    [House Hearing, 114 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                     FULFILLING THE HUMANITARIAN IMPERATIVE:
                      ASSISTING VICTIMS OF ISIS VIOLENCE

    =======================================================================

                                     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 FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                                DECEMBER 9, 2015

                                   __________

                               Serial No. 114-172

                                   __________

            Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

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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                       BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
    MATT SALMON, Arizona                 KAREN BASS, California
    DARRELL E. ISSA, California          WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
    TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania             DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
    JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina          ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
    MO BROOKS, Alabama                   AMI BERA, California
    PAUL COOK, California                ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
    RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas            GRACE MENG, New York
    SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania            LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
    RON DeSANTIS, Florida                TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
    MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina         JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
    TED S. YOHO, Florida                 ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
    CURT CLAWSON, Florida                BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
    SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
    REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
    DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
    LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
    TOM EMMER, MinnesotaUntil 5/18/
        15 deg.
    DANIEL DONOVAN, New YorkAs
        of 5/19/15 deg.

         Amy Porter, Chief of Staff      Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director

                   Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director

                                     ------

        Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
                          International Organizations

                   CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
    MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina         KAREN BASS, California
    CURT CLAWSON, Florida                DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
    SCOTT DesJARLAIS,                    AMI BERA, California
        Tennessee
    TOM EMMER, MinnesotaUntil 5/18/
        15 deg.
    DANIEL DONOVAN, New YorkAs
        of 6/2/15 deg.

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                                   WITNESSES

    Gregory H. Stanton, Ph.D., president, Genocide Watch.............     6
    The Most Reverend Bishop Francis Kalabat, Chaldean Eparchy of St.
      Thomas the Apostle in America..................................    13
    Mr. Mirza Ismail, founder and chairman, Yezidi Human Rights
      Organization-International.....................................    21
    Mr. Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight, Knights of Columbus........    28
    Mr. Noah Gottschalk, senior policy advisor for humanitarian
      response, Oxfam America........................................    48

              LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

    Gregory H. Stanton, Ph.D.: Prepared statement....................     9
    The Most Reverend Bishop Francis Kalabat: Prepared statement.....    16
    Mr. Mirza Ismail: Prepared statement.............................    25
    Mr. Carl A. Anderson: Prepared statement.........................    31
    Mr. Noah Gottschalk: Prepared statement..........................    51

                                    APPENDIX

    Hearing notice...................................................    70
    Hearing minutes..................................................    71
    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:
      World Magazine article, ``Christians Martyred by the Islamic
        State''......................................................    72
      Oxfam Briefing Note--Solidarity with Syrians...................    77

                          FULFILLING THE HUMANITARIAN.
                        IMPERATIVE: ASSISTING VICTIMS OF
                                 ISIS VIOLENCE

