Iraqis Yazidis dance during a ceremony celebrating the Yazidi New Year north east of Mosul / Getty Images
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BY: Susan Crabtree, September 25,2017
Human
rights activists and Catholic groups are questioning why the State Department
still appears reluctant to direct money Congress appropriated to assist
Christians, Yazidis, and other persecuted religious minorities in Iraq but this
week quickly dispatched $32 million to help a majority Muslim group fleeing
violence in Burma.
The
State Department on Thursday announced it would provide a humanitarian aid
package worth nearly $32 million to the Rohingya, a persecuted minority group
in Burma, most of whom are Muslim. More than 400,000 Rohingya have fled Burma,
a majority Buddhist nation, for Bangladesh over the past month to escape
wide-scale violence that the United Nations' top human rights official has
labeled ethnic cleansing.
The
aid package came the day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with Aung
San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Burma, and urged the Burmese government and
military to "address deeply troubling allegations of human rights abuses
and violations."
Tillerson's
quick efforts to help the Rohingya demonstrated the State Department's ability
to quickly direct humanitarian aid to a threatened minority group. However,
critics say the swift action stands in sharp contrast to State's foot-dragging
when it comes to directing funds to Yazidis, Christians, and other religious
minorities facing genocide in Iraq.
Earlier
this year, Congress allocated more than $1.4 billion in funds for refugee
assistance and included specific language to ensure that part of the money
would be used to assist Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims—all groups the
State Department deemed victims of genocide in 2016. Over the summer, Tillerson
affirmed
his belief that these religious minority groups in Iraq are the victims of
Islamic-State genocide.
Lawmakers
who passed the bills providing the funds, as well as human rights activists and
Catholic charities, were encouraged by Tillerson's affirmation of the genocide
declaration, but they say his statements have done nothing to change the
situation on the ground. The Yazidis and Christians are still not getting the
necessary money to help them rebuild their lives and communities in the
Northern Iraq's Ninevah province, where they have thrived for thousands of
years.
The
Knights of Columbus, a global Catholic charity helping with the housing,
feeding, and medical care of thousands of Yazidis and Christians, has stated
that a much larger rebuilding plan is needed to save them from extinction in
Iraq.
Stephen
Rasche, general counsel of the Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq, applauded the State
Department's assistance to the Rohingya community in Burma. However, he and
other Catholic leaders remain "deeply concerned" that the U.S.
government has still directed "little or no aid" to the Christian
community in Iraq despite its clear declaration that ISIS committed genocide
against Christians.
President
Trump promised to aid the victims of ISIS genocide, and Congress has placed a
statutory obligation on the State Department and the U.S. Agency for
International Development to do so before the current fiscal year runs out in a
few days, Rasche said.
"We
urge these government agencies to make good on President Trump's promise and to
immediately assist the Christian, Yazidi, and other religious minority victims
of genocide in Iraq," he said.
ISIS
murders and kidnappings, as well as efforts to flee this persecution, have
radically reduced the Yazidi and Christian population in Iraq. Christians,
which numbered between 800,000 to 1.4 million in 2002, number fewer than
250,000 now. Without action, these lawmakers and activists warn, Christians
could soon disappear completely from Iraq.
The
Yazidi population also has plummeted, although estimates of how far the
population has fallen vary wildly, ranging from the tens of thousands to
hundreds of thousands since ISIS launched its attack in the Sinjar region of
Iraq in 2014.
Despite
the congressional commitment, lawmakers and human rights activists say most of
the U.S. taxpayer money going to help people in Iraq is channeled through the
United Nations, which has a "religion-blind" policy of distributing
most of the money to refugee camps that Yazidis and Christians avoid out of
fear of further violence and persecution.
"It
is always good when people who are in danger are helped. But why is there a
terrible disparity between our government's treatment of the Rohingya Muslims
in Burma and the absolute lack of help for Yazidis and Christians in Iraq, whom
Secretary Tillerson declared last month to be victims of genocide?" asked
Nina Shea, an international human rights lawyer who directs the Hudson
Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.
"In
Iraq, we should be helping people who are victims of genocide, but our
government is not," she said. "We should be caring for religious
minorities. But our government is not. We should be concerned about religious
freedom. But our government is not."
Shea,
who spent 12 years as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, said the dearth of U.S. taxpayer resources getting to these
communities is incredibly frustrating, considering the direct national security
interests of rebuilding those communities. Displaced Christians specifically
could help play a stabilizing role in the Ninevah Plain area of Iraq if they
have enough infrastructure and support to rebuild their homes and communities,
she said.
If
they had the resources, they also could combat Iran's colonization of northern
Iraq, where pro-Iranian militias are illegally buying up Christian-owned
property in the area to try to broaden their influence, she said.
"Right
now, Iran is using the Ninevah province as a land bridge to Syria and the
Mediterranean and that is a threat to our interests and Israel's
interests," she said.
The
State Department's inaction continues despite Trump's promise to do everything
in his power to defend and protect "historic Christian communities of the
Middle East." Trump made the pledge after meeting with Pope Francis and
again in the wake of the ISIS attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt in late May.
A
State Department official did not respond directly to questions about why the
money is not getting to Yazidis and Christians despite the genocide
declaration. Instead, the officials stressed that the U.S. government is the
largest single donor to the Iraq and Syria humanitarian crises, having
contributed $1.7 billion since fiscal year 2014.
"The
United States closely monitors the needs of all vulnerable, displaced and
conflict-affected populations, including members of religious and ethnic
minorities and has taken extraordinary measures to aid imperiled
civilians," the official said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.
"Freedom
of thought, conscience, and religion or belief is fundamental to the United
States and who we are. The United States remains committed to ensuring the
protection of religious freedoms for all," the official added.
Congressional
aides dispute any suggestion that the United States is committed to ensuring
that Yazidis and Christians communities remain in Iraq.
Lawmakers
on Capitol Hill and human rights activists are tracking the list of U.N.
development projects in Iraq closely and said there are only very minor
projects in Christian towns and communities. Shea said she is aware of one that
would repair a canopy on a municipal building but that she believes there are
no major infrastructure or road projects that would help Christian communities
return and provide interim jobs for those returning.
The
Iranians, in contrast, just opened a new elementary school, mosque, and library
in the Ninevah region, Shea said.
The
continued push to get the funds to Yazidis and Christians on the ground comes
the same week that the U.N. Security Council created an investigative team
aiming to hold ISIS accountable for war crimes and genocide in Iraq.
U.N.
Ambassador Nikki Haley called the resolution creating the team a
"landmark" development. "It is a major step towards addressing
the death, suffering, and injury of the victims of crimes committed by ISIS in
Iraq—crimes that include genocide. These victims have been Yazidis, Christians,
Shia and Sunni Muslims, and many, many more."
Shea
and other activists consider the resolution a good first step but argue it is
critically important that Yazidi and Christian leaders are appointed to help
lead the investigative team aiming to hold ISIS accountable for war crimes and
genocide in Iraq.
According
to a Security Council resolution calling on the U.N. secretary-general to
create the investigative team, its mission would be to collect, preserve and
store evidence of ISIS war crimes and genocide.
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