[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE EMERGENCY RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 3, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-84
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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 BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
Wisconsin TED LIEU, California
ANN WAGNER, Missouri
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York AMI BERA, California
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
Wisconsin THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Frank Wolf, distinguished senior fellow, 21st
Century Wilberforce Initiative (former U.S. Representative).... 5
Shireen, Yazidi survivor of ISIS enslavement..................... 11
Ms. Lauren Ashburn, managing editor and anchor, Eternal Word
Television Network............................................. 15
Mr. Stephen Rasche, legal counsel, Director of Internationally
Displaced Persons Assistance, Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of
Erbil.......................................................... 19
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Frank Wolf: Prepared statement..................... 8
Shireen: Prepared statement...................................... 13
Ms. Lauren Ashburn: Prepared statement........................... 17
Mr. Stephen Rasche: Prepared statement........................... 22
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 42
Hearing minutes.................................................. 43
Mr. Stephen Rasche:
Proposal to USAID (Ninevah Reconstruction Committee USA)....... 44
Statement of the Heads of the Christian Churches in the
Kurdistan Region on the Referendum Crisis.................... 52
Assessing UNDP Minority Projects............................... 55
U.N. Completed Project for Iraqi Christians.................... 57
United Nations Development Programme, Funding Facility for
Stabilization, Iraq.......................................... 60
The Honorable Frank Wolf: Northern Iraq 2017..................... 62
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: Written testimony from Yazda Global Organization 70
Written responses from Mr. Stephen Rasche to questions submitted
for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith........... 78
IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE EMERGENCY RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:00 p.m., in
room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order. And good
afternoon to everyone.
In August 2014 ISIS began committing genocide against
Christians and Yazidis in Iraq. Three years later those
persecuted are still not receiving assistance that they need
from the United States, and so their very survival in their
ancient homeland is in jeopardy. Two consecutive secretaries of
state and the Congress have declared that ISIS is responsible
for the genocide.
This year, the President and Vice President declared the
genocide and committed the administration to provide relief to
the surviving religious and ethnic minority communities. In the
final appropriations bill for fiscal year 2017, Congress
required that the State Department and U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) fund the assistance promised
by the administration.
Sadly, career staff at the State Department and USAID have
ignored the law and thwarted the will of the President, the
Congress, and the people we represent. These bureaucrats have
refused to direct assistance to religious and ethnic minority
communities, even to enable them to survive genocide. This
obstruction is unacceptable. And I urge Secretary Tillerson and
the new USAID administrator, Mark Green, to put an end to it. I
met with Mark a little over a week ago in New York at the U.N.
General Assembly, and my hope is that he will act upon that
request.
I chaired my first hearing on atrocities against religious
and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria in September 2013. This
hearing today is the tenth I have chaired focusing whole or in
part on their plight. Last September I introduced bipartisan
legislation, co-authored by my good friend and colleague,
Representative Anna Eshoo, explicitly authorizing the State
Department and USAID to identify the needs of these communities
and fund entities, including faith-based entities, effectively
providing them with aid on the ground.
Even though the U.S. has the authority to provide such
assistance, we are aware some in the bureaucracy inaccurately
claim that they lack the authority, so we wanted to remove this
excuse.
It is also important to have a detailed authorization as
the foundation for the forthcoming preparations. Partially
informed by my own trip to Erbil last December to meet
firsthand with genocide survivors, we introduced this
legislation again as H.R. 390, almost immediately after the
start of the new Congress, with even stronger support from both
sides of the aisle, and many Christian and Yazidi
accountability human rights groups, and numerous leaders.
The House passed it unanimously in early June. And the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed it unanimously on
September 19th. There has been no subsequent action in the
Senate, however. And so I respectfully ask the Senate to
immediately pass H.R. 390.
This hearing will explore the urgent crisis for Christians
and Yazidi genocide survivors, especially in Iraq; what the
administration can do now to enable them to survive; and what
the consequences will be for these communities and our national
security if we fail to act.
As you will hear from several of our distinguished
witnesses, helping these communities survive and return to
their homes will reduce threats from Iran. It will also deny
ISIS a major propaganda victory and recruiting tool.
Before proceeding to the witnesses I would note that the
State Department and USAID were invited to testify at today's
hearing. They were unavailable. We will try again and convene
yet another hearing in order to try to hear from them.
Our first witness today is known to many of you, perhaps to
all of you, my dear friend for many years, the former
representative from the 10th District of Virginia, Frank Wolf.
He was elected the same year Ronald Reagan got elected in 1981.
He is here today as the distinguished senior fellow at the 21st
Century Wilberforce Initiative. And he visited northern Iraq
again this past August.
In his statement he points out that he believes that if
bold action is not taken by the end of the year, he believes a
tipping point will be reached, and we will see the end of
Christianity in Iraq. Imagine that--the end of Christianity in
Iraq. Regarding the Yazidis, although Sinjar has been liberated
from ISIS since the fall of 2015, it is currently controlled by
multiple different militia groups. Few families have been able
to return, and few aid groups work in the area.
Congressman Wolf also raises the alarm about the Iran-
backed militias filling the post-ISIS liberation vacuum as part
of Tehran's ``goal of creating a land bridge from Iran to allow
Iran to move fighters, weapons, and supplies to aid Hezbollah
and other terrorist groups.'' He also offers several concrete
policy recommendations that the administration and the Congress
should heed immediately.
I would note parenthetically that Frank Wolf is a champion
on a whole lot of issues but perhaps none more than in the area
of international religious freedom. He is the prime author of
the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, landmark
legislation that in a multiple of areas established the State
Department's Office on Religious Freedom and, most importantly,
made it a priority within the administration, including the
importance of training Foreign Service officers about religious
freedom, about religious institutions, which they had not
gotten previously.
It also established the independent Commission on
International Religious Freedom which acts as a watch dog,
provides its own extraordinarily useful insight as to what
needed to be done in the area of religious freedom. And those
two major components, the State Department and the independent
Commission, have made an enormous difference, and just last
Congress passed legislation, named in Frank Wolf's honor, the
Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, which took many
of the ideas that were gleaned and learned over the course
since 1998, put them into law, including the importance of
holding individuals who commit acts, crimes, and atrocities
against believers to account, and also to create lists of those
prisoners of conscience in order to act on their behalf, which
is exactly what I know Mr. Wolf had envisioned in his earlier
law.
Our second witness will be Shireen, a Yazidi survivor of
ISIS enslavement. She wrote in her statement that captivity
under ISIS was ``like Hell. They performed . . . abdominal
surgery on me'' and ``I am suffering from the effects of it.''
``They committed all kinds of'' atrocities ``against us,
including mass killing, sexual enslavement, and forced
conversion.''
Shireen also wrote, and I quote, ``19 members of my family
and my relatives are missing. They may be killed or still in
captivity but we don't know anything about them. We are still
waiting for action and the liberation of thousands of Yazidis
from ISIS captivity.''
She warns that ``Yazidis, Christians and other religious
minorities, especially the non-Muslim minorities, cannot
survive in Syria and Iraq under the current conditions. Without
serious action from you,'' meaning us, the Congress, and the
White House, ``and the world governments many of these people
will continue to flee their ancient homelands of Syria and
Iraq.''
Our third witness will be Lauren Ashburn, the managing
editor and anchor of EWTN News Nightly. She traveled to
northern Iraq earlier this year and has continued to report on
the crisis. Her story telling and video, rooted in more than 20
years as journalist, has helped to tell the amazing stories of
heroism, indomitable faith, and survival for those who have
been victimized.
As she reported in her written testimony for this hearing,
Christians in Iraq are on the brink of extinction. ``The United
States is the only nation in the world that can provide
concrete aid to rebuild the community that I saw in shambles.''
Our fourth and final witness today will be Stephen Rasche,
legal counsel and director of the IDP Resettlement Program for
the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, and legal counsel
and chief coordinator for the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee.
Mr. Rasche testified before a hearing I chaired on the
Helsinki Commission last September. And he had dire news for us
then. He reports in his written testimony today, ``I regret to
say that we still have not received any form of meaningful aid
from the United States Government. While we have found the
political appointees much more willing to help us since
January, the fact is that even after the better part of a year,
they have been unable to move the bureaucracy to take
meaningful action.''