                                  ----------

                          WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2015

                           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 2 p.m., in
    room 2255 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
    Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
        Mr. Smith. The committee will come to order, and good
    afternoon to everybody. Thank you for being here.
        Each day, our newspapers, magazines, radios, and television
    screens are filled to overflowing with images of people fleeing
    territory controlled by the Islamic jihadist group known as
    ISIS. More than half of the 653,000 refugees, an estimated 53
    percent in Europe, are from Syria alone according to the U.N.
    High Commissioner for Refugees.
        While violence plays the major part in the impetus of
    Syrians to leave their homes, Shelly Pitterman of the UNHCR
    testified at a hearing I chaired on October 20th that the main
    trigger for the flight for refugee camps or shelter in nations
    like Jordan is the humanitarian funding shortfall. In recent
    months, he told us, the World Food Programme cut its program by
    30 percent, and the current Syrian Regional Refugee and
    Resilience Plan for 2015 is only 41 percent funded. The UNHCR
    expects to receive just 47 percent of the funding it needs for
    Syria over the next year.
        One year ago this month, the U.N. Office for the
    Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a report that
    detailed the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria. An
    estimated 12.21 million people were in need of humanitarian
    assistance including 7.6 million IDPs, or internally displaced
    people, and more than 5.6 million children in need of
    assistance. An estimated 4.8 million people were in need of
    humanitarian assistance in hard to reach areas and locations.
    Those numbers definitely have not improved as the conflict has
    continued and worsened.
        By the third International Pledging Conference on March 31,
    2015, the crisis had become the largest displacement crisis in
    the world with 3.8 million people having fled to Lebanon,
    Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt in addition to those internally
    displaced. In support of the Syria Response Plan and Regional
    Refugee and Resilience Plan, international donors pledged $3.68
    billion in money. However, according to the Financial Tracking
    Service at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
    Affairs, only $1.17 of the $2.89 billion has been received by
    December 7. That constitutes only about 41 percent of what was
    considered necessary by that agency.
        Today's hearing will focus on the plight of persecuted
    minorities, religious minorities in Syria and in Iraq, which
    today constitutes genocide and the failure of much of the
    international community to live up to their pledges of
    humanitarian assistance, factors which push refugees to Europe
    and beyond. In particular, we will examine violence targeting
    religious minorities such as Christians and Yazidis in
    territory controlled by ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
        This past September, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the
    Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial
    Museum undertook a ``Bearing Witness Trip'' to northern Iraq to
    investigate allegations of genocide being committed by ISIS.
    Their report is chilling: ``Our Generation Is Gone: The Islamic
    State's Targeting of Iraqi Minorities in Ninewa.''; and in it
    they talk about severe deprivation, rape, sexual slavery,
    enslavement of many kinds, and murder, perpetrated in a
    widespread and systematic manner that indicates a deliberate
    plan to target religious and ethnic minorities.
        Mirza Ismail, chairman and founder of the Yezidi Human
    Rights Organization-International, will testify today that the
    Yazidis are on the verge of annihilation. Chaldean Bishop
    Francis Kalabat will testify that, ``There are countless
    Christian villages in Syria who have been taken over by ISIS
    and have encountered genocide and the Obama administration
    refuses to recognize their plight.''
        Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus,
    calls on the Obama administration to publicly acknowledge that
    genocide is taking place against the Christian communities of
    Iraq and Syria. Mr. Anderson will testify that ``Vulnerable
    religious minorities fear taking shelter in the camps of the
    United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees because of
    religiously motivated violence and intimidation inside the
    camps.''
        Syrian Christians, he notes, and other vulnerable
    minorities are disproportionately excluded from the U.S.-Syrian
    refugee resettlement program due to reliance on a functionally
    discriminatory UNHCR program, so that is where the mistake is
    initially made and systematically Christians are excluded.
        Dr. Gregory Stanton, the president of Genocide Watch and
    research professor at George Mason University, in his testimony
    entitled, ``Weak Words are Not Enough,'' says State's failure
    to call ISIS' mass murder of Christians, Muslims, and other
    groups in addition to Yazidis, by its proper name ``genocide''
    would be an act of denial as grave as U.S. refusal to recognize
    the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
        And I would note parenthetically that I was in Congress in
    1994. I was at the U.N. Commission for Human Rights in Geneva
    and worked side by side with those in the administration at
    that time, and there were some who demanded that the Rwandan
    genocide be called what it was and there was refusal. The same
    thing happened in Bosnia and it happened elsewhere, and that
    terrible experience now replays itself over and over again and
    it is replaying now. Ethnic cleansing, what does that mean, as
    Dr. Stanton says in his testimony.
        The administration reportedly is considering declaring the
    ISIS mistreatment of Yazidis to be genocide. Frankly, that is
    good; I encourage that. But there is no indication that
    Christians will be included. That is absurd and unconscionable.
    Such an action would be contrary to the facts and tragically
    wrong.
        Last year the U.N. resolution determined about the Yazidis
    and Christians were being particularly targeted by ISIS. A
    group of Christian leaders last week wrote to Secretary of
    State John Kerry to present their case for treating Christians
    the same as Yazidis in this matter but they have not yet
    received the reply, and hopefully it will be a positive one.
        As we attempt to end the ISIS threat, we must consider how
    to help ensure religious pluralism in Syria and Iraq in the
    future, and that will not be an easy task since animosities
    have grown during the conflicts in Iraq and Syria exponentially
    during the rise and the reign of terror of ISIS. Nevertheless,
    unless we consider how to make these lands safe for religious
    minorities, we will continue to see them chased out of their
    traditional areas even if there is no ISIS.
        Our witnesses today will provide us a picture of the
    ongoing struggle, provide us hopefully with some
    recommendations that can be acted upon, being faced by these
    religious minorities, and hopefully they will help us to begin
    to make this issue more prominent and that the designation of a
    Christian genocide will be declared.
        I would again note parenthetically, several years ago I
    chaired a hearing, and I have had several since, on the plight
    of Christians. And we had a representative from the
    administration, who when instance after instance was detailed
    by the other witnesses he said over and over again--and I don't
    want to embarrass him--but he said over and again, let me take
    that back and take a look at that, as if there was a lack of
    awareness about the gravity of people being beheaded and told
    you either change your religion on the spot here or you will be
    slaughtered.
        In like manner, we had a witness that I met in an IDP camp
    in Jos, Nigeria. That man actually had a Boko Haram terrorist
    put an AK-47 to his cheek, on the ground, and said, you
    renounce your faith as a Christian or I am going to blow your
    brains out. He said, I am ready to meet my Lord. His wife was
    pleading and sobbing. He pulled the trigger; the Boko Haram
    terrorist blew half his face away. When he testified, you could
    have heard a pin drop here, he had nothing but love and
    compassion for his oppressor, and yet and he was the one, and
    thank God he survived, to tell that story.
        We need to first recognize what is actually going on, call
    it what it is. We didn't do it in Rwanda, we haven't done it in
    other places, and do it now.
        Ms. Bass.
        Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chair, always, for your leadership
    on these issues. And as you mention the plight of Christians
    both men and women, I did want to focus for a bit on the
    situation faced by women. We read, see, and so much hear about
    the unspeakable indignities, persecutions, faced daily in the
    region by women. I would be remiss if I didn't raise the
    situation, especially in war-torn Syria and destabilized
    pockets in the immediate region, and I commend the efforts of
    the U.N. Population Fund to address the needs of this critical
    minority. Thousands of women live in fear every day and night.
    I am talking about the everyday indignities faced by mothers
    unsure of how they will feed their children on any given day,
    or a new mother facing hard choices on how to best ensure her
    infant child and her other children stay in an unsafe battle
    zone that they know or risk the unknown by moving to another
    safer region. These are just some of the real stories I have
    read and heard from the U.N. Population Fund about their
    critical work in Syria and the region addressing the needs of
    women and girls in the region, whether they be from a religious
    and/or cultural minority or from the majority Muslim
    population.
        I am proud to say that the U.S. supports the work of the
    U.N. in both Syria and the region, women such as an unnamed

              26-year-old woman who was kidnapped, sold, and
            sexually abused for 9 months in northern Iraq who
            escaped and found shelter at one of the internally
            displaced camps. She was severely hurt physically,
            emotionally and mentally. She spent her first days in
            the camp depressed and helpless before she learned
            about the U.N. Population Fund supported women at the
            women's support center through outreach mobilizers.
              The social workers at the women's support center
            immediately offered counseling and healing sessions.
            Her condition improved noticeably, and eventually she
            was enrolled in training to upgrade her skills in
            sewing. She not only completed the courses
            successfully, but also was promoted to become a
            trainer. She is now leading classes for other women and
            girls, including survivors.
              (The U.N. Population Fund Regional Situation Report
            for Syria Crisis.)

