Despite
rising complaints that the State Department under President Donald Trump is
continuing the previous administration’s policies of indifference toward Iraq’s
embattled Christian community, federal officials insist they have not abandoned
religious minorities.
A
State Department official told LifeZette that the U.S. government has provided
nearly $1.7 billion since fiscal year 2014 for humanitarian assistance for
Iraqis inside and outside the country — including “vulnerable communities” like
the Yazidis and Christians. That includes an additional $64 million announced
September 20.
"Any
assertion that the U.S is not providing support to vulnerable communities in
Iraq is false," the official told LifeZette.
The
official, who asked not to be named as he is not authorized to speak on the
record, pointed to $115 million — with more pledged — that has been directed
toward the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Funding Facility for
Stabilization, which has helped 2.2. million Iraqis return home. U.S.
humanitarian assistance is based on need, not religious affiliation, according
to the State Department official.
Despite
the assurances, critics of U.S. policy argue the rhetoric does not match the
facts on the ground. In Defense of Christians will kick off a three-day summit
Tuesday to highlight critical challenges facing Christians in the Middle East.
Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on
Wednesday evening.
Nina
Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute,
said the U.S. government has erred by channeling its aid through the United
Nations.
"The
money has been spent, but not on the Christian refugees," she said.
Shea
said reconstruction projects meant to benefit Christian towns are targeting
places that are no longer Christian.
"The
U.N. has proven itself to be extremely politicized and unaccountable and should
be the last body charged with millions — even billions — of dollars of aid to
help persecuted minorities on the brink of extinction," she said.
Shea
pointed to the congressional testimony last month of Stephen Rasche, the legal
counsel and director of Internally Displaced Persons Resettlement Programs of
the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq. He told the House Africa,
Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
Subcommittee that the U.N. Development Program has failed the region's
Christians.
"While
status reports from UNDP work in Nineveh purport to show real progress in the
Christian majority towns, on the ground, we see little evidence of it," he
said. "Work projects are in most cases cosmetic in nature, and much of
that cynically so."
Rasche
testified that "completed" projects include school rehabilitations in
the towns of Teleskov and Batnaya, in which a thin coat of paint has been added
to the exterior of buildings and newly stenciled UNICEF logos have been
prominently displayed — but where inside rooms remain untouched and unusable.
Rasche
also noted that the UNDP claims work done in areas with Christian majorities —
like the town of Telkayf — where Islamic State fighters drove the Christians
out. Those refugees are petrified to return, he said.
"The
Christians won't go back to it. They're terrified."
"Mr.
Chairman, there are no more Christians in Telkayf," he told the panel.
"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 remained."
Amazingly,
Rasche said, Telkayf has been chosen as a settlement site for the families of
ISIS fighters who died in battle.
"The
Christians won't go back to it," Shea told LifeZette. "They're
terrified."
In
written testimony submitted to the subcommittee, Rasche maintained that
"in effect, U.S. taxpayers are financing the spoils of genocide."
Shea
said the United Nations has failed to consult the Nineveh Reconstruction
Committee, made up of the three main Christian churches in Nineveh, on where to
spend relief funds. She urged the U.S. government to bypass the United Nations
and fund reconstruction projects directly.
"What
it has really shown is both the incompetence and indifference to these tiny
minorities that don't throw bombs," she said. "If you don't cause
trouble, you don't get much attention."
The
House and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees have passed the Iraq and
Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act, which would direct humanitarian
and recovery aid to communities in Iraq and Syria toward ethnic and minority
communities most in need. But the full Senate has not voted on the bill.
Shea
says pronouncements of progress by federal officials cannot be trusted.
"The
State Department echoes what the U.N. tells them," she said.
Shea
said a change in policy has been resisted by career bureaucrats and holdovers
from former President Barack Obama's administration.