The Obama administration channeled all U.S. funding for
stabilization in Iraq through the funding facilities for
stabilization administered by the U.N. Development Program, the
UNDP. And the current administration, sadly, has continued that
policy. Mr. Rasche testified in his written statement, ``While
status reports of UNDP work in Nineveh purport to show real
progress, in the Christian minority towns on the ground we see
little evidence of it. Work projects are in most cases cosmetic
in nature and much of that cynically so. In effect, U.S.
taxpayers are financing the spoils of genocide.''
As an alternative option for U.S. assistance he details
Nineveh Sustainable Return Program, an initiative of the
Ecumenical Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, to repair homes
damaged or destroyed by ISIS. The program has already rebuilt
several thousand homes and enabled thousands of Christian
families to return, mostly funded by the Knights of Columbus
and Aid to the Church in Need, with some additional funding
from the Government of Hungary.
Last month the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee USA
submitted a proposal to USAID to ensure that the project can be
completed and many more families can return.
I strongly support this time-sensitive proposal and call on
USAID Administrator Green to ensure that a decision is made as
soon as possible. Because of the resistance among career staff
at USAID to direct the assistance to religious and ethnic
minority communities even though they were targeted for
genocide, it is imperative that officials appointed by the
President are part of the review process, and that the final
decision be made by the Presidential appointees.
I am including the proposal as part of the record.
Finally, he says in his testimony, ``Today, as I speak to
you, we are caught fully exposed and at-risk, finding ourselves
at a critical historical inflection point,'' Congressman Wolf
called it a tipping point, ``foreign aid decisions over which
will determine whether Christianity, and religious pluralism,
vital to the U.S. national interest and regional security, will
survive in Iraq at all.''
Mr. Suozzi, I would like to recognize my good friend for
any comments you might have.
Mr. Suozzi. Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank you for
calling attention to this very important issue. Genocide is a
real reality of today's world, and ISIS is committing these
atrocities. And we need to call attention to what they are
doing to these ethnic minorities throughout this entire region.
So I thank you so much for calling attention to this issue.
And I look forward to hearing the witness' testimony.
Mr. Smith. I thank my good friend from New York.
And I would like now to invite our distinguished witnesses
to the witness table and so we can begin.
I would like to now welcome Congressman Frank Wolf to
present his testimony. Again we thank him for his decades-long
commitment to religious freedom. As I said in my comments a
moment ago, he is the William Wilberforce of Congress who has
made the difference, the difference in religious freedom around
the world. His legislation has had consequences that are awe
inspiring.
I yield to you.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE FRANK WOLF, DISTINGUISHED SENIOR
FELLOW, 21ST CENTURY WILBERFORCE INITIATIVE (FORMER U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE)
Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank
you for your efforts. And I also want to thank your staff. Your
staff has done an outstanding job and I want to thank them and
all the members of this subcommittee for this effort.
After a week visiting Bartella, Qaraqosh, Duhok, Erbil,
Mosul, Nimrud, Mt. Sinjar, and Sinjar City in August and
talking with individuals in the various communities, I am sad
to say that if bold action is not taken by the end of the year,
I believe a tipping point will be reached and we will see the
end of Christianity in Iraq in a few short years and a loss of
religious and ethnic diversity throughout the region, a loss
which will not be regained and could result in further
destabilization and violent extremism and terrorism across the
Middle East. In other word, ISIS will have been victorious in
their genocidal rampage unless concrete action is taken.
Iraq is a land rich with Biblical history. Abraham was born
there, Daniel lived and died there, and many events in the
Bible took place in Iraq. And yet, we have already seen the
Christian population drop from 1.5 million to 250,000, or less,
over the course of the last 14 years. This exodus continues
with additional families leaving every day in search of
physical security, economic security, and education.
Having spent the past 3 years as Internally Displaced
People, IDPs, many Christian families are at a crossroads,
having to decide whether or not they should return to their
newly liberated villages or leave Iraq forever. Despite their
best efforts, many believe that they can stay only if bold
action is taken by the United States Government and other
international partners to ensure, ensure their future security.
While I was expecting to hear further reports about
security concerns related to ISIS, I was surprised to find that
most individuals everywhere we went I spoke with were concerned
about the various military factions controlling their towns and
villages, in particular Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the
Popular Mobilization Force, or PMF. The Hashd al-Shaabi
militia, which is backed to a large degree by Iran, and other
militia groups are filling the vacuum left post-liberation.
This is part of the Iranian goal of creating a land bridge from
Iran through Iraq to Syria to reach a port on the
Mediterranean. Such a land bridge will allow Iran to move
fighters, weapons, and supplies to aid Hezbollah and other
terrorist groups. This will be a direct threat to Israel and a
direct threat to the United States military, as well as others
in the West.
Among the Yazidi community we heard many of the same
concerns. Sinjar is a prime example of the complications the
minority communities on the ground continue to face. Considered
a contested territory by the Central Government and the
Kurdistan Regional Government, Sinjar has been liberated from
ISIS since the fall of 2015. However, it is currently
controlled by multiple different multiple militia groups. Due
to this, few families have been able to return.
As we drove through, periodically we would see a little
house, but very, very few.
And few aid groups work in the area due to the potentially
volatile situation. After having been the victims of genocide,
and with 3,000, almost 3,000 of their woman and girls still
being held in captivity, one of the Yazidi religious leaders we
met with stated, ``We just want to be able to live.''
Unfortunately, to a large extent, U.S. Government
assistance has not been forthcoming to Iraq's Christians and
Yazidi communities even though the President, the Vice
President, Congress, and Secretary of State have declared them
victims of genocide. Many of the displaced Christians, for
example, have had to seek the mainstay of their aid from
private charitable sources on a piecemeal basis over the last 3
years. This is becoming more difficult, Mr. Chairman, as many
individuals who give to humanitarian organizations are facing
donor fatigue.
It is imperative that the United States help the Christians
and the Yazidis to return to their hometowns. As a U.N.
official aptly stated in a recent meeting, they said, ``the
religious minorities need unique solutions. What works to
return Sunni Muslims to Mosul will not work to return religious
minorities to contested territories.''
Since 2014, Congress has had well over 40 different
hearings related to ISIS, including at least seven specifically
on the topic of the religious minorities, and required the
State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development
to spend some funds on assistance specifically for genocide
survivors from religious and ethnic minorities. Congressional
resolve, and the force of law, must be matched by
administration action.
In closing, some recommendations: 1) Now that the military
battle with ISIS is largely over, our Government needs fresh
eyes on the target, fresh eyes in Iraq with regard to our
current policies, not only for the victims of genocide, and war
crimes, and crimes against humanity, but also because of the
critical national security interests in the region. Failure to
act soon may result in chaos and violence in the region yet
again.
The United States has a vested interest in promoting peace
and stability in a region where over 4,000 Americans gave their
lives and $2 trillion of taxpayer money was spent over the last
13 years. A high-level group of individuals with expertise in
the region should be brought together by the administration to
do an assessment of the current situation and make
recommendations for our policy going forward.
2) A Presidential Decision Directive or Presidential
memorandum should be issued directing the State Department and
USAID to immediately, to immediately address the needs to
communities identified by Secretary Tillerson as having been
targeted for genocide. This would address both humanitarian aid
for those living as IDPs and refugees, and stabilization
assistance for those returning to the areas.
3) A post should be established, it must be established by
the White House for an interagency coordinator to guarantee
that the needs of these communities are adequately addressed to
ensure their safety and preservation consistent with United
States foreign policy. When President Bush appointed Senator
John Danforth to be the envoy to work on similar issues in
Sudan, the announcement was made in the White House Rose Garden
with Senator Danforth standing between President Bush and
Secretary of State Colin Powell. This, Mr. Chairman, sent a
powerful message to the world, and also to government
employees, the suffering people of Sudan also.
And so I recommend the same level of announcement for the
person who will fill this position. Keep in mind, personnel is
policy. You put the right person and they can get this job
done. It should be held at the White House with President Trump
and Secretary Tillerson. This will send a message that America
is engaged. The Christians and the Yazidis have faced genocide;
for the longest period of time the United States and the West
has offered little more than words.
Lastly, fourthly, Congress should immediately pass H.R.
