for examples,
clashes between ISIL and Kurdish peshmerga forces drove
thousands of Christians from their homes in the Hamdaniya
District of Nineveh to the Kurdish regions. When the clashes
died down, some Christians returned home but were forced to
flee a second time in August when ISIL again advanced on their
communities.
In my testimony, I talk about the overall U.S. and
international response. Humanitarians have launched what U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres described as
the single largest aid push we have mounted in more than a
decade. UNHCR and other aid agencies have been present in the
Kurdish regions of Iraq helping Syrian refugees since 2012. In
fact, I went to the Kurdish regions of Iraq last December to
talk to them about what they were doing hosting Syrians. And so
I have subsequently met with some of these same contacts here
in Washington to talk about this latest wave of people fleeing
violence who have come in from other parts of Iraq.
UNHCR continues to be a key part of this global effort. On
August 19, the first of UNHCR's chartered cargo jets arrived in
Erbil with 100 tons of emergency relief supplies to be
distributed throughout Iraq for displaced Iraqis who now are
living in unfinished buildings and parks or by the roadside.
And the United States was one of the first donors to contribute
to humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq.
And you probably heard that today Secretary Kerry in
Baghdad announced another aid package, an additional $48
million in humanitarian aid. So the total U.S. Government
humanitarian funding for Iraqis this fiscal year is more than
$186 million. This includes the new aid announced by the
Secretary, programs for nearly 1 million Iraqis previously
displaced in the period 2006 to 2008, and for Iraqis who are
refugees in the region living in other countries.
The U.S. Government provides humanitarian aid according to
greatest need and does not discriminate based on religious,
ethnic, or political considerations. But, clearly, the
minorities that we are talking about today are among the most
vulnerable. What we provide is food, shelter, water and
sanitation, and medicine. Other core relief items include
mattresses, blankets, fans, kitchen sets, jerry cans, and
hygiene kits.
We are very happy that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provided
$500 million to the U.N. in June. That helped U.N. agencies
ramp up quickly, airlift critical supplies, and procure and
distribute shelter supplies. Other countries have also come to
help. United Kingdom, the European Union, Kuwait, Australia,
Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Japan, and New Zealand are some of the
other countries who are donating.
In terms of next steps in Iraq, displaced Iraqis need
places to live and cash to pay rent, and UNHCR is helping to
construct 26 camps for displaced persons. But I have to tell
you that areas that have come under siege, including Anbar and
Nineveh, remain difficult, if not impossible, to reach.
Humanitarian agencies continue to try to negotiate access and
deliver assistance when and where they can.
The United States is working hard to build a coalition of
governments committed to supporting the Government of Iraq, so
that it in turn can protect its own people, especially minority
communities.
I think that if you refer to my written testimony you will
see that I talk about what we are doing for refugees in each of
the countries to which some of these Iraqis have fled the
neighboring countries--Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and
then also I have a section on the potential of resettling some
of the refugees in other countries, including our own. And I am
happy to answer any questions you have about that in the Q&A.
So let me stop there and assure you, though, that the U.S.
Government will continue to use every means available to
protect and assist vulnerable Iraqi civilians, including
minorities.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Richard follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Richard, thank you so very much for your
testimony.
Mr. Staal.
STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS STAAL, SENIOR DEPUTY ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT AND HUMANITARIAN
ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Staal. Chairman Smith, Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking
Member Bass, and members of the two subcommittees, thank you
very much for this hearing and for inviting me to testify on
USAID's efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to this very
needy group.
The daily atrocities that we have been hearing about
committed by ISIL against the Iraqi people, especially the
violence targeting religious and ethnic minorities, the
treatment of women and children, is unconscionable. And for me
this crisis is particularly painful to watch unfold as I spent
my early years as a child in Iraq, the son of missionaries
working there.
Some of my first and fondest memories come from navigating
the canals of old Basra or gliding through the marshes in a
canoe, and I have returned to Iraq many times, including as the
first USAID representative in southern Iraq, as Chairman Smith
mentioned, in 2003 and 2004, and then most recently last year
when I served as the USAID Mission Director in Baghdad. And I
now have the privilege of leading the USAID Iraq Taskforce here
in Washington.
As my colleagues have outlined, the scope of the present
humanitarian crisis is enormous. The pace of deterioration
since the fall of Mosul and Nineveh Plains is staggering.
In early August, the world's attention was really focused
because of the plight of the thousands of Yezidis trapped on
Mount Sinjar. As Mr. Malinowski mentioned, we received
firsthand accounts from individuals on Mount Sinjar of the
horrific circumstances there. And from USAID, we quickly
deployed a DART team, Disaster Assistance Response Team, to
Erbil to coordinate our response there.
We worked closely with the military on the seven air drops
and then joined in an on-the-ground assessment on the mountain
to make sure that our assistance was reaching the right people,
and we found that it in fact had helped to save lives.
This DART that we have there is working closely with the
international humanitarian community, and our partnerships with
Christian and other faith-based organizations there and here
are critical in our response efforts. When I lived in Iraq, I
met with many of these groups myself, and some of them even
remembered my family when I talked to them back in Basra.
I recently had the privilege to meet with both Iraqi and
U.S.-based leaders of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Yezidi, and other
minority groups here in Washington. Regular communication with
these groups is vital, of course, allowing us to get real-time
information and connect them to the broader international
assistance that is going on.
In fact, just this morning I spoke with Archbishop Warda in
Erbil, a Chaldean leader there, who reported that the immediate
needs of Christian IDPs are largely being met, the basic needs,
but the long-term issues are still there, especially coming up
to the winter. Our team also is regularly speaking with
Christian families, Christian leaders. They have gone to
several locations to make sure that the assistance is actually
getting to the people there.
We are focused from USAID's side on filling gaps in the
response effort, advocating within the international community
for an efficient allocation of resources and effective response
coordination, since, as Anne said, there are so many
organizations and donors providing assistance, coordination
becomes very important.
And then, for example, last week USAID airlifted 60 metric
tons of humanitarian aid, as Chairman Smith mentioned. And that
aid, by the way, is already being distributed, and some of it
even went into the town of Amerli, just in the last couple of
days. And we have another airlift arriving in the next day or
two.
Now, lack of shelter is the most serious concern right now
as about 45 percent of the IDPs in Iraq are living in public
buildings like schools, open spaces, or camps across the
country. USAID is working to provide additional shelter support
to ensure access for emergency and transitional shelter.
In addition, as winter in northern Iraq descends, coming
not too far away, we are working with partners to reach the
most vulnerable populations to make sure that winterization
assistance is being provided, things like clothing, blankets,
and mattresses.
We are also working to address public health concerns,
including provision of safe water, essential hygiene supplies,
and access to health services for the IDPs. Additionally, USAID
has deployed an emergency food officer as a part of the DART to
monitor food needs. And, by the way, since mid-June, the World
Food Programme reports that they have actually reached 838,000
Iraqis with food aid throughout the country. We are focused on
addressing massive protection and trauma issues that the
populations have experienced because of these untold horrors.
For example, USAID is providing targeted psychosocial
assistance and distributing relief supplies to Yezidi and
Christian IDPs as well as others. In conjunction with the
Government of Iraq, which of course has the primary
responsibility, we are addressing the needs of children and
their families throughout such things as mobile, child-friendly
spaces, and which can serve as platforms for meeting
psychosocial needs of children wherever they are located in the
area.
USAID's response to this humanitarian crisis also builds on
a solid foundation of 10 years of programs that have helped
build Iraq's health, governance, and civil society capacity. So
in recent weeks we have adjusted those existing programs to
make sure that they are focusing on the immediate needs of the
IDPs, and then also while continuing to work toward the longer
term goals.
So, in conclusion, in the coming months the international
community will continue to face challenges. It is not going to
be over soon. Humanitarian access will remain a critical
problem. Displaced persons will likely be unable or unwilling
to return home to their towns and villages. Displaced persons
will likely also have long-term needs that will need to be
addressed.
As we work in support of the Government of Iraq and
alongside our international partners to address these
challenges, we will continue to focus on the vulnerable
populations. USAID will also remain engaged with faith-based
leaders, both here and in Iraq, to hear and address their
concerns.
Our hearts are with the thousands of people who remain
besieged and are gravely concerned for their health and safety,
and personally I feel that having been a son of Iraq in a
certain way. And so we are really appreciative of this hearing,
of the ongoing support that Congress has provided to us so that
we are able to in turn provide humanitarian assistance to the
people of Iraq.
Thank you for your interest, thank you for calling this
hearing, and I look forward to answering any questions you may
have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Staal follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Staal, thank you very much for your
testimony, for your leadership, and thank you to Dr. Shah, the
head of USAID. I think that USAID is trying to respond as
effectively as possible, and so, again, I want to give you high
marks, and I know I am joined by members of the committee. It
is difficult to get humanitarian aid on the ground in a war
situation when even the aid workers are put at high risk. So I
appreciate your commitment.