        For the last month alone they delivered 298,000 services to
    Syrians affected by the conflict. So although we don't have
    women on the panel today, I am hoping that the representatives
    here will include the plight of women in their testimony. Thank
    you very much, and I yield back.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. I yield to Dana
    Rohrabacher, chairman of the Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging
    Threats Subcommittee.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman,
    and your ranking member, for this hearing today. American
    people need to understand the magnitude of the crime that is
    going on today in the Middle East and is spreading in different
    parts of the world. We felt it in San Bernardino in my state
    just a few days ago. There is slaughter of innocent people, and
    in this slaughter there seems to be not just random or not just
    a rage that is being experienced at a moment where someone
    kills someone else, but it is a well thought-out effort to
    terrorize the world. And we need the good people of the world
    of every faith, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Hindus and the
    rest, the good people of the world need to stand together on
    this.
        And I have a piece of legislation that is aimed
    specifically at those people who have been targeted for
    genocide and publicly targeted, meaning the Christians and the
    Yazidis have been actually singled-out for being eliminated
    from the planet. And my bill would just say that--it is H.R.
    4017--that if Christians and Yazidis are trying to come to the
    United States through the regular refugee and immigration
    procedures, we should recognize just like we should have
    recognized that the Jews were a special case in 1939, instead
    of sending them back saying you are not going to get any
    special treatment from us, what we need to give those people
    who actually are targeted for genocide, as has been announced,
    a special, basically a priority status of those who are trying
    to come to the United States. But the American people need to
    know what is going on. The people of the world need to know.
    The United States also can't carry this.
        One last idea, and I will be interested to hear the points
    of view of our colleagues today and our people who have come
    here to give us testimony, and that is the United States, yes,
    what about other, what about recommending that other people
    start bringing in Christian and Yazidis refugees? For example,
    Russia has introduced a very powerful weapon systems to that
    region, and if they could do that I would call on the people of
    Russia and the Government of Russia to bring in Christian
    refugees from Syria and elsewhere where Christians are being
    murdered for their faith. Let's see not only military action,
    but let's see some humanitarian action on the part of Mr.
    Putin's Russia.
        So with that said, I am looking forward to the testimony.
        Mr. Smith. Chairman Rohrabacher, thank you very much. I
    would like to introduce our distinguished panel, beginning
    first with Dr. Gregory Stanton who is the president of Genocide
    Watch and the research professor in Genocide Studies and
    Prevention at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and
    Resolution of George Mason University in Virginia.
        Dr. Stanton founded Genocide Watch in 1999, was the founder
    and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and is founder
    and chair of the International Campaign to End Genocide, the
    world's first anti-genocide coalition. From 2007 to 2009, he
    was president of the International Association of Genocide
    Scholars.
        Dr. Stanton previously served in the U.S. Department of
    State where he drafted the U.N. Security Council's resolutions
    that created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
    the Burundi Commission of Inquiry, and the Central African Arms
    Flow Commission.
        We will then hear from Bishop Francis Kalabat, who heads
    the Chaldean Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Detroit. It
    is made up of 12 parishes serving a Chaldean Catholic
    population of approximately 200,000 people. There are a large
    number of diaspora Iraqi Christians who stay in touch with and
    support the Chaldean Church in Iraq proper, and more than half
    of those remaining of approximately 250,000 faithful have
    sought refuge from the ravages of ISIS in Kurdish Iraq, home of
    the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, the Kurdish capital.
        We will then hear from Mr. Mirza Ismail who is chairman of
    the Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International in Ontario,
    Canada, which he founded in 2009 to protect the rights of the
    Yazidi people worldwide. This organization has worked with the
    Government of Canada to attain refugee status for Iraqi Yazidis
    there. Prior to founding that organization he was chairman and
    co-founder of London Yezidis Community-Canada. He has written
    and given interviews extensively on the plight of the Yazidis
    in Iraq. He is from Iraq himself, but now lives in the United
    States.
        We will then hear from Carl Anderson who is the supreme
    knight of the Knights of Columbus where he is chief executive
    officer and chairman of the board of the world's largest
    Catholic, family, fraternal service organization which has over
    1.9 million members.
        Mr. Anderson has had a distinguished career as a public
    servant and educator. He has worked in various positions of the
    Executive Office of the President of the United States
    including special assistant to the President and acting
    director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. He worked
    on the Senate side as a key staffer there, and also as a member
    for nearly a decade for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
        And then we will hear from Mr. Noah Gottschalk who is the
    senior policy advisor for humanitarian response at Oxfam
    America where he focuses on Syria, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan,
    and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as border
    conflict and human rights issues. He has more than a decade of
    experience working with children, families and communities
    affected by conflict in these countries and elsewhere in the
    Middle East and in Africa. He specializes in gender issues and
    forced displacement and in the return and reintegration of
    refugees and internally displaced persons. He serves, he
    traveled on Oxfam Syria policy lead in mid-2013 and travels
    regularly to Jordan and to Lebanon as part of Oxfam's work with
    refugees from Syria and host communities.
        Dr. Stanton, the floor is yours.

      STATEMENT OF GREGORY H. STANTON, PH.D., PRESIDENT, GENOCIDE
                                 WATCH

        Mr. Stanton. Chairman Smith, Ms. Bass, and Mr. Rohrabacher,
    who Jack Wheeler introduced me to at a party many, many years
    ago, it is an honor to testify before this subcommittee that
    has always been a champion of U.S. leadership in global human
    rights.
        Soon the State Department is likely to recognize the Yazidi
    genocide, based not only on an excellent U.S. Holocaust
    Memorial Museum report but also on the many news reports that
    show ISIS as unquestionably committing genocide against the
    Yazidis. But also the State Department is debating whether to
    also state that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians,
    Shia Muslims, Sabian Mandaeans, Turkoman Kakai, and other
    religious groups.
        Genocide Watch said in 2014 that ISIS is committing
    genocide against all these groups and warned many policymakers
    about that. Since then, thousands more Yazidis, Christians,
    Shia Muslims and others have been murdered. Such acts of
    genocide are strong proof of ISIS' intent to destroy in whole
    or in part these religious and ethnic groups.
        Why is it important to use the word ``genocide''? Some
    people say, well, we can just call them crimes against
    humanity, and after all the penalties are the same in the
    International Criminal Court, pretty much, so what difference
    does it make? Well, some epidemiologists and I actually did a
    study of this in 2007. We counted up the number of times the
    words ``genocide'' and ``ethnic cleansing,'' which was at that
    time very popular, were used in four genocides--in the case of
    Rwanda, in the case of Bosnia, the case of Kosovo, and then of
    Darfur.
        What we discovered in every single case is as long as it
    was called ethnic cleansing no action was taken. When genocide
    became the word that described the crime then action would be
    taken. And in fact, in the report that I have submitted to you
    I have actually got the dates exact about when the term
    ``genocide'' began to be used and when our action began. And it
    is striking what a difference that word makes.
        Now the reason why it is so powerful is, and that is why
    Raphael Lemkin invented the word, is that genocide actually
    means the destruction of a people of a nation, of a whole group
    of people. And it may not be the whole group, it can be a part
    of the group; that is often forgotten. But it therefore
    impoverishes the entire human race. It is not just a crime like
    some of the other crimes of humanity, this is a crime against
    the entire future of the human race when you try to eliminate a
    people.
        Now fortunately in this case the U.S. is already taking
    forceful action to defeat ISIS, as we should, and I only want
    to just make an argument that we have adequate proof already of
    the intent to commit genocide by ISIS against Christians and
    against Shia Muslims. The evidence of ISIS genocide against
    Christians is put into question in the Holocaust Museum's
    report by the fact that they fell through, they accepted the
    ISIS propaganda that Christians can pay a jizya tax and thereby
    be spared from being killed.
        Well, it is an ISIS lie. The truth is the ISIS tax is so
    high that few can pay it and so they are beheaded, or even more
    likely crucified, if they will not renounce their faith in
    Jesus Christ and convert to Islam. So I would argue very
    strongly that all of these groups already have plenty of
    evidence of the intent to destroy their group in part, and they
    should be included in the finding of the State Department.
        There are two especially important reasons why the State
    Department should declare that these groups are targets of
    genocide. First of all, as Congressman Rohrabacher has
    suggested, the term ``genocide'' makes members of such groups
    much more likely to receive the preferential treatment as bona
    fide refugees that they should receive under the U.N.
    Convention and Protocols on the Status of Refugees to which the
    U.S. is a state party, and also under the refugee laws of the
    United States. It will be a huge help to Christians to be able
    to be recognized as people having a well-founded fear of
    persecution on the basis of their religious faith.
        And the second reason is that the word ``genocide'' more
    strongly justifies our broad coalition for military support for
    Kurdish and Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS and, would you believe
    it, in this case also to even join with another country that
    would defend Christians, as Congressman Rohrabacher has
    suggested, namely Russia. It justifies also our arming and
    training militias of these targeted groups for self-defense,
    which is always the best defense against genocide.
        So we commend the congresspeople who have introduced H.
    Con. Res. 75 which declares that genocide is being committed
    against these groups. We commend the congresspeople who have
    introduced H. Res. 447 that is specifically aimed at the plight
    of women that Congresswoman Bass has particularly pointed out
    because women are treated as sex slaves by the ISIS group; it
    is a whole system of sex slavery. And we also commend
    Congressman Rohrabacher for his bill, H.R. 4017. Thank you very
    much.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Stanton follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Dr. Stanton, thank you very much.
        Bishop?