390, the bipartisan Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief
and Accountability Act, authored by you and co-authored by
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. It gives explicit authorization for
the State Department and USAID to identify the assistance needs
of genocide survivors from religious and ethnic minority
communities and provide funding to entities, including faith-
based entities, effectively providing them with aid on the
ground.
It is essential because some within the State Department
and USAID have claimed they lack the authority to deliberately
help religious and ethnic communities, even if they are
genocide victims. They are genocide victims. They may be
Christians, they may be Yazidis. They are genocide victims and
they will become extinct, extinct without assistance.
Although there is nothing in U.S. law preventing them from
helping genocide-surviving communities, the authorization will
help ensure that aid actually flows to the victims. The House
passed the bill, Senate Foreign Relations passed it on
September 19th. The Senate should pass it quickly so it can be
sent back to the House and for the President to sign it.
Mr. Chairman, in closing, there is still time but the hour
is late. And we are about to run out of time. We cannot--
history will judge the administration, the Congress, and the
West--allow ISIS to be successful in their genocide.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wolf follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Congressman Wolf.
Shireen.
STATEMENT OF SHIREEN, YAZIDI SURVIVOR OF ISIS ENSLAVEMENT
[The following statement and answers were delivered through
an interpreter.]
Ms. Shireen. My name is Shireen Jerdo Ibrahim. I am a
Yazidi girl, a survivor of ISIS from Rambusi village, which is
a village on the south side of Mt. Sinjar near Sinjar town.
On August 3rd when we were at home my uncle called me from
another village, a Yazidi village, and said that the Peshmerga
forces have withdrawn and ISIS attacked our areas. He advised
me to leave to the mountain.
We got a few things ready, locked the doors, and got in our
trucks and headed toward the mountain. Before we got there our
truck broke down, so we decided to continue on foot. At the
foothill of the mountain ISIS came with their trucks and
captured all of us.
When they stopped us they returned us to a wedding hall
which was near Sinjar town. When they unloaded everybody from
trucks, right in the front of everyone they executed a young
Yazidi man because he wanted to stay with his family.
Then they took us to another building and they separated
families. They separated women and men. They separated my
younger sister from me. And her hand was in my hand; they
separated her from me. And they hit me with a weapon.
They took us to Badoosh which there was a prison in Badoosh
that they put all the families with me in there.
Then I was moved from Badoosh Prison to Kashumahar village
which is near Tal Afar. And then they sold me to someone in
Raqqa in Syria. In Syria I was tortured.
Then I was brought to Mosul. I was told five times when I
was in captivity during this time in captivity I was not the
only one. I saw many Yazidi girls. There were hundreds and
thousands of Yazidi girls there being sold as sex slaves.
I was lucky to be able to escape. But others remained in
captivity. Still we have thousands of Yazidi women and boys in
captivity. As I speak to you today I have 19 members of my
family missing. I have no idea where they are, if they are
killed, if they are missing, if they are in captivity.
Our hope was that somebody would help those in captivity
and give us a conclusion about what happened to our family
members. It's been 3 years. Our hope is that our areas were
going to be rebuilt, some security will be provided for us
after what happened to us. And they will help us, you know,
free those in captivity, our family members.
It is true that the United States and the many other
countries recognize what happened to Yazidis as a genocide. But
our hope was that this would be followed by action: Our areas
will be rebuilt and security will be provided. They will take
those who committed crimes against us and who sold us as sex
slaves will be brought to justice, and not let them get away
with what they did. Our hope is that Yazidis will be assured
that they will be able to go back to their homes, or if they
can't live in their homes they will be able to immigrate
somewhere else because it is not easy for them to go back again
and live under the same conditions.
You know, when ISIS came their goal was to eradicate
Yazidis and Christians from Iraq. Their main goal was to attack
them. And they succeeded. They displaced all of us. They
murdered many Yazidis. And Yazidis and Christians and other
small minorities will not be able to live there under the same
environment.
I mean it is out there, what ISIS did to us is out there.
It is known to everyone. They displaced thousands. They killed
thousands of Yazidis. Inside the liberated areas we see mass
graves, almost every week we see mass graves. There are about
40 mass graves so far. Some people see bones for their
relatives, but others don't even know if their relatives were
executed or still in captivity.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of boys who were
rescued or escaped from ISIS captivity living in camps, in IDP
camps. Some of them don't even speak their own language, they
speak Arabic because of what ISIS did to them.
Those families who lost members, many members, just like my
family, they have been living in these IDP camps for 3 years
under the same tents. Families don't have income. They don't
have a way of living in these camps. So it has been 3 years and
people are looking for a solution.
Our hope is that whoever can hear me today, or all of you,
can help those Yazidis who are rescued. If they are rescued
that doesn't necessarily mean they are okay. Some of them
living in camps are traumatized. They need psychological and
social support. They need a home to live in, not a camp that
had been set up 3 years ago.
So, our hope is that a real solution will be provided for
those families who suffered under ISIS.
We heard reports that some Yazidi boys even ended up in
Saudi Arabia. They sold them to each other. They brainwashed
them. They trained them. We don't know anything. Almost all of
Iraq is liberated now and thousands are missing; we don't know
what happened to them. Families are looking for their members.
They have no idea what to do.
We are hoping that something will be done, and quickly
done. It has been 3 years and the solution is not there yet. We
haven't seen any action in this regard.
It is true that ISIS has been pushed out from Iraq but the
ideology remains there. So even if they are gone, as Yazidis
and Christians go back to their homes and there is the same
ideology, a different group may attack us. So people are not
able to go back unless some security is provided for them and
some guarantees.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story
and the story of my community and the Christian community and
what we are suffering in Iraq.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Shireen follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Shireen, thank you very much for your very
powerful and heartbreaking testimony. It just brings again
before the Congress what victims have suffered and continue to
suffer. And thank you for your bravery in bringing this forward
to us.
Know that all of our prayers are with you. And thank you.
Ms. Ashburn.
Mr. Suozzi. I just want to add, we want you to know, Ms.
Shireen, how courageous it is of you to show up like this. And
we are very grateful to you for educating us about what is
happening to your family and to other people that you know in
your community.
Thank you so much.
STATEMENT OF MS. LAUREN ASHBURN, MANAGING EDITOR AND ANCHOR,
ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK
Ms. Ashburn. Chairman Smith, members of the subcommittee,
good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you
today.
In April of this year, I set out with a team from my
network, EWTN, including journalists Susanna Pinto, Paul
Fifield, and Tom Haller, to report on the plight of Christians
and other religious minorities in the northen Iraqi city of
Erbil and the Nineveh Plain to the north and east of Mosul. We
knew that these groups had suffered genocide, as the U.S. State
Department had recognized in March 2016, and we had read their
harrowing experiences. But we were not prepared for the death
and destruction we were about to witness.
Christians in Iraq are on the brink of extinction. And I
saw that grim reality first hand.
My visit to the town of Batnaya in northern Iraq embodies
the experience of Christians in that region. Islamic State
forces controlled the Christian enclave for 2 years before
Kurdish fighters pushed them out in November 2016. As I toured
the devastated town, I could hear explosions from the fighting
in Mosul, 15 miles away.
What I saw was absolute evil in the form of devastation and
destruction. ISIS had flattened 90 percent of Batnaya. The
village looked like an earthquake had struck. And the danger is
not over. There are signs everywhere there warning of IEDs and
booby traps.
The Catholic Church in the center of the town is still
standing, only because ISIS used it as a command center. But it
has been severely damaged and desecrated. A statue of the
Virgin Mary is decapitated. Other statues are smashed to bits.
The face of Jesus had been ripped off from paintings. Bullet
holes mark the place where a cross once hung. Every Christian
symbol I could see had been defaced or obliterated. I could not
hold back my tears.
In a nearby graveyard, Christian headstones were uprooted.
Even the final resting place was not safe from the fury of the
Islamic State.
I spoke with a Christian grandmother and her daughter, who
had fled the jihadist onslaught with their family. They sobbed
while looking at the damage done to their home. Their whole
life was there. They want desperately to return, but they have
no money to rebuild, and no money is coming. Still the
daughter's husband climbed to the roof and tied a makeshift
cross to a metal rod sticking out of it.