Let me begin with some questions. First of all, let me ask
Tom Malinowski. Tom Farr, who we all know is one of the
preeminent, and he is the quintessential leader I think when it
comes to religious freedom. I have read his book. As you know,
I chaired all of the hearings that led to the enactment of the
International Religious Freedom Act, Frank Wolf's landmark
legislation on religious freedom.
At the time, you will recall the administration, the
Clinton administration, was opposed to it. John Shattuck, the
Assistant Secretary in your position previously, sat right
where you sit and testified against it on frequent occasions.
When the bill was finally passed, House and Senate, with huge
bipartisan majorities, the President signed it.
But I have always been concerned that a bias against that
mission has pervaded and persisted in many in the State
Department, particularly at the higher levels, so much so--and
Tom Farr makes this point in his testimony, and I quote him in
pertinent part, ``While no administration has been successful
in promoting religious freedom, the issue has been an
especially low priority under the current President,'' and
points out that the Ambassador-at-Large position was vacant for
half of the Obama administration's tenure in office, which is a
revelation of priorities in my opinion.
And we have had hearings on it in this committee. We have
asked, we have begged, we have admonished, we have used every
word we could possibly think of, I and members of the
committee, to encourage the President to take that step and
make that an important office, but also--and I know, you know,
there is a man--we know the rabbi very well that is slated for
that position. He will do a fine job. But it has been a very
checkered past, recent past.
I mention that because Tom Far again makes a very, very
important series of recommendations as well as observations. He
points out that ``The threat to Christians and other minorities
in this region was not ultimately caused by U.S. military
action of the struggle for democracy. The root cause is Islamic
terrorism of the kind that hit us on 9/11. That phenomenon
finds its origins in a radical, and spreading, interpretation
of Islam-nourished and subsidized by secular and religious
Middle Eastern tyrants.''
It seems to me that any strategy has to incorporate trying
to get after the laws, the policies that make religious
pluralism and tolerance non-existent in many of these countries
with whom we are strong allies.
So my question would be, how do you respond to that
criticism, that religious freedom has not had the dominance,
the rightful place would be the better way of putting it,
within the administration? And, secondly, was the
administration late in recognizing the ISIS threat as well as
the Syria threat? Last year, right around now, the
distinguished gentlelady from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and
I, chaired a hearing on Syria. The government witnesses
wouldn't call it a genocide. Every one of the private sector,
religiously-based, witnesses said it is indeed a genocide, what
is happening in Syria.
And my question to you will be, is what is happening to the
Christians in Iraq and Syria today a genocide? Mr. Secretary?
Mr. Malinowski. Thank you. That is quite a few. I will try
to tackle all of them. First, on the importance of religious
freedom, I hear you, we hear you. The central point of my
testimony is that this begins before we had beheadings and
Mosul taken and cities falling and hundreds of thousands of
refugees. This begins with policies that exploit religious
difference for political ends. That is what we had in Iraq.
That is what we had in Syria.
And the foundational principle of our efforts on religious
freedom is not just that these kinds of abuses are bad things.
It is not just that they offend our conscience. It is that when
cynical political actors exploit religion, when they go after
people because of these incredibly deeply rooted feelings that
people of faith have, it is one of the most dangerous things
that can happen in the world. The conflicts that begin that way
are very, very difficult to end, and so that is why it is a
priority, should be a priority, will continue to be a priority.
In this crisis, the most important part of the Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has been our religious
freedom office. They have been on the front lines. They have
been bringing the stories of the victims of ISIL to everybody
in the administration, all the way up to the President--and I
think you will hear some of that reflected tonight in his
speech--to the planners at CENTCOM who are organizing this
operation.
You mentioned Rabbi David Saperstein. He is the President's
nominee. He is one of the most distinguished leaders on human
rights and religious freedom in this country. He has his
hearing in the Senate tomorrow. We hope he will be confirmed
very, very quickly, and I think the importance of his job in
the estimation of all of us, the urgency of that effort, has
only gone up in the last few weeks.
Were we late? Were we early? We will have these debates for
a very long time. I think both of you mentioned, you and Ms.
Ros-Lehtinen, you raised the question of why did we act when we
acted as against before or after? I can tell you there are
absolutely no distinctions here, nor should there be, nor will
there be, between Christians, Yezidis, Shiites, Sunni, or what
have you.
We didn't act when we acted on Mount Sinjar because those
were Yezidis on that mountain as against another group of
people. We acted because there were people who were in a
uniquely perilous situation, thousands of them surrounded with
no way out.
The same thing happened in Amerli with a different
religious minority. We acted because we had the intelligence,
and we acted--and this is particularly important in light of
both of your questions--because we had capable partners on the
ground who at that point were ready to act with us.
There is not much that you can do from the air in a
situation where you are trying to rescue men, women, and
children if you don't have capable partners on the ground who
are ready and willing to act with you. And at that point, we
did. Several months ago, sadly, we didn't, which is why a huge
part of this effort, in Iraq in particular, has been trying to
get a more inclusive, more capable, more committed government,
which we now have. And that is the basis of the strategy that
the President will announce tonight.
As for your question on genocide, I have been around that
so many times, from the early days of the Bosnia crisis to
Kosovo to Darfur, and all I can tell you is that I have never
experienced a situation of mass killing, of mass atrocities, in
which the lawyers were ready with a legal determination of
genocide, and that is what it takes for the State Department to
be able to make that formal determination in time for us to be
able to decide on a course of action.
The decision to act inevitably, invariably, comes before
the experts, the international law experts, come together
around a definition. And we have decided to act, and that is
the important thing. We are doing right now exactly what we
would be doing if the Secretary of State had already determined
that genocide, as a legal matter, had taken place.
Those kinds of determinations do become important when you
get to the legal process, where you get to accountability,
where you get to justice, and you prosecute people for what
they did. But it----
Mr. Smith. On that point, if I could ask you----
Mr. Malinowski. Sure.
Mr. Smith [continuing]. Because I am almost out of time, do
you support--does the administration support a regional court?
You know, the ICC has already been rejected. It has only one
conviction, as you know, over the course of a dozen years,
several indictees, but one conviction.
And as David Crane testified recently here in this room, he
was the chief prosecutor at the Sierra Leone court, the ICC is
not the means to hold these people to account. A regional
court, a hybrid, something like Sierra Leone, might be the best
way to go.
Mr. Malinowski. I think it is worth----
Mr. Smith. Where is the administration----
Mr. Malinowski. It is worth exploring. What I can tell you
is that we are committed to ensuring that these people are
brought to justice. All those in this conflict who commit war
crimes, crimes against humanity, if they are captured, can,
should, and will be brought to justice.
A regional tribunal would also require the assent of the
Security Council, so you still have the same problem as----
Mr. Smith. In Russia, you will recall, with Yugoslavia,
even though they were close allies with Milosevic, agreed
because all sides would be prosecuted.
Mr. Malinowski. Absolutely. But we would need that----
Mr. Smith. It needs to be initiated in order for it to
happen.
Mr. Malinowski. But the principle of it, I think there are
a variety of mechanisms through which you could get to that
point, both national, international, and hybrid, and we support
the concept. We need to find the most practical way to do it.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Bass.
Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask you a
few questions, especially concerning the children. And I know
that the World Health Organization and UNICEF did a 5-day polio
vaccination campaign that reached millions of Iraqi children.
So I wanted to know if you could discuss the ongoing
international efforts to support this campaign and prevent the
spread of polio and other dangerous diseases. Anybody?
Mr. Staal. Ranking Member Bass, thank you very much. That
is a critical issue that we are looking at as a part of our
health support to the country. And they have indeed done a
major campaign to vaccinate children against polio, including
now reaching out to the IDPs. So that is going to be something
that we are making sure that it reaches the IDPs as well. And
other diseases, whenever you get a group of displaced who often
live in close quarters, we worry about a number of types of
diseases, polio being one of them.
Thank you.
Ms. Bass. Anybody else? The people that were on the
mountain--some were rescued and then some were able to leave or
get to safety, do we know what happened to them? And then,
also, did any of them come to the United States?
Ms. Richard. Yes. Many got off, and many have gone to the
Kurdish areas of northern Iraq where they are getting
assistance now from UNHCR and other U.N. agencies. It is too
soon to have brought any to the United States, but certainly
they would be in a population that we would want to look at,
whether they needed resettlement in the U.S. or not.
But, you know, our long-term goal is that these minority
groups be allowed to stay, to live, and to thrive in their own
country.
Ms. Bass. Right. I know that is the goal.