    STATEMENT OF THE MOST REVEREND BISHOP FRANCIS KALABAT, CHALDEAN
              EPARCHY OF ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE IN AMERICA

        Bishop Kalabat. I would like to take this opportunity to
    thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Bass as well as the
    other distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you very
    much for having us here before you today. This hearing couldn't
    come at a more critical time as it elevates the responsibility
    to protect the most vulnerable ethno-religious populations in
    Iraq and in Syria.
        I would like to mention, when I mention Christians, it will
    include Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syriac-based Christians who to
    this day still speak the Aramaic language, the language of
    Jesus Christ, and uphold an ancient culture and identity. This
    as we speak is under threat of extinction in that region. Iraq
    and Syria's Christians are part of the original inhabitants of
    ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, who played a
    crucial role in the advancement of the sciences and
    philosophies of the region and even had a great influence on
    the West.
        Since the fall of Mosul in early June 2014, Christians have
    endured targeted persecution in the form of forced
    displacement, sexual violence, other human rights violations.
    All 45 churches and monasteries around Mosul fell to the hands
    of ISIS, which subsequently removed the buildings' crosses,
    burned, looted, and destroyed much of these properties. By late
    July, the last of the Christians in Mosul escaped the city
    following an edict issued by ISIS offering minorities the
    option to either convert to Islam, pay a tax, flee, or be
    killed leading to a modern-day genocide.
        Before Iraq, ISIS had committed horrible genocidal
    atrocities against the Christians in Syria. Although I
    represent and will speak about the Christians, ISIS has
    committed horrific atrocities against the Yazidis of which my
    fellow brother sitting next to me will be talking in more
    detail about, and other sects including Muslims themselves. But
    I am here to represent the Christians.
        It is important to recognize that the atrocities in Iraq
    began as early as 2005. This preceded ISIS. Christians and
    other minorities in Iraq have experienced their own slow and
    perpetual genocide. I wish to note that the Obama
    administration, including President Obama himself, have
    neglected to mention that the ISIS atrocities were committed
    against Christians. Time and time again they rightly mention
    atrocities committed in Iraq against the Yazidis, absolutely,
    and they are horrific, but there are also atrocities of rape
    and killings and crucifixions of Christians, beheadings,
    hangings that the Syrian and Iraqi Christians have endured and
    they are intentionally omitted. I hate to say this, but this
    they do to their own shame.
        There are more than 150,000 Iraqi Christians who are now
    displaced in northern Iraq or are refugees in other countries,
    such as approximately 35,000 refugees in Jordan, 60,000
    refugees in Lebanon, 30,000 in Turkey, who are being
    victimized--and I hate to say this--by the Obama administration
    in not recognizing their suffering. There are countless
    Christian villages in Syria who have been taken over by ISIS
    and have encountered genocide, and the Obama administration
    again refuses to recognize their plight. And again I say, shame
    on you.
        Speaking of these refugees, I do want to take the
    opportunity to recognize Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. They have
    been overwhelmed by these refugees and yet they have never
    closed their doors. And not only the Christian refugees, the
    Muslim refugees, the Yazidi refugees, all other minorities as
    well, they have never closed their doors. And especially I want
    to recognize Turkey went out of their way to grant them free
    medical needs, free education, countless other opportunities by
    an act of Parliament--that is huge on the country--to all Iraqi
    refugees.
        But this also brings me to a very sensitive issue. Should
    these refugees be brought to the United States, and if so
    should we differentiate between Muslim, Christian or Yazidi
    refugees? In my mind it shouldn't be an issue because the other
    Middle Eastern countries should have stepped up as well. Why is
    it only the West other than the three countries that I
    mentioned?
        Here is my point. Where is the best place for a Muslim
    Syrian refugee to settle, Kuwait or Germany? Saudi Arabia or
    Canada? Qatar or America? My point, it is much easier for an
    Arab refugee to start over in a country where the language is
    the same, culture is similar and the official religion of that
    country is the same. Of course there is always that identifying
    differentiation between the Sunni and the Shiite.
        Where is the best place for a Yazidi or a Christian
    refugee? What ISIS was able to do is the Christian does not
    feel safe, neither does the Yazidi in his own country.
    Targeting of the Christian for rape, loss of property,
    killings, et cetera, as well as the Yazidi, has caused a loss
    of trust. Christians have not been part of any terrorist
    activity, but instead of have been the targets of terrorist
    activities. And now they are being looked at as possible
    terrorists when they are also lumped and they are told that you
    can't come to any of these, at least to the United States. This
    is simply unfair on top of everything that they have gone
    through. Go back.
        But shouldn't it be the same for a Muslim anywhere in the
    Middle East? I ask, where is Kuwait in all of this? Where is
    Saudi Arabia? Where is Qatar? Where is Bahrain? Arabs pride
    themselves on what is called ``Arab Hospitality,'' which
    includes the proper treatment of those who are needy. What
    happened to welcoming them as guests and sharing with them
    their needs? The Muslim faith is very clear about this as well.
    Where are they? I speak this to their shame as well.
        Does this mean that no Muslim Syrian or Iraqi refugee
    should enter a Western country? No, absolutely not. I don't,
    not at all. I merely am saying that it would be a much easier
    task, and I believe many if given the opportunity would prefer
    to remain in a safe Middle Eastern country than go to Sweden
    and feel lost. Do I say all? No. But today it is not even an
    option, and again I say to their shame, who have lost their
    Arab dignity and Muslim faith, the reason is these refugees are
    seen as surplus, undignified, excess trash. They don't want
    them in their countries.
        Possible solutions. First, the U.S. Government needs to
    continue to work with the United Nations and other churches,
    charities, private corporations. We need to find aid. The
    numbers that were mentioned by Chairman Chris Smith are just
    beyond understanding especially in places like Syria. The basic
    needs of these human beings are not being met. Secondly, the
    U.S. Government should not turn a blind eye to the genocidal
    atrocities. Proclaim it for what it is. If it is not, then it