Similar scenes can be seen in other Christian towns in the
area, including Qaraqosh, which was freed from ISIS in October
2016; it suffered appalling damage. Many Christians in northern
Iraq feel abandoned in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war that
toppled Saddam Hussein. During my visit, headlines in the U.S.
focused on the gas attack in neighboring Syria and two
horrifying church bombings in Egypt, which killed dozens and
were claimed by the Islamic State. But events in Iraq seldom
get as much attention. The American public seems to have moved
on.
Despite having survived genocide, Christians and others in
northern Iraq want to go back to their homeland.
In Batnaya on Palm Sunday I witnessed a crowd of Christians
return for the day for Mass and a procession. At the church, a
priest, aided by volunteers, had just spent weeks cleaning up.
He conducted the service in Aramaic, the language of Jesus
Christ. The altar behind him was covered in rubble. The
congregation erected a huge metal cross where the altar used to
be, decorated with burning votive candles. They had placed palm
branches on the crosses defaced by the Islamic State, a small
symbol of hope over hate.
The United States is the only nation in the world that can
provide concrete aid to rebuild this community that I saw in
shambles. I urge our lawmakers to give Christians and other
religious minorities in Iraq, like the Yazidis, the resources
they need to return home. May we show the world that we have
not forgotten them and the United States still stands up for
the vulnerable and for those under threat within our borders
and beyond.
I would like to leave you today with some compelling video
that we gathered of the destruction as well as the rebirth of
the Christian communities in northern Iraq. They speak for
themselves.
Thank you.
[Video.]
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ashburn follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Ashburn, thank you very much for your
excellent testimony, for bringing back for all of us to see
those very vivid images, not only of the devastation but of the
hope reflected in those and, you could tell, in the hearts and
minds of the people that were being interviewed.
I would now ask that Mr. Rasche begin his testimony. I
would point out that when Mr. Rasche testified almost a year
ago to the day, September 22nd, before us he said, ``It is no
exaggeration to say without these private donors''--and he
pointed out the Knights of Columbus, Aid to the Church in Need,
Caritas of Italy, had provided some $26 million at that point--
``the situation for Christians in northern Iraq would have
collapsed and the vast majority of these families would,
without question, have already joined the refugee diaspora now
destabilizing the Middle East and Europe.''
He pointed out that throughout the entirety of the crisis
since August 2014, other than an initial supply of tents and
tarps, the Christian community in Iraq has received nothing in
aid from the U.S. aid agencies or the United Nations. Which I
found appalling at the time which is why, again, this is the
10th hearing in a series that we have had. We had
administration witnesses appear. We pleaded with them to
provide that aid. They always say they would look into it. And
then nothing happened.
Now, we do have legislation as you know, H.R. 390, which
will make sure that the job gets done. Frank Wolf has made a
number of very important recommendations, including that point
person to really be the catalyst to make sure that the
Christians and the Yazidis and other minorities are cared for.
But, again, I look forward to your testimony now,
especially in light of you having lived this. You have been the
IDP person. It must be agonizing to know that the resources
should be there and have not been.
STATEMENT OF MR. STEPHEN RASCHE, LEGAL COUNSEL, DIRECTOR OF
INTERNATIONALLY DISPLACED PERSONS ASSISTANCE, CHALDEAN CATHOLIC
ARCHDIOCESE OF ERBIL
Mr. Rasche. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the
opportunity to come back and speak to you again.
Again, my name is Stephen Rasche. And I come to you from
Erbil in northern Iraq, but most recently to the towns that
Lauren--from the towns that Lauren's video has just shown to
you. The towns of Batnaya and Teleskov are where I spend most
of my time these days, along with the other Christian towns out
in the Iraqi sector.
In my work in Erbil I serve on the staff of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Erbil. And in that context I serve as legal
counsel for external affairs, the Director of IDP Resettlement
Programs, which includes the Nineveh Reconstruction Project.
Since 2014, the Archdiocese of Erbil has provided almost
all the medical care, food, shelter, and education for the more
than 100,000 Christians that fled ISIS, as well as many Yazidis
and Muslims who are also in our care. Mr. Chairman, I wish I
could tell you that in the 12 months that followed since my
last appearance here that our pleas have been heard and that
our plight had found relief. But as I speak before you now, I
regret to say that we have still yet to receive any form of
meaningful aid from the U.S. Government.
While we have found the political appointees much more
willing to help us since January, the fact is that even after
the better part of a year they have been unable to move the
bureaucracy to take meaningful action. Last month, Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson reaffirmed that Iraq's religious minorities
were the victims of genocide. But even that declaration,
combined with the statutary mandate--statutory mandate to aid
these communities with funds allocated for fiscal year 2017 by
Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for May, has
been insufficient to create action on the part of these
agencies.
The fiscal year ended days ago, with these agencies
continuing to shirk their statutory obligations. Still no aid
has been provided to the imperiled Christian minority.
These humanitarian principles are intended to prevent aid
from being used to punish or reward religious, national, or
racial groups. It was and is incomprehensible to us that these
principles have been interpreted and applied to prohibit
intentionally helping religious and ethnic minority communities
to survive genocide. Interestingly, these principles were
waived last month when the Department of State's Bureau for
Population, Refugees, and Migration provided 32 million in
emergency humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya Muslims, a
religious minority in Burma.
As an American, I am proud when my country responds to a
humanitarian crisis, but this action begs the question of why
the State Department, which has distributed over $220 million
\1\ in humanitarian assistance in Iraq since 2014, has
consistently ignored the dire needs of the persecuted
minorities in Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ This figure is for FY 2017 only. Since 2014 the amount is over
$896 million.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given this, H.R. 390, the Genocide Relief Act, is a vital
lifeline we have desperately needed for months. The House of
Representatives passed it unanimously on June the 6th, and the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed it unanimously on
September 19th, yet still it sits in the Senate. We hope that
they will consider our existential plight, and that time is
short fo us, and make it law soon.
Mr. Chairman, had we received any kind of proper assistance
from the U.S. Government for the nearly 100,000 displaced
Christians in our care who had to flee ISIS, we would by now
have been able to resettle the vast majority of them back into
their homes in the recovered towns of Nineveh. Instead, our
pool of private donors and already limited funds have dwindled.
We had hoped to use these resources for the return of displaced
Christians. Instead, we had to repurpose much of these funds
for the ongoing humanitarian needs of these same displaced
people.
We are, thus, faced with the excruciating decision of
whether to continue keeping our people housed and fed in
temporary shelters in Erbil, or return them to their destroyed
towns with only the barest funds to rebuild in Nineveh.
I will not repeat what you read into the record earlier
regarding the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee except to say we
desperately need your help, and we certainly thank you for your
support in it.
To close up here I would say to you we are now caught in a
situation where we are fully exposed and at risk, and finding
ourselves at a critical, historical inflection point. While
status reports from the UNDP work in Nineveh purport to show
real progress in the Christian majority towns, on the ground we
see little evidence of it. Work projects are in most cases
cosmetic in nature, and much of that cynically so. Completed
school rehabilitation projects in Teleskov, and Batnaya, and
Bartella take the form of one thin coat of painting on the
exterior surface walls, with freshly stenciled UNICEF logos
every 30 feet.
Meanwhile, inside the rooms remain untouched and unusable.
There is no water. There is no power. There is no furniture.
I have pictures that I can show you of these worksites
later on in the question and answer period that give a pretty
clear picture of what the nature of the work is there.
One more thing that I would like to note is in the UNDP
reports claiming to show the work being done in areas in which
religious minorities are the majority, prominently list work in
the formerly Christian town of Telkayf. A copy of this report
has been distributed to this committee. Mr. Chairman, there are
no more Christians in Telkayf. They were forced from this town
by acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
ISIS was firmly in control of this town until last fall, and
many of its Sunni Arab residents remain.
Many of those residents who openly welcomed ISIS while
simultaneously engaging in forced and violent expulsion of the
Christian majority are still there.
Telkayf has also been chosen as a settlement site for the
families of slain ISIS fighters. As such, 100 percent of the
work being done in this town benefits the Sunni Arab residents
of the town, and there is no consideration anywhere in U.N. aid
planning for the displaced Christians, who now depend wholly
upon the church and private sources for their survival.
So, what can be done in all of this? As Congressman Wolf
has said earlier, first, the Senate can pass H.R. 390 without
further delay.