Ms. Richard. Yes. But, certainly, for some people who--
here, as in other parts of the world, if they have been truly
traumatized, and really feel that they cannot continue to live
in their own country, or to go back home to their own country,
we would work with UNHCR to see if they could be determined to
be in the list to be resettled. And the U.S. takes most of the
refugees who are resettled in the world every year.
Ms. Bass. And finally just--as I believe votes have been
called, and maybe another member wants to get in--do you have
recommendations for more that you think we should be doing,
what Congress should be doing right now?
Ms. Richard. One of the wonderful things that the Congress
does is to provide solid humanitarian assistance in both the
budget that my office oversees and that USAID controls. And
this is making a major difference in Iraq, in Syria, and all
the crises around the world. So your support for that is
fantastic.
I think also what is helpful about today's hearing is all
the people sitting behind us, bringing together concerned
Americans and their friends from overseas to make sure that we
have fresh information. I was very impressed by the Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor Bureau's reach into the American
diasporas of groups overseas and how they were getting same-day
information that fed into operations that were being carried
out to rescue people.
Ms. Bass. Thank you. Anyone else?
Mr. Staal. Yes. Just to echo what Ms. Richard said. Your
highlighting of this issue is a huge thing, as well as the
support to us. We have seen a lot of international support. The
Saudi Government providing $500 million, that was critical, the
other support coming in. When I spoke to Archbishop Warda, he
mentioned that 60 families there in Erbil of displaced
Christians were getting support from Christians in America,
private donations. That is critical, too, of course.
And then the other thing is we need to maintain the
pressure, if you will, on the Iraqi Government who have the
primary responsibility to provide support. They have pledged
almost $900 million from the Iraqi budget to support IDPs. They
have a program there through their Ministry of Displacement and
Migration that provides about $860 to each IDP.
That is starting to roll out, but it is something that we
are following to make sure that it really does get to all of
them equally, fairly, appropriately, and that is an important
issue to also maintain the focus on.
Thank you.
Ms. Bass. Thank you. I yield.
Mr. Smith. Chairman Ros-Lehtinen?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Smith.
Before I begin to ask my questions, I would like to state
for the record that Ranking Member Ted Deutch is at another
committee hearing, and that is why he cannot be with us today.
But I know that he is deeply troubled by the human rights
violations occurring against persecuted Christians in the
region.
Thank you for allowing me to say that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member Bass, for this
hearing.
Assistant Secretary Richard, you had testified in front of
the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee last September on
the humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, not only has the
situation gotten worse, but Iraq is now facing real crisis as
ISIL has become stronger, more sophisticated. The Christian
communities in Iraq and Syria are important ones in the history
and fabric of the Middle East, and they are without a doubt
being targeted for extinction.
We must do everything possible to ensure that these
communities are protected and allowed to remain, because it
would indeed be a tragedy to lose such ancient communities at
the hands of radical Islamist terrorist groups.
And I have seen throughout your testimonies that we are
doing a lot in the way of humanitarian assistance, and I thank
you, much needed assistance. We need to continue to do so, but
I keep saying at these hearings, we continue to provide this
assistance without addressing the underlying issues. And right
now the major obstacle is that there is this pervasive attitude
throughout much of the region that views Christianity and other
religious minorities through pure hatred.
What are we doing to address this? What can we do? What
plans can we implement, programs in the region, or in the
refugee camps and in neighboring countries, that promote
moderation or religious tolerance? What can those countries do,
similar to what the Kingdom of Morocco has been able to
implement? So that is the first question.
We have heard from the panel the steps the administration
is doing in conjunction with the U.N. Commissioner for Refugees
and our overall humanitarian assistance inside Iraq. But these
programs encompass everyone impacted by ISIL's march, including
in Erbil. Are there any specific programs designed toward
aiding the Christian community? How much are we spending
directly in aid to help them?
From what I have seen, also religious freedom and human
rights seem to be ranked very low on the priority scale for
this administration. It took the administration 10 months to
name an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious
Freedom, and the State Department repeatedly ignores
recommendations by the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom to add gross violators to our
list of Countries of Particular Concern.
It finally recertified countries this year after failing to
do so for many years, and added a new country for the first
time since 2006, but failed to add countries that the
Commission had been recommending for years now, including both
Syria and Iraq. We continue to provide aid and sell arms to
some of the world's most egregious violators. We have waived
sanctions on some of these Countries of Particular Concern.
So, in closing, my last questions are, where does freedom
of religion and the protection of rights fall on the
administration's foreign policy priorities? And why has the
administration ignored repeated recommendations by the
Commission to add Syria, Iraq, and several other countries to
the Countries of Particular Concern list despite more than
ample evidence that religious minorities have been in danger?
Thank you so much for the time, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Richard. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for your
interest all year long, and thank you for acknowledging that we
are indeed doing a lot for humanitarian assistance. The U.S.
Government really leads, and we are fortunate to have
congressional support for this and really largely American
public support to do a lot on the humanitarian front around the
world.
You have said we need to address the underlying issues. I
agree with you and so does my boss, Secretary Kerry, who is
today in Baghdad and is obviously spending a great deal of time
and attention on the Iraq situation right now, and really the
situation in the wider Middle East. And he leads us in doing
that.
You mentioned what we could do to promote moderation,
religious tolerance. In that respect, you are on the same
wavelength as our new Under Secretary, Sarah Sewell, who has
instructed a number of our bureaus, including both Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor, and mine, the Population, Refugees,
and Migration Bureau, to look at ways that we can counter the
spread of violent extremism. And so this is very much front and
center on our to do list at the moment, building on programs
that already exist that Tom will be able to speak to.
And, third, I don't agree that somehow religious freedom is
being ignored in the Department, and partly because Secretary
Kerry has created a faith-based office headed by Sean Casey. He
did this nearly as soon as he came in, and we see that Sean
Casey is working very closely with our special envoys in
outreach to the Muslim world to fight anti-Semitism. And we are
all anxious to get Rabbi David Saperstein on board as well as
part of the team, but Tom is more the expert on that.
Mr. Malinowski. As far as what we do to promote this cause,
and I would say very strong self-interest in religious
tolerance around the world, and particularly in this region, I
would say we work bottom up and top down. Bottom up, we do fund
a lot of small programs, and these are by definition small
programs, working with civil society organizations, with
religious organizations, on the ground in these countries.
In Iraq, for example, we helped fund an organization called
the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, which was working before this
crisis to try to build bridges between religious communities in
these areas that we have been discussing. We have funded
Christian activists who have worked to try to build connections
between their communities and local and regional governments in
Iraq.
We funded similar programs in Syria in the midst of the
civil war, and we have insisted that the Syrian opposition
groups that we support in that horrible situation be as
inclusive as possible and respectful as possible of minority
groups. And then we work top down, and that is what Secretary
Kerry is doing in Baghdad today, where in addition to the very
general top line message on the importance of governing
inclusively with respect for all of Iraq's people, we have been
discussing very, very discrete, specific questions like how to
organize a more integrated, less sectarian security force for
Iraq in the future, discussing the establishment of National
Guard forces, so that local communities can feel that they can
protect themselves with the support of the Government of Iraq,
but also with a degree of autonomy. So bottom up and top down.
In terms of the CPC designations, as you mentioned, we just
added Turkmenistan. We add countries when we feel that there
are egregious violations of religious freedom going on, they
are committed by governments, and those governments are being
wholly unresponsive to diplomacy.
So it is not simply a question of, are there terrible
things happening in a country, but whether we feel that
diplomacy is being exhausted, and this tool needs to be used.
Syria of course is under every sanction that we ever have
thought of already. Iraq has a new, more inclusive, less
sectarian government that has made the commitments that we want
to----
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. I know that I am way out of
time.
Mr. Smith. Real quick--if the gentlelady would yield very
quickly.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Please.
Mr. Malinowski. So we will have to see how that
government----
Mr. Smith. Our concern has been--that is why I think Mr.
Farr's statement about low priority--it is not that you haven't
done anything, and I would respectfully submit that under
Secretary Kerry it has been increased, and it was at a much
lower level under Secretary Clinton.
And we had a hearing, and we heard from Robbie George, who
was then the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, and he pointed out in the strongest possible
terms, it was since 2011 and at that point that no CPC
designations have been made, and that looked like asleep of the
switch if ever there was one.
I mean, again, having been one of the architects of the
Wolf Act, there was no doubt that that was meant to be done
every year. It was to be robust, and then the sanctions part
was meant to really have teeth. And Saudi Arabia gets on the
list every year, and what do they get? Not even a slap on the
wrist.
And we know that much of the funding of Wahhabis and
others, I mean, I travel frequently to Africa, and just as in
the Middle East--I was just there in June, and before that in
Nigeria, 10 months ago in Jos, a few months ago in Abuja--they
are being funded, and we are not doing enough, I don't think,
to mitigate that funding.
