IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE EMERGENCY RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY; Congressional Record Vol. 163, No. 158

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IRAQ AND SYRIA GENOCIDE EMERGENCY RELIEF AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

of new jersey

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I held a hearing on the

need for aid to be provided for victims of religious and ethnic

persecution in Iraq and Syria. In August 2014, ISIS began committing

genocide against Yazidis and Christians in Iraq. Three years later,

they are still not receiving the assistance they need from the United

States and so their survival in their ancient homelands is in jeopardy.

Two consecutive Secretaries of State and the Congress declared ISIS

was responsible for 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 the State Department and U.S. Agency for

International Development to fund the assistance promised by the

Administration.

But 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 new USAID Administrator Green to put an end to it.

I chaired my first hearing on atrocities against religious and

ethnic minorities in Iraq or Syria in September of 2013. The hearing

today was the 10th I have chaired focused in whole or in part on their

plight. Last September I introduced bipartisan legislation, coauthored

by my good friend 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. already has the

authority to provide such assistance, we were aware some in the

bureaucracy inaccurately claimed they lacked the authority and so we

wanted to remove this excuse. It was also important to have a detailed

authorization as the foundation for forth-going appropriations. This

bill would also set an important precedent for how the U.S. should

respond to future crises in which religious and ethnic minorities are

targeted for atrocity crimes.

Partially informed by my trip to Erbil last December to meet first-

hand with genocide survivors, we reintroduced this legislation as \[H.R.

390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390) almost immediately after the start of the new Congress, with even

stronger support from both sides of the aisle and many Yazidi,

Christian, accountability and human rights groups and leaders. The

House passed it unanimously in early June and the Senate Foreign

Relations Committee passed it unanimously on September 19. There has

been no subsequent action in the Senate. The appropriations bill for

fiscal year 2017 has expired and the situation on-the-ground is

deteriorating for these endangered communities. I respectfully ask the

Senate to immediately pass \[H.R. 390\](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/390).

This hearing explored the urgent crisis for Christian 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. We heard

from several of our 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.

I should note the State Department and USAID were invited to

testify. They were unavailable.

Our first witness was known to many of you, my dear friend for many

years, the former Representative for the 10th district of Virginia,

Frank Wolf. He is testified today as the Distinguished Senior Fellow at

21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and he visited Northern Iraq this

August. In his written statement, Congressman Wolf warns \\\`\\\`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.''

About the Yazidis, he reports 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 raised the alarm about Iraq-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'' and

offered several concrete policy recommendations the Administration and

Congress should heed.

Our second witness was Shireen, a Yazidi survivor of ISIS

enslavement. She wrote in her statement for the record this \\\`\\\`captivity

under ISIS . . . was like hell. They performed an abdominal surgery on

me . . . and I am suffering from the effects of it . . . They committed

all kinds of atrocious crimes against us including mass killing, sexual

enslavement, and forced conversion.''

Shireen also wrote \\\`\\\`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 and the world

governments, many of these people will continue to flee their ancient

homelands of Syria and Iraq.''

Our third witness was Lauren Ashburn, Managing Editor and Anchor of

EWTN News Nightly. She travelled 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 a journalist, has helped tell the

stories of heroism, indomitable faith, and survival. As she reported in

her written testimony for the 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 was Stephen Rasche, Legal Counsel and

Director of IDP Resettlement Programs 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 of the Helsinki Committee last September, and he reported in

his written testimony today, \\\`\\\`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.''

The Obama Administration channeled all U.S. funding for

stabilization in Iraq through the Funding Facility for Stabilization,

administered by the UN Development Program, and the current

Administration has continued this policy. Mr. Rasche testified in his

written statement \\\`\\\`While status reports from UNDP work in

\\\[\\\[\[Page\](https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-163/extensions-of-remarks-section/page/E1316) \[E1316\](https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-163/extensions-of-remarks-section/page/E1316)\\\]\\\]

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 . . . In

effect, U.S. taxpayers are financing the spoils of genocide.''

As an alternative option for U.S. assistance, he details the 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 the project can

be completed and many more families can return.

I strongly support this time-sensitive proposal and call on USAID

Administrator Mark Green to ensure a decision is made about it soon.

Because of the resistance among career staff at USAID to directing

assistance to religious and ethnic minority communities, even though

they were targeted for genocide, it is imperative officials appointed

by the President are part of the review process and that the final

decision be made by Presidential appointees. I included this proposal

as part of the hearing record.

As Mr. Rasche warns in his written testimony, \\\`\\\`Today, as I speak to

you, we are caught fully exposed and at-risk, finding ourselves at a

critical historical inflection 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.''

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