Second, the proposal of the Nineveh Reconstruction
Committee, now sitting with USAID Administrator Mark Green, can
be swiftly approved and implemented.
Third, again echoing the comments of Congressman Wolf,
since the agencies so far have ignored the statutory obligation
to care for genocide-targeted communities, as Congress has
mandated, we would strongly urge that Congress urge this
administration to appoint an interagency coordinator empowered
to oversee and solve this issue.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Rasche follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Garrett [presiding]. The Chair recognizes the
gentlewoman from Hawaii, Ms. Gabbard.
So I would recognize myself. It is quite a luxury to be
sitting in the chairman's seat where I don't have to worry
about my 5 minutes as much.
It is really an honor to be here in front of you all today.
Congressman Wolf and I have known each other sort of bouncing
off one and another for years, but I have always been a big
admirer and respecter of the work he has done.
There are a couple things that stood out to me today as I
sort of took some notes and then bounced a lot of this against
my own perspective. I had the honor of serving in the United
States military for a number of years, and in so doing served
right in between IFOR and SFOR as it served in Bosnia to
implement the Dayton Peace Accords and put a halt to the
Bosnian genocide.
Did a little bit of quick leg work and saw that, at the
time, that was considered to be the most costly genocidal act
perpetrated by some, particularly and certainly on the European
continent since World War II. And the death toll was 100,000. I
think we are well beyond that as it relates to Yazidis and
Christians, in Syria and Iraq specifically, but in the greater
region in particular. And it strikes me as noteworthy that, for
example, in Turkey the Christian population of the nation in
1914 was 19 percent. And then following the First World War and
the Armenian genocide it dropped to 2.5 percent in 1927, to
today where it's at 0.2 percent, two-tenths of 1 percent.
And we see the same thing in the area. So, about 10 days I
got off an airplane from Khartoum in the Republic of the Sudan
where just yesterday morning I was able to meet at the airport
the last two of nine Christian refugees who we extracted from
that country, the two patriarchs of these families having spent
18 months of the last 24 in prison, essentially for providing
foodstuffs and medicines to religious minorities in the south
of that country. So I have tried very hard to respect the
legacy of folks like the chairman of this subcommittee Mr.
Smith, and Congressman Wolf, and take that message and the
opportunity to help afforded by the privilege of serving this
body abroad.
Having said that, let me differentiate, as an admirer of
Jefferson and someone who considers himself a Christian,
although the degree to which I am a good one is probably to be
determined by an arbiter greater than myself, between my role
as a Member of Congress and my faith, and that is that my job
is to not enforce my faith and tenets on others but to be an
arbiter of that which is within the purview of government at
the Federal level in the United States to the \1/435\th
fraction that I command responsibility for in the one-half of
two legislative bodies and one of three legislative branches.
So, I say these things not as a Christian but as an
American who has some responsibility vested in him by the
citizens of the Fifth District of Virginia.
There is no excuse for this. There is no excuse for a
nation that's sought actively to put itself at the forefront of
global justice and security for generations to stand idly by
while one group of individuals is targeted, whether they be
Yazidis, or Christians, or Jews, or Muslims, or what have you.
And the silence is deafening. And those who choose not to act,
I believe, and I will step out of my congressional shoes for a
moment, will be held to account once again by authority far
greater than that which is manifest in this body.
So, Congressman Wolf called for bold action. And,
obviously, we're a co-patron of H.R. 390. I want to commend the
47 co-patrons, and specifically Members Schiff, Cardenas,
Slaughter, Lipinski, Vargas, Eshoo, and Sherman for being
Democrats on that bill. There is no reason this should be
partisan. And my friend and colleague with whom I have worked,
Ms. Gabbard from Hawaii, in joining us. I hope that this is
something that should reach, and believe, a bipartisan
consensus that holding people to account for acts that penalize
human beings by virtue of a value structure that does nothing
to hurt others aside from themselves would be something that we
could unite upon, and perhaps demonstrate to the American
people that there is some commonality in values shared in this
body, and that we can work together to advance good causes.
So, I say that not to cast aspersions or throw barbs, but
to generally and sincerely invite folks to get on board. And we
will work as an office later today to put out invitations for
others to join us in this bill.
But I move back to what I said, that two sets of words
struck me. First was Congressman Wolf's call for bold action.
Beyond H.R. 390 I would invite you to articulate what sort of
action that would be and what we need to be doing. One thing I
know is that I don't know everything. And that when you are
sitting here you need to know a little bit about so many things
that it is hard to know a lot about anything. So, you have been
able to step away after years of wonderful service and sort of
focus. What else do we need to be doing.
Mr. Wolf. The President ought to appoint one person, he or
she that has his authority. And they ought to be invited to the
White House, whether it be the Rose Garden, to do the same
thing that President Bush did with regard to former Senator
John Danforth. When the Sudanese issue was unraveling,
President Bush invited former Senator John Danforth. He came to
the White house. They stood in the Rose Garden. It was the day
before 9/11. I was there. And he stood between President Bush
on one side and Secretary Powell on the other side. And the
President made it clear, this was his person who was going to
solve this problem.
President Trump ought to do the same thing. The President
needs to be engaged. So, he should invite whoever that person
is to the White House and where the appointment would be made.
On one side would be President Trump, the other side Secretary
Tillerson. That will send a message to the government, to all
employees, to the Congress, to the world, but also to the
Yazidi community. We went out and met with the Yazidi religious
leadership. They are suffering. They haven't seen anything to
help them. And 3,000 girls are currently held by them. And so
that one thing wold do more than anything else.
And then from there, personnel would do policy, you could
begin to change some of the policies.
Mr. Garrett. What was the title----
Mr. Wolf. If it doesn't get done by the end of the year, it
is going to be over.
Mr. Garrett. So that Senator Danforth's title was what? I
do not recall.
Mr. Wolf. It was called Envoy for Peace in Sudan. He was
the one that negotiated the north/south peace agreement that
led to the breaking up of the Sudan whereby Southern Sudan
became a separate country.
Mr. Garrett. Special Envoy for Oppressed Religious
Minorities?
Mr. Wolf. Call it whatever makes the administration feel
comfortable. But personnel is policy. You want to put the right
person who really cares, who weeps, who really is committed to
this. And that person can, I think, solve the problem.
Mr. Garrett. I got some ideas on who might fill that role
well. But I won't, I won't editorialize.
The other thing that struck me, there were two things.
Again, Congressman Wolf's testimony. Again, I invite you to
reach out. I called. You called back. And we need to close that
loop because I hope I might be able to learn some things from
you.
But the other thing that really struck me was Ms. Shireen's
words through her interpreter, ``and then I was sold.'' ``And
then they sold me.'' It is 2017; right? I mean, we have
problems in this country, to be sure, that are worthy of
attention and addressing. The fact that that sort of activity
still occurs on this Earth and that our Government has been
largely silent and, candidly, in the interest of honesty, in a
vacuum which we were pivotal in creating, it can't be
justified.
So, again, I invite members of the community to reach out
to our office, and specifically with concrete ideas of what we
can do. We can sort of exchange rhetorical flourish about
injustice all day. I am with you. But the challenge is, if you
want to be a Ph.D. you have to know something about--or
everything about something. If you want to do this work you
have got to know something about everything. So I need you all.
Having said that, does anybody on the panel feel that there
is anything that they would like to add to the discourse that
they missed the opportunity for? Sort of an open invitation.
I would then yield to my colleague and friend from Hawaii
Ms. Gabbard.
Ms. Gabbard. Thank you very much. Thanks to you all for
your leadership and for being here.
Ms. Shireen, it is nice to see you again. I am glad that
you are here and continuing to share your story and the story
of many of your Yazidi brothers and sisters whose voices are
not being heard.
My question is for Ms. Shireen about a comment that's very
important that you made regarding that even if and when ISIS is
defeated in Iraq, the ideology that has driven their genocide
against religious minorities remains. How do you see that
manifesting itself?
And as the different communities begin to put the pieces
back together in their lives, who can best influence these
groups of people to defeat that ideology?
Ms. Shireen. Thank you for your question. I think as we
have seen as a terrorist attacked us, not only ISIS, but before
ISIS there were other groups that attacked Yazidi villages.