And as Mr. Farr points out, the root cause is this radical
Islamist view. And he makes a good point, and I am sure you
share it, that moderate Muslims are many, but they are being
crowded out and they are being victimized as well by these
other more virulent extremists who see first Christians, and
then if they are not winning accomplices with the extremists,
then they target the more moderate Muslims.
Mr. Vargas.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And, again I
want to thank you very much for this meeting. I think one way
to show I think a strong commitment here to religious freedom
is to help the Chaldeans right now that are trying to escape
the terror there. There are many, many Chaldeans in Michigan
and also in San Diego that are prepared, ready, to take their
family members. They want to reunite. And I think the
administration has an opportunity here, really, to show the
commitment to religious freedom, and I hope they do that.
In San Diego, I can tell you the community there is
begging--is literally begging for the administration to take
action to allow their brothers, their sisters, their mothers,
to come to this country. We have always been a country of
refuge for these people, people that are suffering under
religious persecution. And now we see these horrific acts that
are being committed against children. Not even parents now, not
even adults, they are committing horrific acts against
children.
The United States should act, and we should do something
immediately to help these people. I would ask you, I know you
have the authority to do it. You know, allow these people to
come to our country, reunite with their families. Why aren't we
doing that?
Ms. Richard. Congressman, I want to assure you we are
bringing refugees to the United States. We brought 70,000 last
year. Since 2007, we have brought 110,000 Iraqi refugees to the
United States. Nearly half are Iraqi Christians. And so we have
every intention, with your help, and the----
Mr. Vargas. I will do anything I----
Ms. Richard. I am thrilled to hear you say such supportive
things----
Mr. Vargas. Absolutely.
Ms. Richard [continuing]. And your help continue to bring
refugees to the United States. But we all know what we really
should be doing is putting ourselves out of business. We should
be living in a world where people don't have to flee in the
first place, and so we need to do both. We need to----
Mr. Vargas. Absolutely.
Ms. Richard [continuing]. Continue to leave an open door
for people who will never be able to go home, and we also need
to work overseas at the same time to create the conditions so
that they can live peacefully in stable countries. And so I
really welcome your remarks in support of the U.S. Refugee
Admissions Program.
Mr. Vargas. Absolutely. And in fact I have a bill
specifically on that. But I would say this, that, you know,
there are people right now who are in dire threat of dying, if
we don't act. At the same time they have their family members
here in San Diego and Michigan and other parts begging, they
will do anything possible to help them. And I think we should
act.
I know that they are organizing in San Diego. I have been
involved in that effort, and I will do anything I can--my
office will do anything we can to help out in this. And I know
that it would be great to have the situation where everybody
gets along, but they are talking about being put out of
business.
Radical Islam is putting these Christians out of business
by killing them. We ought to save them. And that is why I thank
you for what you have done, but we need to do a lot more.
Ms. Richard. The program--the Refugee Admissions Program
takes refugees for whom there is no possibility of going home
and brings them to the United States. But it is run in a very
careful, deliberate manner to make sure that the people who
come here pose no threat to other Americans. And so it is not a
rapid response program.
Unfortunately, the days of flying planeloads of people
quickly to Fort Dix in New Jersey, as was done during the
1990s, is over, and that ended on September 11, 2001. But what
we need to do is get people to safety, and we need to provide
safe places for them and get them the aid that they need, so
that they are not in jeopardy after they have fled.
Mr. Vargas. If I can just interrupt for a second, and I
apologize, but I guess I would go back to what I think the
chairman said quite well. I think this is the issue of
religious liberty. We are not talking about people who are
radical Muslims here. We are talking about Christians. These
are Chaldean Christians. You have to make the separation here.
How can you say that these Chaldean Christians are radicals
that we have to watch out because of September 11? I mean,
there is no evidence--there is no evidence whatsoever to say
that these Chaldean Christians have committed any kind of
terrorist act against the United States. And, I mean, I
wouldn't even accuse anybody else, but you certainly have no
evidence against these Chaldeans.
Ms. Richard. I certainly did not mean to suggest that
Chaldean Christians are prone to terrorism. Most refugees in
fact are not----
Mr. Vargas. That is correct.
Ms. Richard [continuing]. Prone to terrorism.
Mr. Vargas. That is exactly right.
Ms. Richard. Most refugees are just trying to survive and
have their families survive. I traveled with----
Mr. Vargas. That is exactly right.
Ms. Richard [continuing]. Congressman Sander Levin to meet
with Chaldean Christian communities in the Dearborn area. I
have also met with refugees in San Diego, but it was mostly
Somalis. I think the San Diego community is fantastic in
offering a new home. If I were a refugee, I would want to go to
San Diego.
But I also realize that we take in less than 1 percent of
the world's displaced here in the United States. So we have to
get a way to get people to safety overseas in addition to
resettling refugees to the United States.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know my time is
over. I just hope you take specific care of the Chaldean
Christians. They are in special need at this moment.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Vargas, thank you very much.
We have four votes on the floor. Mr. Vargas and I may have
just missed the first one. So we will stand in recess. And I
apologize, and I thank our panel. We will go to Panel II. I am
not sure who would come back. So I thank you very much for your
distinguished service and look forward to working with you.
[Recess.]
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will resume its hearing. And,
again, I apologize to our witnesses for the delay. We did have
four votes and a speech in between, which made it very
difficult to get back here quickly. So I do apologize. Members
have indicated that they will come back.
We have been joined by Chairman Frank Wolf, and I would
like to yield to him to just say a word or two. Chairman Wolf,
I think as most of you know, is the architect, the prime
author, of the International Religious Freedom Act. He also is
the author of the legislation to establish a Special Envoy for
Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.
He is incomparable.
He has been tenacious throughout his entire 34 years as a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the issues of
human rights in general and religious freedom in particular.
Chairman Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Smith. I just wanted to welcome
Mr. Farr and Mr. Galbraith and the others. I have a 4:30
meeting which I am going to go to. I am going to stay until
that time. Thank you for holding the hearing.
Thank you very much. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Chairman Wolf.
Let me begin by inviting Ambassador Peter Galbraith, who
has served as an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government
and is currently the senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for
Arms Control and Nonproliferation where his work focuses on
Iraq, the greater Middle East, and conflict resolution and
post-conflict reconstruction.
From 1979 to 1993, he was a senior advisor on the Middle
East, South Asia, and International Organizations to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. From 1993 to 1998, he served as
U.S. Ambassador to Croatia and helped mediate the agreement the
ended the war in Croatia.
We will then hear from Mr. Tom Farr, who is visiting
associate professor of religion and international affairs at
Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. He directs the
Religious Freedom Project and a program on religion and U.S.
foreign policy at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion,
Peace, and World Affairs, and where he is a senior fellow.
Dr. Farr has served in both the U.S. Army and the American
Foreign Service and he became the first Director of the State
Department's Office of International Religious Freedom where he
led American diplomatic efforts to promote religious liberty,
and is also an author and I have read his book. It is an
extraordinarily well-written book, and I thank him for his
service.
And, finally, we will hear from Ms. Pascale Esho Warda, who
is currently serving as the president of the Hammurabi Human
Rights Organization and was Minister of Immigration and
Refugees in the Iraqi Interim Government. She was one of only
six women in the 32-member Interim Iraqi Council of Ministers
which operated following the transfer of power from the
Coalition Provisional Authority to the Interim Iraqi Government
in 2004.
Chaldean Catholic and ethnic Assyrian, she was born in
northern Iraq, but was later exiled to France. She studied
there and was the representative of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement, the primary Assyrian political party in Iraq.
Unfortunately, Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim of the Chaldean
Church, the Bishop Emeritus of the Chaldean Eparchy of St.
Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church here in the United States
has taken ill, but we are hoping that one of his top advisors
will take the time to at least convey to us his testimony. So I
would ask him to join us as well.
And, again, send our best to the Bishop. We certainly hope
he has a speedy recovery. He was here for the first three
testimonies, but then fell ill.
Ambassador Galbraith, if you could begin.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE PETER GALBRAITH (FORMER ADVISOR TO
THE KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT)
Ambassador Galbraith. Mr. Chairman, let me express my
appreciation to you and the committee for holding this
important hearing and for the invitation to testify.
Kurdistan is key to any strategy to protect the Christians
and other minorities in northern Iraq, because it is the place
of refuge and also the home to very significant Yezidi and
Christian populations. It is also, I dare say, unique in the
Middle East for its commitment to tolerance and diversity.
As I outline in my written testimony, Kurdistan region has
had a policy since it was created in 1992, of using public
funds to rebuild churches and to try to encourage the Christian
community who are also victims of Saddam's depopulation efforts
to return home. And in contrast to many other parts of the
Middle East, public funds, for example, are not used to rebuild
mosques, although it is also a safe area for Shiites and Sunnis
who have been fleeing ISIS.