    is not. If it is, then it is. Truth will set you free, a famous
    man once said. Autonomous regions for Christians is a third
    possibility. They need safety. If we want them to live in
    safety we need to provide it for them. Short of a genuine
    solution, Christians and other ethno-religious minorities of
    Nineveh will become extinct. Thank you for your time.
        [The prepared statement of Bishop Kalabat follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Bishop, thank you so very much for your very
    powerful words, your recommendations, and then your bottom
    line, extinction. This is an existential threat if ever there
    was one and you have made your case very powerfully.
        Mr. Ismail, the floor is yours, and I understand you do
    have some photographs you would like to show. And I would say
    with all respect to this reality, just like the Holocaust and
    so many other atrocities committed by mankind over the
    centuries, I think it is important that people see what we are
    actually talking about. So if somebody might be offended,
    please don't look at the monitor.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. Mr. Chairman, we only have about 10
    minutes, or less than 10 minutes for the vote. I would
    certainly like to hear the testimony and see the pictures.
        Mr. Smith. Okay, then I think my friend and colleague makes
    a very good point. Rather than rush, we stand in a brief
    recess. There are two votes. Hopefully within about 15 or 20
    minutes we will be back. But thank you for your patience. We
    stand in recess.
        [Recess.]
        Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will resume its sitting, and we
    have been joined by two distinguished members. Dr. DesJarlais,
    who is a member of our subcommittee, and any comments that he
    might want to make or wait until--and Trent Franks who actually
    is the head of the Religious Freedom Caucus here in the House
    of Representatives and has spoken out unceasingly about the
    slaughter of Christians in Syria and Iraq. Doctor? Okay, or
    Trent?
        Mr. Franks. Well, first of all, I want to thank Chris
    Smith. I think that he is the most persistent and committed
    voice for human rights in the United States Congress. And for
    all the people here on the dais here, and I especially want to
    appreciate those people who have come here to give voice to
    those who can't be here and to those who are either no longer a
    part of the human family because their lives have been taken
    from them or because they just don't have the opportunity to
    speak to the world like all of you do.
        And I think it is noble, I think it is seen by God himself,
    and I think that only eternity will discover your impact or
    your reward for what you do. I know that it is as much a part
    of the American ideal as anything, this notion that all human
    beings bear the ``Imago Dei,'' the Image of God, and therefore
    their creation and their being part of God's plan for this
    world holds them up to such a value that it is beyond any of us
    to articulate that.
        But I am also so broken that sometimes those of us that
    live in this thing called human family miss that. And there are
    those that find themselves in the shadows of the world and of
    the human experience and never have the opportunity to really
    be seen for who they are. And I take great comfort in the
    notion that God sees each one of them, and if time turns every
    star in heaven to ashes that eternal moment of his deliverance
    will finally come to each one of them whether they were
    delivered here on this earth or not. But I am grateful that you
    folks are here today.
        I think that there are two relevant suggestions that are at
    least part of my contribution to this effort, and number one is
    that when we see malevolence and evil desecrate the innocent it
    is incumbent upon those of us who are part of the arsenal of
    freedom to respond and to make sure that it doesn't happen. And
    to make sure that those who do desecrate the innocent realize
    that they do so at great risk to themselves and they can never
    consider themselves with impunity to this country's commitment
    to protecting the innocent. And I feel like that in the case of
    Iraq and ISIS that that responsibility was unconscionably
    failed and fell so short of what it should have been, even
    though that there were a lot of voices trying to express the
    need to respond to this evil before it was able to manifest as
    it most certainly did.
        And then the second thing, when these things do happen that
    I believe the people of the free world have a strong
    responsibility to make it clear to the world that these
    innocents did not die in vain nor did they suffer in vain nor
    were they tortured in vain. In other words that we in this part
    of the world will respond and we will hold those not only
    accountable, but we will hold them up to the world in disdain
    those that would have desecrated the innocent like they did.
        And it is important that we don't leave anyone out.
    Certainly the Yazidis, I met a number of Yazidis. We had press
    conferences doing everything we could to bring attention to
    their plight, and we need to hold that up in the strongest
    possible way. These are a peaceful people that just desire to
    live in the light of freedom and try to see their children grow
    and to lay hold on the miracle of life. It is a very
    fundamentally reasonable request that they make.
        And of course, Mr. Chairman, it is important that we don't
    leave out any of the religious groups, whether they are
    Christian, Yazidi, Muslim, whatever they are that they are part
    of the human family and that they should be looked upon as a
    brother and a sister and as a fellow child of God. And that
    means that we should not only stand and do everything we can to
    protect all of them, but we should do everything that we can to
    point out the fate of them.
        And when we make resolutions calling for assigning genocide
    it should include all of those that were victims and I say that
    with the greatest deference and the greatest respect for every
    last one of them, even those that were especially singled out
    for some reason than the other. Those things can be articulated
    in those resolutions, but we should not leave anyone out,
    because to do so is to invite that same group to be attacked
    again.
        And again I have no words, Mr. Chairman, to express how
    deeply I wish that we could have responded better and how I
    wish there weren't evil impulses in the world like ISIS. But I
    will tell you this, truth and time travel on the same road. And
    the truth is that ISIS is evil and they will meet an
    appropriate end, and those that were their victims will find
    themselves at great advantage in the councils of eternity.
        So with that God bless you all and thank you for coming,
    and I again can't express the level of honor and just goodwill
    that is in my heart toward each one of you. Thank you, Mr.
    Chairman.
        Mr. Smith. Mr. Franks, thank you very much. I would like to
    now recognize Mr. Ismail. The floor is yours.