There was one explosion actually in one of the Yazidi towns in
2007. It was one of the biggest ones in Iraq in the recent
decade or so.
Seeing that, after going back home it is hard for Yazidis
to trust the same forces, the same leadership that was
supposedly protecting us and left us within ISIS. So it is hard
for the Yazidi community. They hope that the United States will
take the leadership and make sure that security is provided for
those religious minorities, not only Yazidis but others too.
You know, so even with the liberated areas, for those
families that are going back to their homes many are exploding,
too, from the mines that ISIS left behind. As you saw in the
video, Yazidi areas are not much different than Christian
areas. They are basically destroyed. So people are not sure
where to go.
Just like how they destroyed the churches in Christian
towns, they destroyed all of our temples. People are scared.
They are traumatized to go back again unless they have some
sort of security, they have some sort of guarantees. But some
people don't have any other choices because they have been
living in the camps for years now. And some just go back.
And going back home is not easy because now the Yazidi
homeland is divided between all different groups. It is the
PMF, the Shia militia on one side, the Peshmerga on the other
side. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has taken a portion.
And the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is there. And due to
the political competition, not much can be done. Yazidis
themselves can't do much for themselves while that political
competition is ongoing.
It is true that our areas were neglected before ISIS. We
lived a simple life. It was not perfect but we were happy. But
when ISIS came they destroyed everything. They destroyed, they
shattered our families. They killed some and they abducted
others. So, all we ask is to be able to live safely in our
homes with dignity.
And with that, I thank you very much for your time and for
the opportunity to speak.
Ms. Gabbard. Thank you.
Lastly, Mr. Rasche, you know we have heard a number of
times over the last several months from different officials
within the State Department about this $100 million in
assistance that they claim has been disbursed in Iraq for the
religious and ethnic minority groups, including the Yazidis,
Christians, and Shia. However, this number has never been
quantified for us about how it has been delivered, how it has
been delivered, what kind of impact it has made. And they have
not provided an explanation about why this number dates all the
way back to 2008.
With a year on the ground you have got a close pulse on
what is happening there. If you can provide any real view on
this statement that the State Department continues to make?
Mr. Rasche. Well, I think the--you mentioned, rightly so,
that they had to stretch back to 2008 in order to get that
number which I think is indicative of how far the reaches have
to go in order to make it appear that things are really
happening.
I can simply say that on the ground we don't see it. And we
tell people this. And when we tell them, we don't see this, we
don't see this money that you say is being spent here, the
response is generally, ``Well, it is being sent, it is being
spent. We have a report that says so.''
And this is the, this is a common response that we get.
And, you know, it puts us in a difficult position because,
sure, we don't want to spend our time bashing the U.N. We would
like to be singing their praises. But at the same time, we are
responsible for taking care of these people. And we see this
work, it is objectively not happening the way it is being
described.
And I have just come back from a similar visit to the U.K.
where we spoke with the DFID minister, their equivalent of the
USAID. And they are having the same issue there trying to match
the granularity of reports with what people are actually seeing
on the ground.
And so it is a common problem. I don't think it is just
unique here to the U.S. And it has to do with the fact that the
verification of this work is being left to the people who do
the work. And that is not a system that you accept anywhere.
And why we accept it in a situation where we are spending
hundreds of millions of dollars and where people's lives are
fundamentally at risk based upon the outcomes, it is, this is
the heart of it.
And as Congressman Wolf pointed out in his trip over there,
you can't miss the disconnect that is going on between the
reporting and what is actually happening on the ground. And the
solution for that is better reporting by your own people. You
cannot let the people doing the work report on what a great job
they are doing because they are doing a great job always.
Ms. Gabbard. Thank you.
Mr. Garrett. I will yield back to the chair in a moment.
But right now I have the microphone.
So, there are a couple of observations I want to make real
quickly and then thank you all. But, again, there is a sincere
and literal invitation for each and every one of you to reach
out to our office to the extent that there are actual, literal,
concrete measures to be taken that are within the purview of
this body. This is what I know is that I don't know what I
don't know.
You know, I see cameras in this room, and that is important
because I think the world doesn't begin to grasp the scope. We
spoke earlier of the Bosnian genocide. If you look at the
displacement numbers externally, we are essentially the
population of Wisconsin, to bring it home to the American
viewing public. If you look at IDPs along with externally
displaced individuals, you are at the population of Michigan.
And that is a number that is sort of nebulous.
The one thing that we have said repeatedly in this
committee and this subcommittee is that the 5+ million
externally displaced individuals have one thing in common, and
that is that they don't want to be displaced; right? And that
our job as a nation isn't to advocate on behalf of a specific
faith, but it certainly is to advocate on behalf of human
beings. So we should do a better job of that.
I wonder in sort of the rhetorical sense, Mr. Rasche, just
how much money of that $100 million is pay-to-play.
Unfortunately, in this part of the world if we don't keep a
close eye on where the money goes a lot of palms get greased
before the assets ever hit the ground. And I would submit that
as good stewards, hopefully, our tax dollars, that we shouldn't
allocate funds that we can't assure are going to be spent
responsibly because ultimately what we end up doing is
enriching the very people who perpetuated the atrocities that
we seek to correct.
And, finally, I will say this: During my time in the
Balkans I noticed a number of churches destroyed and a number
of mosques destroyed. The common theme was that wherever there
was a mosque destroyed there was a sign, white with green
print, in multiple languages that said, ``This mosque being
refurbished by the benevolent people of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.'' And there was no counter. Now, again, it is not the
role of the United States Government to build churches, but it
is the role of the United States Government to advocate on
behalf of oppressed minorities, particularly in regions where
we have created circumstances that might have helped perpetuate
that oppression.
So, I hope that you all will continue to do the good work
that you do, that the American and global public will start to
understand the scope and scale here, simply in terms of death
toll of Yazidis and Christians who are in a circumstance that
is twice that, based on the best numbers I can find, of the
Bosnian genocide. And that doesn't begin to address millions of
people who will perhaps, unfortunately, never see their homes
again.
So, again, thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Chair,
for the gavel. And with that I will yield back.
Mr. Smith [presiding]. Thank you very much, Mr. Garrett.
Thank you for taking the gavel.
I had to speak on H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child
Protection Act, and my slot had come up. So I missed your oral
presentation, Mr. Rasche, but I did read it. And was very moved
by the detail that you have provided in this important
testimony.
So let me ask you, begin by asking you a couple questions
about it. I would just point out for the record that when we
held hearing after hearing, and you testified at two of them,
we kept getting told by the Obama administration while we were
looking into it ``we may get back, we will get back.'' And they
never did.
And then when I decided I have got to go look myself as to
why this, this reluctance, this gross indifference to the
Christians and the Yazidis who were working, and really
surviving side-by-side in Erbil. We went around Christmastime.
As a matter of fact the trip itself was postponed several times
because of an inability on the part of the State Department to
accommodate it. So I said even if we come on Christmas Day, we
are coming. So, 2 days before Christmas we were there.
When we got there we were told that an IDP camp that was
about 10 minutes away from the consulate offices in Erbil,
which had not been visited, until we were coming, by State
Department people, I was told it was too dangerous to go there.
And I said, ``Are you kidding me?'' I mean, ``Is there a
personal threat directed against me and my delegation as to why
we shouldn't go there?'' take threat assessments very
seriously.
But they said, ``No.''
And I said, ``Well, I have been in refugee camps''--maybe
not as many as Congressman Frank Wolf--but all over the world,
in Darfur and all over the world.
So we went. And Archbishop Warda drove. I sat to his side.
We got there and we were met by very, very joy-filled people
full of faith and hope, people who wondered why the United
States Government was not helping them. And then we heard
hundreds of children singing Christmas carols. And then I
really felt threatened, you know, little 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-year-
olds singing Christmas carols a couple days before Christmas.
It was an absurdity because, again, they had been, in my
opinion, grossly indifferent to the plight and the needs that
we had raised--and I am not the only one that raised it--so
consistently over the course of several years.
You point out, Mr. Rasche, that the excruciating decision,
as you put it, whether continuing to keep people housed and fed
versus the return issue. You point out that the lack of funding
and other challenges mean that about 80, 90 percent of the
majority Muslim people have returned home, whereas only about
20 percent of the Christians. And I think that that tells a
story in and of itself.