I am not going to try to add to the excellent testimony you
have already received, because my time is short, and because in
some way it is superfluous. In my previous experience dealing
with war crimes, and that has been a good part of my career one
way or another, you have had to rely on investigations,
forensic work, reporting, to uncover the crimes because the
perpetrators covered them up.
But in this case, ISIS actually advertises its crimes with
slickly produced videos and other material. So collecting the
evidence is not so difficult. The real challenge is what to do
about it, and I have five recommendations.
The first is to recognize that ISIS is committing genocide
against the Yezidis and the Christians. The genocide convention
says, ``Genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic,
racial, or religious group.'' The specified acts are killing
members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of the group, or deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part.
ISIS is killing, causing bodily harm, and creating
intolerable conditions of life. It is doing so with the
announced intent of destroying these Christian and Yezidi, and
I might add Shi'ite, communities. So it fits within the four
corners of the genocide convention. And the important point
about the genocide convention is that it is a convention to
prevent, as well as punish, genocide.
You don't want to wait until everybody has been killed to
determine that genocide took place, because you can't prevent
it once it has actually happened. This is not just semantics,
it is very important to say that this is genocide.
Second, the United States could do much more to assist the
Kurdistan Regional Government to care for 1.25 million
displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees now finding safety in
Kurdistan. Since June, more than 1 million Iraqis have taken
refuge in Kurdistan. The Kurdistan region has a population of 5
million. It is an equivalent as if 50 million people came into
the United States this summer, and even from my home in Vermont
I cannot help but notice the uproar in Congress over 50,000
illegal immigrants in our big country. Imagine if we had 50
million coming in. That is what they are up against.
And since February the Maliki government, and he was
supported by the man who is now Prime Minister, Haider al-
Abadi, has refused to pay the Kurdistan Government's
constitutionally mandated share of Iraq's budget. And Kurdistan
doesn't have the resources to take care of its own people, much
less the million people who have just come in.
And so that leads to my third recommendation, which is that
the United States should prevail on Baghdad to end its vendetta
against Kurdistan in the interest of jointly confronting the
common enemy of ISIS. It means paying the KRG's budget arrears
immediately, as well as extra amounts to take care of the other
Iraqis who are there. It means ending self-destructive actions.
Let me cite one.
After ISIS took over Mosul, the Maliki government closed
the space of Kurdistan to cargo flights because they were
afraid that arms would be flown into Kurdistan. Well, of
course, what would the arms have been used for? It would have
been used to fight the common enemy, but sectarian politics
trumped the national defense even at a time of grave peril.
Now, I know that there are quarrels, but those quarrels can be
set aside at least for the moment.
Fourth, we need to ensure that Kurdistan has the necessary
weaponry. For the peshmerga, it is the only military force in
Iraq that is capable of fighting ISIS, because by and large the
Iraqi Army has dissolved. Weapons are beginning to flow, but
there is a need for more advanced weapons, including
helicopters, MRAPs, things that will match what ISIS got, the
American weapons that ISIS got from the Iraqi Government.
And, finally, we need a broader strategy to combat ISIS. I
look forward to hearing what the President has to say. And from
what I have read, I think there is much to commend what appears
to be in the offing.
But I want to conclude with a word of warning. The notion
that a strategy that relies on a more inclusive government,
Iraqi Government, can work is a fallacy, because there is no
inclusive Iraqi Government that can reach out to the Sunnis,
certainly not one led by Dawa, al-Abadi's party, which seeks to
define Iraq as a Shiite state. And, frankly, there is nothing
that has happened from al-Abadi to even deal with the Kurdish
question which ought to be the easier part. So if it all rests
on the hope of a more inclusive government, then the strategy
is not likely to succeed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Galbraith follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Ambassador Galbraith, thank you very much for
your testimony and your very solid recommendations.
Mr. Farr.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS FARR, PH.D., DIRECTOR, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
PROJECT, BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE, AND WORLD AFFAIRS,
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Mr. Farr. Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to this
hearing. And if I could be permitted a brief personal remark,
it is an honor to be here in the presence of two lions of the
Congress, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wolf. If I could just say to Mr.
Wolf, we are going to miss you, sir. Thank you for your service
to this country and to religious freedom.
Tomorrow we mark the 13th anniversary of the Islamist
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. What we are facing in
Iraq and Syria today has deeply troubling similarities to 9/11,
both in its origins and its threat to American national
security.
There is, of course, one major difference between then and
now. While Christians in the Middle East were under mounting
pressure in 2001, today their very existence is at risk. We are
witnessing the disappearance of Christians and Christianity
from Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East, a
religious, cultural genocide with terrible humanitarian, moral,
and strategic consequences for Christians, for the region, and
for us all.
Some blame the current threat to Christians on the 2003
American invasion of Iraq and the chaotic movement toward
democracy that it triggered. While there is some truth in that
assessment, I believe it is at best a half truth. The threat to
Christians and other minorities in this region was not
ultimately caused by U.S. military action or the struggle for
democracy. The root cause is Islamist terrorism of the kind
that hit us on 9/11. That phenomenon finds its origins in a
radical and spreading interpretation of Islam, nourished and
subsidized by both secular and religious tyrants in the Middle
East.
Since 2001, Islamist terrorist movements have emerged
throughout the world, and notwithstanding administration
insistence that al-Qaeda and others of its ilk were on the run
and a spent force, these movements today are present in Africa,
Asia, Europe, and the Americas. While they have doubtless taken
advantage of the chaos, attendant on transitions to democracy
in places like Iraq and Egypt, democracy did not incubate these
barbarians.
Instead, these groups, from ISIS to the extremist
ayatollahs in Iran, are motivated by a common belief that God
is calling them to brutality and violence against the enemies
of Islam, and to control territory in order to carry out this
divinely ordained mission.
Over the long term, while the use of military force will
doubtless be necessary, stable self-government grounded in
religious tolerance and ultimately religious freedom is the
only reliable antidote to the toxic religious convictions of
Islamist terrorists.
Let me quote from the 9/11 Commission Report, and I quote,
``Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition
of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam. That
stream is motivated by religion. Islamist terrorists
mean exactly what they say. To them, America is the
font of all evil, the head of the snake, and it must be
converted or destroyed.''
Mr. Chairman, we must destroy ISIS militarily, if we can,
but we cannot destroy with force of arms the religious ideology
that sustains it and other Islamist terrorist groups.
Notwithstanding economic grievances or hatred of the United
States or sociopathic tendencies that may motivate them, all of
these groups have in common an interpretation of Islam that
comes down to this: Islam must be defended with violence.
Now, the vast majority of Muslims--Sunni, Shiite, or Sufi--
let alone the Islamic minorities like the Ahmadiyya or the
Baha'i, do not support violence or cruelty. But it is also the
case that most Muslim majority countries are supportive of
legal and social structures such as anti-blasphemy, defamation,
and anti-apostasy laws and practices that encourage extremism
and discourage the liberalizing voices of Islam.
It is here that U.S. religious freedom policy can make a
contribution. Until the extremist understanding of Islam is
utterly discredited in the Islamic world, or at least moved to
the margins of intellectual, theological, and political life,
Islamist terrorism will continue to grow and flourish. A regime
of religious freedom would help in this task by ensuring open
debate about Islam and other religions without fear of criminal
charge or mob violence.
History, modern research, and common sense tell us that
religious freedom undermines radicalism. On the other hand,
repression of the kind that has been endemic in the Middle East
encourages it.
The United States has had, for 16 years, a statutory
requirement to promote religious freedom in its foreign policy.
It has failed to accomplish that task.
Our ineffectiveness is evident in the findings of the Pew
Research Center that 76 percent of the world's population lives
in countries where religious freedom, in effect, does not
exist. Millions of people are subject to violent persecution
because of their religious beliefs or those of their
tormentors.
While the United States is not responsible for these
numbers, it is or ought to be a source of deep concern that we
have done so little to effect them. While no administration has
been successful in promoting religious freedom, the issue has
been an especially low priority under this President.
For example, the position of Ambassador-at-Large for
International Religious Freedom, which was the position
established by the IRF Act to lead this policy, has been vacant
for over half this President's tenure. And even when it was
filled, the incumbent had virtually no resources or authority.
There was then, and there is now, no American strategy to
advance religious freedom in our foreign policy.
Given the stakes in the Middle East and elsewhere for
American national security, this lassitude, this inertia, is
stunning. I, like you, Mr. Chairman, am hopeful there will be
positive changes under Rabbi David Saperstein, the man
nominated to be the next Ambassador. And I urge the Senate to
confirm him quickly.
Mr. Chairman, my prepared remarks end with a recommendation
that the administration develop a national security strategy
that includes religious freedom. In addition, I recommend five
steps that this committee might take to amend the IRFA and
improve U.S. IRF policy. I will just briefly hit on them.