      STATEMENT OF MR. MIRZA ISMAIL, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, YEZIDI
                HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION-INTERNATIONAL

        Mr. Ismail. Dear ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chairman, Mr.
    Smith, committee members, I am honored to be here. Thank you
    for this opportunity to speak at this hearing on genocide by
    ISIS and the refugee crisis. I also want to thank the Holocaust
    Memorial Museum for its recent report asserting that the
    Yazidis are indeed the victims of genocide. The Chaldo-Assyrian
    Christians should have been included in this report. Our loss
    may not be the same, but the ISIS brutal action against both of
    us are the same.
        Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to speak of
    preventing the annihilation by ISIS of my people, the Yazidis,
    and of the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Mandaeans, in Iraq and
    Syria. We Yazidis are desperate for your immediate help and
    support. During our 6,000-year history, the Yazidis have faced
    74 genocides in the Middle East including the ongoing genocide.
    Why? Simply because we are not Muslims. We are an ancient and
    proud people from the heart of Mesopotamia, the birthplace of
    civilization and the birthplace of many of the world's
    religions, and here we are today, in 2015, on the verge of
    annihilation.
        In response to our suffering around the world there is
    profound, obscene silence. We Yazidis are considered infidels
    in the eyes of Muslims, and so they are encouraged to kill,
    rape, enslave, and convert us. On August 2, 2014, on the eve of
    ISIS' attack on the Yazidis in Sinjar region, more than 10,000
    of the local authority forces were present in Sinjar region,
    allegedly there to protect the Yazidis. In the early hours of
    the evening, the Yazidis tried desperately to flee for their
    lives to Mount Sinjar, but the local militia would not allow
    it.
        At about 10:00 p.m., these same local forces who had
    promised to defend us, began to withdraw from the Yazidi
    villages of the southern side of the Sinjar mountain, without
    notifying the Yazidis. They escaped back to the KRG region. The
    Yazidi men begged the local forces for weapons and ammunition
    so that we could defend ourselves from ISIS, but they refused.
    They would not spare even one weapon, not one round of ammo to
    the Yazidi men, women, and children whom they, the local
    militia, had trapped in what was a waiting room for the death
    and carnage at the hands of ISIS. And several Yazidis who
    begged and pleaded for weapons to save themselves and their
    people were killed like dogs by the Peshmergas.
        And so, God help us, on August 3, at around 2:00 a.m. ISIS
    entered Sinjar region; the stage was set for the massacre of
    our people, for we possessed only very basic weapons such as
    AK-47 rifles. The Yazidi women, children, and elderly, and
    empty-handed adults with no means of self-defense at all, tried
    to escape the barbarians and flee to Mount Sinjar. It didn't
    take long, only 4 or 5 hours, for the poorly armed Yazidi
    fighters to run out of ammunition and the region was overun
    with death and ISIS took over Sinjar region. With no means of
    defense, of course the carnage was immense. Thousands of men
    were killed on the spot including the beheading of hundreds.
    The U.N. estimates that 5,000 Yazidis were murdered and
    thousands of women and children taken hostage.
        Then on August 6, 2014, ISIS attacked the Yazidis and the
    Chaldo-Assyrians Christians in the Nineveh Plain. The resulting
    genocide took the lives of thousands of Yazidis and Chaldo-
    Assyrian and Shia minority. ISIS has wiped from existence one
    of the most culturally diverse areas across the Middle East.
    Today, hundreds of thousands who are still alive, have taken
    refuge in IDP camps across the Iraqi region and Shia in the
    southern Iraq. They urgently require your help.
        There are thousands of young Yazidi women, girls, and even
    children, who as I speak, have been enslaved and forced into
    sexual slavery. These girls are subjected to daily multiple
    rapes by ISIS monsters. According to many escaped women and
    girls whom I talked to in northern Iraq, the abducted Yazidis,
    mostly women and children, number over 7,000. Some of those
    women and girls have had to watch 7-, 8-, and 9-year-old
    children bleed to death before their eyes after being raped by
    ISIS militia multiple times a day. I met mothers whose children
    were torn from them by ISIS. These same mothers came to plead
    for the return of their children, only to be informed that
    they, the mothers, had been fed the flesh of their own children
    by ISIS. Children murdered, then fed to their own mothers. ISIS
    militia have burned many of them alive for refusing to convert
    and marry ISIS men.
        Young Yazidi boys are being trained to be jihadists and
    suicide bombers. All of our temples in the ISIS controlled area
    are exploded and destroyed. The entire Yazidi population was
    displaced in less than 1 day on August 3, 2014 in Sinjar. The
    Yazidis and Chaldo-Assyrians Christian face this genocide
    together. Why? Again, because we are not Muslims and because
    our path is the path of peace. For this we are being burned
    alive, for living as men and women of peace.
        What I have just recounted to you is what has happened to
    the Yazidis, Chaldo-Assyrians, Sabians, in Sinjar and Nineveh
    Plain, and other minorities; nothing less than genocide,
    according to the U.N. definition of genocide.
        On IDPs and refugee crisis in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey,
    humanitarian aid, while necessary, is not sufficient. Much
    humanitarian aid distributed by the Kurdish regional
    authorities and the Iraqi Government never gets into the hands
    of those who need it, those for whom it was intended, due to
    skimming, corruption, and politics. Some outside observers say
    that as much 90 percent of the humanitarian assistance meant
    for Yazidis and other minorities has never reached their hands.
        There are more than 30,000 Yazidi refugees currently
    languishing in Turkey and Syria. At the top of the threatened
    and persecuted list are the Yazidis, then come the Chaldo-
    Assyrian Christians. Five thousand Yazidis were murdered by
    ISIS in August 2014 and 7,000 were enslaved, mostly young women
    and children. Thousands fled to camps where they are abused by
    the Muslim authorities in charge, denied food and medicine
    because they are not their own political parties. Or they
    cannot get into refugee camps at all; consequently, they are
    not certified as refugees since one cannot get refugee status
    without being certified and the Muslims who dominate the camps
    do not want them there.
        The same holds true for the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians who
    have repeatedly been forced to renounce their religion or die.
    Enslavement, rape, hundreds of their churches have been
    desecrated and destroyed. If humanitarianism is the chief
    reason being cited in accepting refugees, the Yazidis, Chaldo-
    Assyrian Christians, Mandaeans and other minorities should
    receive priority simply because they are among the most
    persecuted in the Middle East and the ones who have nowhere
    else to go.
        Perhaps the worst camps for the Yazidi refugees in Turkey
    are those that border with Syria, because of the fighting
    between the PKK and the Turkish Government. The Yazidis worry
    about the Russian plane recently downed by Turkey. In the event
    of war between the two countries, Yazidi refugees are afraid of
    being used as human shields. Because of the unsafe situation,
    hundreds of these Yazidis are fleeing for Europe. They are
    seeking safety and a peaceful life and yet hundreds of these
    refugees have lost their lives on the journey, whether in the
    freezer of truck trailers, or by drowning in their tube boats
    in the sea between Turkey and Greece. Others die of starvation
    and dehydration attempting to reach safety by foot. In all
    cases, their desperation is the cause of death.
        I am now pleading with each and every one of you in the
    name of humanity to lend us your help and support at this
    crucial time, to save the indigenous and peaceful people of the
    Middle East--the Yazidis, the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, the
    Mandaeans, and other minorities.
        Recognize the Yazidi and Chaldo-Assyrian Christian genocide
    and provide international protection so we can live as God
    created us. Concerned nations including the U.S., Canada, UK,
    NATO, and EU member states and the United Nations should make a
    concerted effort to liberate the ISIS detention centers. As
    mentioned, we estimate at least 4,000 are currently held, young
    Yazidi women and children, by ISIS.
        We ask the United Nations, the U.S., Canada, UK, and NATO,
    and other members of the international community, to intervene
    with the Iraqi Government in supporting the creation of an
    autonomous region for the Yazidi, Chaldo-Assyrians and other
    minorities in Sinjar region and Nineveh Plain, under the
    protection of international forces and directly tied to
    Baghdad's central government. This right is guaranteed under
    the Iraqi constitution, Article 125, but it needs
    implementation. This is the only way we can survive in the
    Middle East.
        We ask the U.S. and all sympathetic governments around the
    world to develop refugee policies that can work quickly and
    effectively to provide new homes for the needy refugees, for
    the Yazidis, for the Chaldo-Assyrian Christian and other
    minorities who urgently need new beginnings, especially the
    abducted ones who were able to escape from ISIS, far away from
    the carnage we witnessed.
        Germany has agreed to accept 1,000 Yazidi refugees who were
    abducted by ISIS and about 700 have arrived already. I hope
    that the U.S. can do the same, and provide social-psycho help
    to the innocent. Humanitarian aid must be sent immediately to
    those internally displaced persons in northern Iraq. There is
    an imminent threat of starvation, dehydration, and diseases
    especially for the Yazidis in Mount Sinjar. As much as possible
    this assistance should come from neutral, non-governmental
    sources to mitigate the diversion of food and water.
        Thank you so much for listening and for the very careful
    consideration going forward. We beseech you with the greatest
    urgency, to help save the remnants of our nation, of the
    Chaldo-Assyrians, of Mandaeans, and other minorities. Only with
    your help, after we have experienced so much death and
    suffering, is there a possibility of a peaceful life going
    forward for our people. Thank you so much.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Ismail follows:]
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                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for that very powerful
    testimony. We are joined by Mark Meadows, vice chairman of the
    committee.
        We will go to Mr. Anderson now.