As Ms. Ashburn pointed out in her testimony, not only were
Christians killed and raped and mutilated, but churches were
booby trapped, desecrated, statues of the Blessed Mother
decapitated, all in a genocidal campaign against Christians as
well as against Yazidis and others. But the focus numbers-wise
obviously is toward the Christian churches.
If you would just explain further this request that you
have made. You did explain it somewhat in your testimony. How
much money were you able to glean from the Knights of Columbus
and others which was absolutely the bridge that kept people
alive? And, again, the people I met with we went all over that
refugee camp, or IDP camp I should say, they were all very
thin. They looked relatively healthy. But they could use a lot
more in medicines, food, shelter. They were cramped in very,
very small quarters.
And I know you have made a major effort to try to get them
placed in better living accommodations. That is part of the
plan that you have crafted so skillfully. But if you could just
talk a little bit more about the Nineveh Reconstruction
Committee, which you pointed out is doing very good work with
the ecumenical partnership between the three largest Christian
churches: The Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church,
and the Orthodox Church as well.
Mr. Rasche. Sure, Mr. Chairman. Just real quickly then, in
terms of the humanitarian aid over the past year, that, that
aid came to us almost exclusively from the Aid to Church in
Need and the Knights of Columbus. There were other church-
related groups that did continue to assist us. But in this last
year for housing, food, medicine it was all church-related
donations that kept us going.
As we move into the situation now with the towns liberated
and the people going into the fourth year in their displaced
status we had to make a decision, would we continue supporting
them in a displaced status or help to move them back into their
homes? Ideally, we would have liked to have made a transition
where they could rebuild their community and then move in as it
was rebuilt.
But because we had no funding to do this from anybody we
had to short circuit it. And so we ended our housing program
and told people, unfortunately, we have to begin moving you
back whether your towns are ready for it or not, whether there
is water there, whether there is power there, whether your
building and your home is inhabitable or not. And we will be
there beside you and do everything we can to make these houses
habitable, and make these towns safe and operating as soon as
we can. But it is clearly not the, not the best choice.
We were helped tremendously in this project by the, by the
Government of Hungary who showed--and of course the politics in
the EU are quite complicated on this, and we don't look to make
any judgment one way or another on that, except to say that the
Government of Hungary, when nobody else would, stepped forward
and provided us with the funds to save one town. It was the
first town, the town of Teleskov. And it gave the people
tremendous hope across the spectrum of the Christian
communities hoping to return to Nineveh that something could be
done, that there was an example where somebody stepped in. Hope
was there.
And we rebuilt that town. It is now, it is now a fully-
functioning town. Still much more work to do. But it is viable.
It is a viable town there.
And we asked the rest of the world. It was $2 million. It
wasn't $50 million or $200 million, it was $2 million that
moved the needle from being a town that was empty to a town
that was viable. And why were we able to do it for $2 million?
Because there is no middleman, there is no go-between. It came
to the church. The church put it right in the hands of the
people. The people started rebuilding their own homes. You
would be surprised at how far $2 million can go when you put it
into the hands of the homeowners themselves so that they can
rebuild their own towns and get out of living in IDP centers.
And, so, we have this example. And we intend to build on
that with the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee. In addition to
the $2 million that was initially put into Teleskov by the
Hungarian Government, we have received a similar donation from
the Knights of Colombus, $2 million for the town of Karamdes.
And we have received another large amount from Aid to Church in
Need to work on other towns in the other sectors.
It still leaves us about $22 million short of finishing all
of this. But $22 million we think we can, we can make all of
these towns viable so that they can be held and not taken away
by other groups that want to change their demographics.
Mr. Smith. Shireen, you, and perhaps any of you who would
like to speak to this, but several years ago I authored what is
known as the Torture Victims Relief Act, and it provides
assistance to torture victims in these centers to people who
have undergone torture at the hands of a government or an
organization. And I have learned from the hearings that we had
during the markups, and there were four separate laws over the
course of several years, the devastating impact psychologically
from torture and maltreatment at the hands of ISIS, for
example.
And I am wondering what kind of help you have gotten. The
physical scars are huge; the rapes, the brutality are horrific,
but there is also the psychological consequences that often can
be masked. And I am wondering, Shireen, have you been able to
get help? And other Yazidis who have been horribly mistreated?
And anyone else who would like to speak to this as well, is
psychological help being provided, that may even be a hybrid of
psychological and spiritual counseling, to help somebody
through such a terrible memory?
Ms. Shireen. Thank you for the question. What we went
through, and not just me, other Yazidi girls and others in
captivity, was very severe. And those who escaped, who were
rescued and live in the camps do not get the help they need,
you know.
As I mentioned in my written statement to you on the type
of the torture I faced in captivity, ISIS did an abdominal
surgery on me. And I still today don't know why they did it and
what it was for. And I went to doctors and still don't know why
they did it.
Mr. Wolf. Mr. Chairman, we spoke to a woman who had been
sold 20 times. She now lives in a little room. She cannot go
back to her community. Sir, there needs to be a grant for
counseling for the Yazidi women and the other women. They need
something to counsel them. And it ought to be bringing
counselors on the ground so they can stay in their, their
community.
But they just come back. This woman is living in a little
room. The Catholic Church over there is helping her. She can't
go back to her community. It's a shame environment. So there
needs to be something that we have been asking for a year to do
something, and nothing happens.
We met with the leader of the Yazidi community Baba
Shaweesh who has a little program, but it's a little, little,
little, little, little program. So there needs to be a major
effort. These women have been--and we had a woman come by my
office, Bazi. Anybody know Bazi? The person who had her and who
was abusing her was an American citizen. He was an American. He
used to show her on his cell phone pictures of his wife and
children back in the United States.
So we have a moral responsibility. Send over International
Justice Network (IJN). Send over counselors. But there needs to
be a major program. Frankly, I think this is a real test for
Mark Green. When I saw Mark Green got this appointment I
thought it was great. The success or failure of what takes
place in Iraq for things like this may very well be on Mark
Green. And if they fail, Mark Green will have failed.
So this is a major program. And people talk about it but
really not very much is really being done.
Mr. Garrett. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Kasim. May I make a small comment? So, I am Shireen's
interpreter today but I am an American citizen but I was born
and raised in Iraq in Sinjar town. I worked for the U.S.
military for 5 years, and that is how I came here.
Mr. Smith. Why don't you identify yourself for the record?
Mr. Kasim. My name is Abed, Abed Kasim.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Kasim. So I spent most of 2016 among IDP, like Mr. Wolf
said. I mean those women, those girls who escape and survive
from ISIS they have many needs. But it is hard to treat someone
psychologically living in a small tent, knowing that their
families are missing. They can't go back to their hometowns.
They know that there are no other solutions for them. It's
hard; they don't have any income.
And so it is even some of those organizations like Mr.
Rasche said, I mean the help is there but it doesn't get to
them. You know, they spend millions of dollars through U.N.
agencies but it really doesn't get to where it needs to go.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Garrett.
Mr. Garrett. I queried Congressman Wolf if there is any
identifying information available to the American citizen who
allegedly perpetrated those acts, and if it has been forwarded
to the appropriate authorities? Because I, having spent nearly
10 years as a prosecutor, can assure you that the wherewithal
exists and there are means to ensure that that individual, if
we can identify him and corroborate the allegations, never
comes back to this country a free person.
So, if you have that information, please get it to us if it
hasn't already been forwarded to the appropriate law
enforcement entities.
Mr. Wolf. That is why Mr. Smith's bill, H.R. 390 is so
important. It really aids to do that. I mean, there should have
been FBI teams going through the tunnels now, dusting,
fingerprints, everything, for our own national security, too.
Because when I left this place in 2014, we funded the Bureau.
The Bureau came by and told me there were 200 Americans who are
over fighting for ISIS. There are a large number from other
European countries.
We should know who, who they are. There is a visa waiver
program so if you are from another country in Europe you can
fly in. So, Mr. Smith's bill, the bill that you all did, is
exactly right on target for this. That is why it ought to be
passed right away because it deals with aid and assistance to
Steve's group, and the other group, and Yazidis and all. But it
also deals with regard to prosecution.