First, require the State Department to have the Ambassador-
at-Large for Religious Freedom report directly to the Secretary
of State, as do other Ambassadors-at-Large, such as the
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues. This will
increase the status and authority of the IRF Ambassador and
help overcome the real perception among American diplomats and
foreign governments alike that this issue is not a priority.
Second, give the Ambassador the resources he needs to
develop strategies and to implement them in key countries
around the world.
Third, make training of American diplomats mandatory in
three key stages, which I lay out. Presently, it is voluntary,
this training, and not terribly effective.
Fourth, amend the IRFA to require that the list of severe
violators, the Countries of Particular Concern, be issued
annually with the report. Require the State Department to
provide an analysis of other policy tools being applied in each
Country of Particular Concern, including programs that target
democratic stability, economic growth, and counterterrorism.
And, finally, require the State Department to respond in
writing to recommendations by the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom, which the chairman correctly
notes are routinely ignored by the State Department.
Now, such changes will not work miracles. They will not
work overnight. But without steps like this, and without the
commitment of the President, the Secretary of State, the
Congress, and the Ambassador-at-Large, the remaining Christians
and other minorities of the Middle East will face violent
persecution into the indefinite future. And the United States
will face a permanent threat from the ever-spreading phenomenon
of violent religious Islamist extremism.
For all of these reasons, I urge this committee to take
action. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Farr follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for your testimony and very
useful recommendations which we will look to promote. So thank
you.
I would like to now ask Ms. Warda if you would proceed.
STATEMENT OF HER EXCELLENCY PASCALE ESHO WARDA, PRESIDENT,
HAMMURABI HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION (FORMER MINISTER OF
IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEES IN THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT)
Ms. Warda. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am sorry
Mr. Frank Wolf is out now, but I would like to really thank you
both for your concern about Iraqi Christians. Since 2003 to
now, we are just seeing your interventions always are for the
best of the Christians.
I would like to really represent today the voice of a civil
society. I am chairman of the Hammurabi Human Rights
organization and would like to say what is really going on on
the ground.
I was here 2 months ago, and I was just qualifying this
situation as genocide. And people were saying, ``Please don't
say genocide. It is not genocide.'' No, it is genocide. I thank
you to say it is--all of you, you said it. It is a genocide.
And I would like to say now I am coming and the situation
is really contrary of what we were waiting that to--to be
better, now the situation is worse, coming out from a situation
of persecution and going to--up to the ongoing genocide now.
The number of persons displaced by ISIS rose to more than 1
million people. Most of those are Christian and Yezidis,
Turkmen and Shiite as well, because Shabak are Shiites and
Turkmen are Shiites.
Minorities are threatened with death and executed. They are
kidnapped and raped. They are robbed and pillaged, and so on.
They are denied water and electricity services. Women are
kidnapped and sold and forced to marry with ISIS members. Women
are forced to wear veils. Men are forced to grow beards.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is genocide unfolding in the
north of Iraq now. There are 200,000 Assyrian Christians,
150,000 Yezidis and other minorities displaced from their homes
and living in refugee camps in Erbil, in Ankara, in Dohuk, in
Suleimaniya, and so on.
Worldwide, Assyrians have four major denominations:
Chaldeans, Syriacs, Syriac Orthodox, Catholic, and so on, of,
you know, sectarian names. Forty-five percent are Chaldean
Catholic, 26 percent are Syriac Orthodox, 19 percent are
Assyrian Church of the East, 4 percent are Syriac Catholic.
The refugees are living in streets, open fields, schools,
church halls, courtyards; abandoned, condemned, and unfinished
buildings; and in large tent camps. Winter is coming, and
winter in this area is so cold. Those children will really not
survive if the situation is in the state of today. The
displaced children will miss their school, and even the local
children will miss their school because the displaced people
are occupying the schools.
What we would like to really suggest, we suggest long-term
and short-term solutions. The short-term solution is providing
humanitarian aid to the refugees. Aid is inadequate actually
now. There is a lack of shelters, lack of food and water, lack
of medicine and clothing.
A second point, and I think is the first is clear ISIS from
Mosul. If Mosul is not freed, we have no insurance to stay any
more near to Mosul, so--and the Nineveh Plain so that displaced
residents may return to their homes ahead for winter. They will
not return if ISIS is still in Mosul.
Designate the Nineveh Plain as a safe haven and provide an
international force for protection to stabilize the region,
regardless of whether Iraqi or Kurdish forces or Iraqi Army
forces.
The Nineveh Plain has been neglected by both the Kurdish
and Baghdad regimes. This long-term safe haven would be similar
to the one provided for the Kurdish in 1991. Financially
compensate all displaced persons for their property and income
losses, because everybody has lost house and everything in
house and even their own clothes.
Long-term solutions, establish an autonomous region for
each--the Assyrian Christian and the Yezidis--to be
administered by them. Create Assyrian Christian and Yezidi
manned units with Iraqi police and military, and all kinds of
security tools, in the different institutions of security
tools. And station these in Assyrian and Yezidi areas, so that
they will defend themselves and their villages.
I was contacted from Sinjar Mountain by Sheikh Kamal, who
is a Yezidi, who was really requesting and saying to me,
``Please tell our brothers and our friends to send us the
weapons, to us directly to defend ourselves from Sinjar
Mountain.'' So there is a problem of confidence there.
Gain international recognition for the genocide against
Assyrian Christians, which has been ongoing since 1915. It is
not of today. Since 1915, we are in ongoing genocide. Each 10
years, each 5 years, we have genocide in different areas of
Iraq.
The solution for the Iraqi displaced by ISIS is not offer
them passage out of the country, but to remove the threats to
them, whether from ISIS or from their neighbors who collaborate
with ISIS and stabilize the region, providing civil and
economic security. This will insure that Christian Assyrians,
Chaldean, Syriacs, and others will remain in their land where
they have been since more than 6,700 years.
The ideology which controls the Muslim jihadists is
criminal Islamic ideology, which is based on two sources, the
Koran as the obligatory word of Allah, and the Sunna--Hadith--
of the Prophet Mohammed. This is encapsulated in the Muslim
Brotherhood in one sentence, ``Allah is our goal. The prophet
is our ideal, the Koran is our constitution, the jihad is our
way, and the death for the sake of Allah is our aspiration.''
How we can get really a real insurance of the life here if
we are not protected internationally? Please, international
protection, this is the request of Patriarch Sako, is the
request of all Christians and Yezidi on the ground.
This phrase was repeated in the streets of Paris while
French Muslims were demonstrating, most of them Arab origins.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the base cell from which stems all of
these current Islamic terrorist movements, regardless to their
denominations.
ISIS is not just a danger to Iraq and Syria only. It is a
danger to all democratic countries. Therefore, democratic
countries must hold accountable all countries and entities that
support ISIS and similar groups. I think the problem is not
really local or original. It is international. That is why we
need an international solution, we need international
protection.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Warda follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Ms. Warda, very much for your
testimony. And, finally, we will hear from Johnny Oram, who is
with the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce in California. Again,
Bishop Ibrahim was slated to testify, was here earlier, but
fell ill. And so please send him our best, but please, if you
could fill in for him.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOHNNY ORAM, PRESIDENT, CHALDEAN AMERICAN
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Oram. Thank you very much, Chairman, and I thank you,
distinguished members and guests, for the opportunity. My name
is Johnny Oram of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce of
California. However, I am here on behalf of Bishop Ibrahim
Ibrahim, who is the Bishop Emeritus of the Eparchy of St.
Thomas the Apostle, which represents the largest Chaldean
population in the world outside of the Middle East, right in
the metro Detroit region, of about 150,000 strong. And this is
a statement on behalf of the Bishop, and who actually is the
representative of the Patriarch Sako, who is the leader of the
Chaldean Church worldwide.
I am writing to provide you an update on the ongoing crisis
impacting Iraq's Christians and other minority communities. Our
organization and others have been working diligently to assist
the displaced communities. We are in daily contact with our
religious and political leaders in northern Iraq. They are
providing updates on the displaced communities which are
primarily in Erbil and Dohuk.
Currently, more than 500 families are living in streets and
parks, and we have been working to find shelter for these
families. The Detroit community has raised more than $800,000
and sent much of the money to northern Iraq for immediate
humanitarian aid, primarily to find shelter for those that are
on the streets.
The United Nations has stepped up their efforts and are
providing food, water, and basic necessities, and our friends
at the United States State Department have provided us with
contacts on the ground in Iraq that our people can call on if
they need immediate humanitarian aid.
Senator Carl Levin visited Erbil on September 3 and had the
opportunity to meet with Assyrian, Chaldean, and Yezidi
religious leaders in which they provided a summary which is
consistent to the recent statement issued by Patriarch Sako of
what their immediate request and needs are.