     STATEMENT OF MR. CARL A. ANDERSON, SUPREME KNIGHT, KNIGHTS OF
                                COLUMBUS

        Mr. Anderson. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for this
    hearing, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the
    subcommittee to discuss the Knights of Columbus' humanitarian
    aid programs.
        Over the past year our programs have helped to feed, heal,
    shelter and educate many thousands of desperate Christians in
    church-run camps or other private places of refuge in Iraq,
    Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. We have established a donation and
    news web portal titled ChristiansAtRisk.org, and have to date
    donated over $5 million in direct aid to Christians and other
    persecuted minorities in the region. And we have partnered with
    other organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Aid to
    the Church in Need, Caritas, and local dioceses in Iraq and
    Syria.
        Our assistance has taken many forms in terms of food,
    shelter, education, and medical assistance. At times we have
    been required to give exceptional care. For example, just
    several weeks ago we helped Katreena, a very sick 15-year-old
    Iraqi girl, by organizing her airlift from a displaced persons
    camp in Erbil. Her life was saved when she was brought to a New
    England hospital for treatment for numerous issues for which
    she could not adequately be treated in Iraq.
        We also are funding the work of a medical clinic in the
    Kurdistan region, which is the first point of contact for many
    Yazidi women who are escaping from conditions of sexual slavery
    there. Through this humanitarian work in the Middle East we
    have made three basic observations and four recommendations
    bearing on U.S. human rights and refugee policy that I would
    like to focus on in my testimony today. In the interest of time
    I will just briefly summarize them.
        The Christian communities of Iraq and Syria, along with
    those of other vulnerable religious minorities, are suffering
    genocide that continues to the present time. We recommend
    therefore that the Congress swiftly adopt H. Con. Res. 75,
    which names and decries the ongoing genocide against Christians
    and other vulnerable minorities in Iraq and Syria. Further, we
    recommend that the United States State Department publicly
    acknowledge that genocide is taking place against the Christian
    communities of Iraq and Syria, including in its reportedly
    impending statement on genocide that according to reports
    refers properly, but only to Nineveh's Yazidi community.
        The United States is rightly viewed, Mr. Chairman, as the
    world's leading defender of vulnerable minorities, and it is
    critically important that our State Department consider the
    best available evidence before issuing a statement that would
    exclude Christians. An official government declaration of
    genocide is an opportunity to bring America's religious
    communities together to pursue the truth, to support victims,
    and to bear witness to the noble principle of ``never again.''
        Last week, the Knights of Columbus sent an urgent letter to
    Secretary of State John Kerry asking for an opportunity to
    brief him about this genocide. This letter was signed by
    Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, and more
    than two dozen other religious leaders and scholars from across
    the political spectrum and from diverse Orthodox, Protestant,
    Mormon, as well as Catholic faith traditions. A copy of the
    letter is submitted with my testimony as an addendum.
        Third, the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria, along
    with those other vulnerable religious minorities, fear taking
    shelter in the camps of the United Nations High Commissioner
    for Refugees because of religiously motivated violence and
    intimidation that occurs inside the camps. We recommend
    therefore that the United States insists on proper security
    inside the camps and that it identifies ways to ensure that
    Christians and other vulnerable minorities from Iraq and Syria
    are not subject to violence inside the UNHCR facilities,
    including the possibility of providing separate facilities for
    minorities and hiring professional staff that would include
    members of the minority communities.
        The U.S. should require the UNHCR to gather and make public
    along with its other data the religious affiliation of all the
    refugees it serves. To ignore reports of humanitarian problems
    without prompt investigation and corrective action is itself an
    injustice. We have had aid organizations at the camps in
    Jordan, for example, Zaatari and Azraq, where there are
    100,000is a hundred thousand deg. Syrian refugees and
    they are unable to find a single Christian in those camps.
        Our fourth recommendation: Syrian Christians and other
    vulnerable minorities are disproportionately excluded from the
    U.S.-Syrian refugee resettlement program due to a reliance on
    what has become a functionally discriminatory UNHCR program. So
    we recommend that the U.S. Government take immediate action to
    implement its stated policy of prioritizing the resettlement of
    vulnerable minorities including Christians. In addition, we
    recommend that the U.S. Government end its sole reliance on the
    UNHCR for refugee referrals and engage private contractors to
    identify, document and refer Christian, Yazidi, and other
    vulnerable minority refugees from Syria and Iraq who are in
    need of resettlement.
        In conclusion, permit me to observe that the near complete
    dependency of these refugees on our help and that of other
    private charities to meet their essential needs will continue
    for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the policy
    recommendations we have mentioned just now are urgently
    necessary. And it should be noted obviously that the Christian
    communities and other vulnerable minorities have not taken up
    arms on any side of the violence. They have been peaceful.
        Finally, let me just mention again Pope Francis has been in
    the forefront in calling attention to this ongoing crisis,
    especially during his visit to the United States. He has said
    what is happening to these Christians and other religious
    minorities is ``a form of genocide and it must end.'' And
    finally, if you permit me one final request in closing, I would
    ask you to consider special funding to investigate and obtain
    documentation and evidence of the crime of genocide that is
    occurring in Syria and Iraq. We need to investigate and
    preserve that evidence now before it disappears if we are going
    to move forward seriously on the issue of genocide in this
    region. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Anderson follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson.
        And our final, Mr. Gottschalk.