Mr. Smith. And as you know, Mr. Wolf, in the past the
accountability piece has been left out. And that is why
believing that if we don't have people who have committed these
atrocities held to account, prosecuted, it leads to impunity.
And to the victims it leads to a very real--from their point of
view--an existential threat to their families and communities
because the bad guys are still there. We have seen a lot of
that happening in Srpska and elsewhere where they did not
effectively go after the people who have committed these
crimes.
And the accountability piece, and thank you for
underscoring it in H.R. 390, is intended to do just that.
Information does fade. Facts that need to be, to be used in a
prosecution are lost unless you actively, you know, retain them
in a way that can be used in a prosecution.
Ms. Shireen in your written testimony you said that Abu
Ali, an ISIS member who organized your kidnaping and
enslavement, is living in an IDP camp near Mosul. And I am
wondering if you have told any government officials from Iraq,
the U.S., or elsewhere about him? And how did they respond and
did they say they would do anything?
Ms. Shireen. Yes, that is true. I recognized him when he
was being interviewed, fleeing among civilians from Tal Afar.
He is the one that is responsible for selling me and many other
Yazidi girls, along with another guy from Tal Afar Haji Mahdi.
And I saw him, I recognized him once I saw him on T.V. And
there are many like him that are just getting away with what
they did to Yazidis.
Mr. Smith. And did you convey that information to any
official, U.S. or otherwise?
Ms. Shireen. Yes, I am hoping to speak to someone about
what I know about him but I haven't yet. [Shows photos.] In
these pictures my family members who are missing, some of them.
And this is me when I escaped from ISIS among the other
survivors.
But that guy was responsible for what happened to me and my
family.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask, Mr. Wolf, if I could, thank you
for your idea of the interagency coordinator. I think that
especially in this administration where it does not have the
equivalent of the NCO Corps, no head is around unless it has
non-commissioned officers. The secretary, assistant secretaries
and the real policy people, the nuts and bolts of the State
Department and USAID are not in place. It took months for Mark
Green to get in place. He has only been there for several weeks
now.
So, I think the importance of an interagency coordinator,
your idea, I think is absolutely compelling. And we will
certainly do everything we can to push that. And I thank you
for that. And you might want to elaborate on it because, again,
we are on automatic pilot right now with the Obama policies.
Mr. Rasche will tell you, they have not gotten aid. I
remember when I met with some of the high clerics during our
visit they were grateful that finally there would be an end of
the gross indifference to the Christians and the Yazidis in
Erbil. And, unfortunately, it is continuing through negligence,
or whatever the reason is. And it is about time. The bill would
mandate it. It would finally get us to where we want to be.
And, again, you might want to make, as I have done as
recently as 4 hours ago, another appeal to the Senate to bring
that bill to the Floor. It is out of the Foreign Relations
Committee. It has bipartisan support from the Senate side. Just
put it to a vote by unanimous consent or any other means that
they deem appropriate, but get it voted upon.
Then it comes back here with some tweaks. We pass it,
hopefully almost immediately, it is down to the President and a
gaping hole that has been an unmet need for years will finally
be met.
So, if you wanted to elaborate on your coordinator idea,
Mr. Wolf, because we need a point person who can get the job
done. We talked about Senator Danforth. That lead to the
comprehensive peace agreement. Without him there was no
comprehensive peace agreement and the war between the north and
the south, would have persisted, and had already claimed 2
million dead, 4 million displaced at the time. He came in and
was the key to making that happen.
So your idea is extraordinary.
Mr. Wolf. Well, I think that is what you need. And
personnel is policy. And if the President and Secretary
Tillerson does it in the White House that will send a message
to all the career people, will send a message, also, it will
send a message to the Yazidi community in Iraq. It will send a
message to the Christian community in Iraq. It will send a
message to the world.
And, frankly, to these people that did that to her ought to
be prosecuted. And we should learn from history. After the
genocide the Nazis embedded in and went different places. We
had to track them down. We had a Justice Department office that
tracked them down. Rwanda, did the same thing. Srebenica, some
of the Croats and some of the Serbs got embedded in and moved
all over. We had to track them down. We should be tracking this
guy down.
There should be a team going out and arresting that guy
now, taking him, taking him to the International Criminal
Court. If we know he is in a refugee camp, and who is paying
for that refugee camp? The U.N. And who is getting the money
from the U.N., who is paying the U.N., ah, the United States
Government. So, maybe are you saying the United States
Government is funding a camp where a man that did this to her
is living?
Well, I tell you, boy, you, you need somebody really strong
that could go in and sit down with the President, can sit down
with Tillerson, can sit down with everybody to get this done.
That is unacceptable. I didn't know that. You guys ought to be
calling the FBI today and sending the FBI legal attache over
there and going into that camp and taking that guy out by his
collar and bringing him back to the United States or take him
to the Criminal Court. My goodness, I can't believe that.
Mr. Garrett. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. One second before I yield to my friend.
David Crane, the former Chief Prosecutor for the Sierra
Leone Special Court which put Charles Taylor, the President of
Liberia, behind bars for 50 years, which is where he is now at
The Hague, he is not only in favor of our bill, he has been a
strong advocate and helped us, you know, in fashioning some of
the language, he has made clear, right there where you sit as a
witness, that without accountability a random impunity will
occur and people will say, I can do whatever I want. I can
rape, kill, maim, all kind of atrocities without there being a
accountability in terms of a jail term.
So, again, H.R. 390 couldn't be clearer in its
accountability piece. Its focus is humanitarian and on
accountability. And, again, it is just waiting to be passed on
the Senate side. And, hopefully, they will do it this week.
My colleague.
Mr. Garrett. Let me say this, again, I get passionate about
some things. And having been a prosecutor for about a decade I
get passionate about this stuff.
This bill is important. We need to pass this bill. But I
looked through U.S. Code 2330 or 2339, Subs A through D, and
2332, and I will tell you that I could put the American citizen
into the prison today with the laws that are already on the
books. So I would ask the subcommittee chair if it might be
possible to convene a hearing, perhaps in public and perhaps in
private, to assess--and because I have seen this from my work
in Homeland Security as well, American citizens who travel
abroad, and we have ways of knowing who they are. What is being
done? Well, you know. To try to identify these individuals and
bring them to justice.
At the very least, the fact that someone would flaunt their
citizenship as they exploited a person who had been sold into--
I won't describe in detail the type of conditions--is beyond my
ability to wrap my brain around in the year 2017. And but there
are apparatuses at our disposal now. We need to make it a
priority. And I think this committee might take a step in that
direction.
And, again, I am a co-sponsor of the bill. It's a great
bill. You give me the forum in a criminal Federal court in the
United States and I can, and I can take care of these guys with
the laws that are already on the books. Why aren't we doing it?
And this is the second time, once in Homeland and once in
this committee, where I found out about Americans allegedly
cavorting with the likes of ISIS abroad where people are like,
``Well, you know.'' Inexcusable. And it needs to a priority. If
we get that individual and leadership, that liaison to the
White House, it needs to be a priority.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Anything else, because we do have a vote? We
have about 3 minutes left before we have to be on the Floor.
Mr. Rasche.
Mr. Rasche. If I may, Mr. Chairman, this is on topic here
but it is a message to your committee from the heads of the
Christian churches of the Kurdistan region. And it is a special
plea in the continuing tension between Baghdad and Erbil
resulting from the Kurdish referendum. They are pleading with
the United States Government to exercise all options possible
to make sure that this does not deteriorate any further.
There is a real, real concern that hostilities may break
out. And they are pleading with the U.S. to exercise whatever
authority and influence it has to make sure that this gets
solved by peaceful dialog. Because if there is fighting to
break out, it will happen right on top of these Christian and
Yazidi communities.
I have been asked to put that, put that to you directly.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Well put, and we will follow up. And
I deeply appreciate it.
Without objection, testimony from the Yazidi Global
Organization will be made a part of the record.
And, again, I want to thank our very distinguished
witnesses for your extraordinary testimony, the work that you
are doing.
I had some other questions for Ms. Ashburn. One of them was
why the other people in the media have not been bringing the
visibility and the light to the plight of the Christians. I
think it has been appalling as well. But, thankfully, you have.
And I deeply, and we all deeply appreciate that.
I want to thank all of you for your testimony. Because of
the vote we do have to conclude. And this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:44 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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