They are primarily, number one, the international community
must immediately intervene to provide direct humanitarian aid
to the displaced Christians and other minorities in the regions
of Erbil and Dohuk.
Number two, Christian and other minority villages in
Nineveh Plains must immediately be liberated, and the community
must have safe passage to return.
Number three, the Christian and other minority villages in
the Nineveh Plain must be protected by an international force
under the supervision of the United Nations.
During the conversation, they also stressed the importance
of a coalition to defeat ISIS, and that they are a threat not
only to minority communities but to all Iraqis and to the
United States of America.
Furthermore, they asked the Senator specifically if there
is a future for minorities in Iraq and if the minorities,
specifically Christians and Yezidis, are a part of the overall
plan for Iraq because they are feeling hopelessness.
They specifically requested immediate support. And if it is
not going to come, as many meetings such as this have taken
place with other dignitaries throughout the world, they may be
allowed to leave with dignity, so that they are just waiting
around and hoping for the best while they continue to be
eroded.
I have attached a photo I want you to review which was sent
to me by Bishop Nicodemus Matti, the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of
Mosul. He took this photo while in Erbil last week as one of
the government processing centers open up for people requesting
visas and passports. As you can see, most people would like to
leave based on their current horrific conditions that they are
living in.
This week, you are probably aware of the In Defense of
Christians Conference that is taking place in Washington. Many
people throughout the world, including several of the Middle
East patriarchs, are in town trying to raise awareness of the
plight of the Christians in the Middle East, especially those
in Iraq and Syria.
Although they are a minority community, a Middle East
without Christianity will be radicalized. As Christians leave
the area, it will become much more turbulent. Although they are
a minority, Christians are a disproportionate number to the
population of educators, physicians, lawyers, engineers, and
entrepreneurs.
We are anxiously awaiting to hear what President Obama will
say in his remarks tonight. We continue to appreciate all the
efforts you are providing our community and the guidance and
direction you are providing our leaders.
There are a few pending bills that have been brought up
recently to try to increase the number of visas to come to the
United States specifically for the Christians of Iraq as well
as other minority communities that have been impacted by ISIS
in Syria and elsewhere. The visas are for those displaced in
Syria, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.
I would like to also add that Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State Brett McGurk tweeted the following remarks yesterday,
which we are in full support of: ``Iraq's National Program,
adopted last night, calls for the formation of National Guards
`from sons of each province' to secure local areas.''
We think the long-lasting solution for minorities in the
Middle East, specifically the Christians in Iraq, is for them
to have their own safe haven that is protected initially by
international forces and subsequently by their own members in
which they can secure an area that would be part of the greater
Iraq but have some sort of self-governance.
Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to
speaking with you in the future.
[See the appendix for the prepared statement of Mr. Oram.]
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for your testimony and for
conveying those very strong sentiments to the two
subcommittees.
Just a few questions, and, again, I apologize for the
lateness and thank you for your patience with the intervening
votes that we had.
I just want to note that Dr. John Eibner is in the
audience, and he testified at our hearing on Syria last June.
And the issue was very strongly made by the panel of experts,
of which he is an admitted expert, about this being--what is
going on then in Syria. Now, of course, that border has been
breached, and it is Iraq as well, that there is genocide.
And as Ambassador Galbraith pointed out by simply reciting
the definition, if this doesn't rise to the level of genocide,
I don't know what does. And my question would be, in your view,
what would be triggered if that word were to be used in a
demonstrative fashion? If the genocide convention, the expert
treaty body, were to take this up? It is my understanding that
both countries are signatories to it.
It certainly would have a level of focus that it continues
to evade. And if you could, while you are answering, you did
talk about how we should do more, the United States, to assist
the KRG in the care of the displaced Iraqi and Syrian refugees
in Kurdistan.
You do point out that the Iraqi Government has been
derelict in providing funds that they are obligated to provide.
Are we, the United States, using our diplomatic leverage, our
Ambassador, Secretary of State, and others, to admonish, if not
insist, that the Iraqi Government live up to those obligations?
You also point out that Kurdistan needs the weapons to
defend itself. Yes, there are some weapons flowing. Is it
sufficient in your opinion?
And if I could also ask--again, I thought, Dr. Farr, you
made a very important series of recommendations, and I did read
some of those, some of your testimony, to Tom Malinowski in
particular during his presentation. And I did ask him how he
responds, how does the administration respond, not only to
being late, which I believe is a no-brainer, they were late,
they were asleep at the switch. I mean, many of us were saying
this 1 year ago, 1\1/2\ years ago, and others were saying it
even before that, while the President golfed.
And my question would be about not utilizing the very
significant tools embedded in the International Religious
Freedom Act. One of the beliefs or one of the undergirding and
important elements of that law is to train Foreign Service
Officers. You talk about, and your points are well taken, that
we need to update the law, make it mandatory in a number of
areas. That seems not to happen. Or if it is, it is part of a
module somewhere in their training that almost diminishes it in
application and by its juxtaposition to other things.
So if you could speak to this low priority under the
current President to promoting religious freedom. And I think
your point is missed by most people in this discussion, and the
others might want to speak to this as well. That when you get
the Saudi Arabias of this world and the others, you know, with
their anti-apostasy laws and your example, which you didn't
read, but it is worth noting for the record orally, of the
person in Afghanistan who wrote a statement--where was that--a
graduate student in Afghanistan submitted a research paper that
argued from the Koran that Islam supports the equality of men
and women.
His professors turned him in to local police. He was
charged with blasphemy, convicted, and sentenced to death. I
mean, Afghan is a country where the United States spent
considerable treasure and, more importantly, lives--and I used
to chair the Veterans Affairs Committee, and I have been in so
many veterans' hospitals over the course of my 34 years. Men
and women are walking around missing limbs, and then this
particular student is condemned to death because he talks about
equality between men and women.
That is where that strategy I think that you are talking
about needs to be far more robust than it has been. So if you
could elaborate on that, and any other points any of you would
like to make before we conclude the hearing.
Ambassador Galbraith.
Ambassador Galbraith. Thank you. You would think with all
the years I was at the Foreign Relations Committee I would at
least know the mechanics of this.
The first question you asked was, what are the implications
of saying something is genocide? In my testimony, I discuss
Samantha Power's book. Of course, she is now our Ambassador to
the U.N. But her argument is that U.S. policy on genocide has
done exactly what Presidents have wanted it to do, Presidents
of both parties, which is nothing.
And that is why when I was Ambassador to Croatia, Secretary
of State Christopher went to great contortions to avoid
describing what was going on in Bosnia as genocide, because if
it is genocide we would have to act. And while I have some
criticisms of President Obama--and, in fact, I started writing
on August 7 and had had accepted an op-ed earlier that day
criticizing him for not using the word ``genocide,'' he in fact
did use the word ``genocide.'' And I think that is really
important, because once it is genocide, we have an obligation
to act.
President Obama described it as potential acts of genocide.
It isn't potential acts of genocide. Genocide actually took
place, because ISIS is engaged in killing with the intent of
exterminating the group. That is very much within the four
corners of the treaty, perhaps the most clear-cut case that I
can think of. Even if the level of killing doesn't match some
other recent cases, the intent is abundantly and completely
clear.
So there is an obligation on the part of the United States
and on the part of other countries to act. It is both a legal
obligation and a moral obligation.
On the question of U.S. aid to Kurdistan, and I emphasize
that because the only place where people are safe is in the
Kurdistan region. And the only reason they are safe is because
the peshmerga is defending them, but it also imposes an
enormous burden on the local government, and especially Dohuk
Governorate, which is where most of the people have gone, it is
the area that is closest to Sinjar, there is one refugee for
every resident of that region. And so imagine you have a
situation where the government in Baghdad has not been
providing the money for services for 7 months, and your
population doubles. No wonder people are sleeping in the
streets and are having a hard time getting medical services,
and that kind of thing, because the resources are not there.
And in some ways it is quite extraordinary that the
Kurdistan Government and the population has been as forthcoming
and generous as it has. It has a second problem, which is it
doesn't know who all of these people are. There has been
exactly one major act of terrorism in Kurdistan since 2003, and
those were the bombings that took place on February 1, 2004.
There have been a few minor attacks, but their whole
economy--and until last year it was the fastest growing place
in the world economically--depends on the security. They have
more than 1 million IDPs, not all of whom are Christians and
Yezidis. Some are Sunnis. How do they vet them? They need
assistance to take care of people, erect camps.
And that, then, leads to the need for military assistance.
There were 17 Iraqi divisions, my understanding--this may not
be exactly right, but roughly right--at the beginning of 2014.
There may be five now. The peshmerga, there is no doubt that
they were pushed back, and I think that has been deeply
shocking to the Kurdistan Government. And there is a
recognition that they need to do more training. A lot of people
had--they hadn't fought since 2003. Now they have gone on to
help develop their own country, but now they recognize they
need to do more training, but they were absolutely
underequipped as compared to what ISIS had.
But the important point is, when they withdrew, they
withdrew as units. So they are there. They are capable of being
armed. And if you want to talk about the defense of these
people, of the people who have come there, including
Christians, Yezidis, the Shabaks, the Shiites, then we need to
arm them.
Air power, as has been said earlier, it only works when
there are forces on the ground. There is no prospect of U.S.
forces on the ground, but these are forces on the ground that
we can help with our air power.
You asked, are we sufficiently engaged in the diplomatic
leverage? Well, the fact is that all of the leverage we have
been using has been on the Kurdistan Government and the Kurdish
Block to join the Government of National Unity. They did so in
the most openly reluctant way. They had a series of demands.
Frankly, Prime Minister al-Abadi didn't engage on--in a
discussion on those demands. None of them were met.
There are three Kurdish Ministers--three out of 30,
although their share of the population of the Parliament would
entitle them to six. They actually refused to be sworn in. They
have said, ``We are going to give al-Abadi a 3-month trial
period.'' This really isn't a government of national unity.
They have said very clearly that the only reason they joined at
all was U.S. pressure and the deadline related, frankly, to the
President's speech tonight.
But there hasn't been, in my view, sufficient leverage on
doing some pretty basic things, like paying the budget. Yes,
there is a dispute over the oil issue, but, frankly, that can
be set aside. The Kurds have been clear they are prepared to
share the revenues. So let it go forward, share the revenues,
and then resolve it later. Don't try to fight this internal
political battle at the time that the country is in grave
peril. But that is exactly what the previous Iraqi Government
has done, and there is no sign that the new one is doing
anything----
Mr. Smith. Mr. Ambassador, if you don't mind me
interrupting, how much are we talking about? I mean, ballpark.
Ambassador Galbraith. I think it is in the range of $10
billion. It is a lot of money. And that is not an amount of
money that can be made up with money from UNHCR or from USAID.
First, it isn't the kind of money that international agencies
provide. It is for salaries, it is to pay the police, to pay
the peshmerga, to pay teachers, to run the electricity, all the
things that go with a functioning state.
And, finally, you asked whether the military assistance was
sufficient. And the answer is in terms of the small arms I
believe it is now sufficient. But if you are talking about a
force that is self-sufficient, able to defend their territory,
able to help recover the Nineveh Plain, because much as one
might like to see an international force there, I think we know
that isn't going to happen, and certainly not in the
foreseeable future.
So if that is to be done, then the one force that is
capable of doing it is the peshmerga, but they need tanks,
MRAPs, helicopters, and training. I think that is the only
realistic possibility. The Iraqi Army is not even close to
there. I mean, just look at the map and you will see where ISIS
is.
The Kurds make the point that they have a 1,500-kilometer
border with ISIS and 30 kilometers with Iraq. So the
possibilities of joint operations are really limited. They are
the force that is close to Mosul. They are the force that is
close to the Nineveh Plain. They are the force that is still
intact.
So, yes, it is good that things are started, but not
sufficient.
One further point, we have an arrangement now in which the
arms that are going to Kurdistan, the planes fly to Baghdad,
and then fly to Kurdistan where they are inspected and where
presumably any shipment could be stopped. That also is
ridiculous.
If there really was a concern about the country and about
fighting the common enemy, you wouldn't be having that kind of
cumbersome system. The flights would go straight to Kurdistan,
to the airports in Erbil and Suleimaniya. And, frankly, at this
point, one of the Kurdish demands, which hadn't been a previous
issue, is that they should control their own airspace.
Why? Because the government, after June, as I said in my
prepared testimony, actually closed down the airspace to stop
the peshmerga from being able to defend themselves, even though
they were also defending many non-Kurdish Iraqis. At least 20,
25 percent of the people there are not Kurds. They are other
Iraqis who have fled there.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Farr. Mr. Chairman, if I might first just say that
Patriarch Sako played a part in my prepared testimony. He is a
good and holy man who is, frankly, a hero of mine. I had the
honor to meet him at a conference we did in Rome in December,
and I hope that you will convey that back to him. I will give
you a copy of my prepared remarks that reflect some of the
things that he has had to say that he repeated in what was said
today.
I will be brief, conscious of the lateness of the hour. Let
me make three points, Mr. Chairman, and offer to the committee,
if useful, to provide elaboration in writing. You asked why you
think this is such a low priority. There are many technical and
pretty good answers to that. I think there is a big picture
answer. Religious freedom is no longer seen as the first
freedom by many of our political and foreign policy elites.
By ``first freedom,'' our founders understood it to mean
``necessary to individual human flourishing and to the success
of any society.'' We no longer believe that, and that is why we
are not very effective in convincing others that it is good for
them. We don't even try. I'm happy to elaborate.
Second, you mentioned the training recommendation I made. I
want to say something good about this administration,
particularly under Secretary Clinton. As you know, Mr.
Chairman, there was begun a 3- or 4-day course on religion and
foreign policy at the Foreign Service Institute. I have been
honored to teach there several times.
The problem with it is that it is voluntary, and the people
that go have time to go, and, you know, you get lucky
sometimes. But mainly it is folks that have time on their hands
rather than the people that need to be trained. And even the
course that exists, it kind of goes like a college seminar, and
I think sometimes people are entitled to be confused when they
come out of a debate on whether all of this is unconstitutional
or not, whether we should be doing it at all.
Well, you know, if you want to have that, have it at
Georgetown. But teach our Foreign Service Officers how to
promote religious freedom. The law says do it; let us do it. We
are not doing that, and I think it is not a complicated point.
Finally, the Afghan grad student, thank you for bringing
that up. This young man is a Sunni Muslim, pious as far as I
know. He was punished for writing a graduate term paper because
he was taken to be offending Islam.
The idea that those who offend Islam must be punished is a
malevolent idea. I once wrote a piece, ``The Idea that
Threatens the National Security of the United States.'' That
idea is it. This is not unusual in religious history. The
Catholic Church, for a long time, frankly, had to get over the
idea that it had to punish those who either left it or
criticized it.
And one of the great examples is Dignitatis Humanae of 1965
where the church said, ``We no longer claim privileged
authority to civil and political authority to silence those who
disagree. What we demand is freedom to make our claims.'' And
we require that for everybody else.
What if Islam could come--all the Muslim majority countries
of the world could come to that very simple but very powerful
idea? It doesn't mean that it is good to criticize somebody's
religion. It simply means that if you criticize my religion,
which, frankly, I believe the New York Times does daily, the
response is not violence. That is the idea that threatens peace
and, frankly, freedom in the world.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Warda?
Ms. Warda. Thank you very much. I would like to come back
to the diplomatic assistance. I think it is very, very
important to see that we can do something. As America, as I
think all democratic countries, it is in their hands to put
pressure on countries which we know they support ISIS.
So the pressure, I don't know, in political--other
political ways, but it is in the hands of countries to really
be aware of this dramatic situation, which is genociding people
and with indifference.
The second point I would like to mention is the
humanitarian help. The humanitarian help I think is not
necessarily--and we saw this experience of Iraq--is not
necessarily--will arrive on time and in good way just
throughout the officials. I think the NGOs are there, and they
are the most present, more than all governments, even Baghdad,
even KRG, which is really--KRG, which is the area which really
receives and serves all those people.
But for this humanitarian help, I think NGOs they are the
most concerned, and they are the most present. So please, we
would like to ask you to really insist on NGOs role, directly
to NGOs present in the area to help because this is, you know,
the bad time and we would like not to press our time and
policies and trainings, and et cetera, et cetera. That is the
way of officials, and NGOs are really not very welcome in this,
because we say, ``No, now we must do.''
Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. Thank so very much to each of you for sharing
your extraordinary insight and wisdom with the two
subcommittees. This will obviously help all of us be better
informed going forward.
You know, the world awaits what the President has to say
tonight. I hope we are not disappointed, and I hope especially
those who are beleaguered and being destroyed, literally,
exterminated, get a ray of hope from tonight's speech by the
President.
We have received letters, written submissions from the
following organizations, which will, without objection, be made
a part of the record, the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce
of California, Yezidi Human Rights Organization International,
One Free World International. And hearing no objection, they
will be made a part of the record.
Again, thank you so very much. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 5:02 p.m., the subcommittees were
adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Record
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
Statement for the record from His Excellency Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the
Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
__________
Statement for the record from Mr. Johnny Oram of the Chaldean American
Chamber of Commerce of California
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Statement for the record from Rev. Majed El Shafie of One Free World
International
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
__________
Statement for the record from Mr. Mirza Ismail of Yezidi Human Rights
Organization-International
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all]