      STATEMENT OF MR. NOAH GOTTSCHALK, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR FOR
                  HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE, OXFAM AMERICA

        Mr. Gottschalk. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking
    Member Bass and members of the subcommittee. It is an honor to
    be here today to testify on the humanitarian situation in Syria
    and Iraq and on what we can do to better assist victims of the
    ongoing conflict in both countries.
        My testimony is drawn from several months spent over the
    last few years speaking to civilians caught up in these
    conflicts as well as from the ongoing work of my Oxfam
    colleagues in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey where
    they are on the ground providing aid to nearly 1.7 million
    people.
        In my testimony today I will highlight some of the
    humanitarian challenges facing the people of Syria and Iraq and
    what the U.S. can do to better assist them. Oxfam is calling
    for urgent and immediate action by the U.S. and the
    international community to deal with this deepening crisis,
    first, by fully funding the aid response in Syria, Iraq and the
    region; second, by ensuring humanitarian access to those in
    need of aid and offering refuge to those who have fled their
    country; and third, by reviving concerted efforts toward a
    resolution of these crises.
        The statistics in Syria paints a deeply grim picture. I
    have included more detail in my written statement but is worth
    highlighting here that indiscriminate and disproportionate
    attacks are being committed by all parties to the conflict
    including through the use of barrel bombs, mortar attacks, and
    other explosive weapons in populated areas. These types of
    attacks remain by far the primary cause of civilian deaths and
    injuries. Well over half the entire pre-war population of Syria
    has been forced to flee their homes, making Syria the largest
    displacement crisis in the world today.
        As the number of people in need grows, aid from
    humanitarian agencies however is being drastically reduced due
    to funding shortages. The U.S. remains the largest single donor
    to the Syria humanitarian crisis, providing more than $4.5
    billion since the start of the conflict. Yet according to
    Oxfam's analysis, the U.S. is still not meeting its fair share
    of aid to the Syria crisis based on our gross national income.
    This year we have reached approximately 72 percent of our fair
    share. The U.S. must continue to lead by example and encourage
    our allies to follow suit.
        And I will note that I have included in my written
    testimony some of the specifics of other countries and what
    percentages of their fair share that they have met for
    comparison. In Iraq, the U.S. is also the leading donor having
    provided over $\1/2\ million to the humanitarian response over
    the last two fiscal years. However, as in Syria, the scale of
    need is far outpacing aid contributions with Iraq's
    humanitarian appeal only about two-thirds funded. The U.N. now
    estimates that 11 million Iraqis will require some form of
    humanitarian assistance in 2016.
        The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is a protection crisis
    above all else. Today, on the second to last day of the 16 days
    of action against gender violence, we must remember that 1.4
    million Iraqi women remain displaced. And while it is an honor
    to be testifying here amongst such distinguished witnesses, I
    do think it is unfortunate that no women are testifying today,
    particularly to speak on the impact of the conflict on women
    and girls. As we have seen in our work on the ground, gender-
    based violence is one of the most significant features of this
    crisis and has a major impact on the ability of women and girls
    in particular to recover from the trauma of conflict.
        The challenges for the people of Syria and Iraq extend
    beyond funding shortages. Inside both countries insufficient
    international aid contributions are compounded by the
    difficulties that far too many civilians have in accessing the
    assistance that is present. In Syria, shifting conflict lines,
    the rise of extremist groups such as ISIS, and restrictions
    imposed by the government on aid agencies have impeded
    humanitarian access. Indeed, as Chairman Smith recognized at
    the start, the United Nations estimates now that more than 4.8
    million people in Syria in need of humanitarian assistance are
    in hard to reach and besieged locations.
        In Iraq, the ability of people to flee to safety is a major
    problem. On my last visit to the country earlier this year, I
    stood on the side of the road with a group of several hundred
    Iraqi children, women and men who had been forced to flee their
    homes in Ramadi. Horrified by the brutality they had witnessed,
    frightened for their friends and neighbors from Christian and
    other minority communities and terrified that they themselves
    would be swept up in the violence, they were now trying to find
    safety, first in Baghdad where they were rejected and then in
    the north of their country.
        One man spoke of his brother being killed and his
    barbershop being burned to the ground. Now with his children
    and wife in tow, he was trying to find refuge with his family
    in the Kurdistan region of Iraq where had grown up and studied.
    But because he is a Sunni Muslim, the authorities were not
    allowing him and many others to enter the region for fear that
    he might be associated with the very extremists who attacked
    his family and destroyed his livelihood.
        Without clear guarantees of safety and enhanced
    humanitarian space, Iraqi families like his will have little
    option but to turn back to areas held by the same extremists
    they seek to escape. No humanitarian efforts, however well
    intentioned, can take the place of an end to conflicts. In
    Syria, far too many powers are fueling conflict rather than
    undertaking earnest efforts to bring it to an end. In Iraq, any
    efforts to restore stability and return populations must be
    accompanied by the provision of genuine physical protection to
    all at-risk communities. Now this includes Sunni Arab
    populations in areas currently occupied by ISIS or communities
    who have fled violence and face risk of reprisal killings,
    threats to safety and further displacement.
        While the persecution of minorities has been the most
    visible and systemic, on all sides of the conflict, civilians
    have been targeted on the basis of group identity--the Yazidis,
    Christians, Turkmen, and even Sunni Arabs. Iraq's social fabric
    has been torn apart. In attempting to help put it back together
    we must make sure that we do not inadvertently stigmatize
    communities which still consider themselves, first and
    foremost, Iraqi. A lasting political solution in both countries
    will enable the return and reintegration of the displaced, but
    this will require a meaningful process of reconciliation and
    genuine safety for all of Syria's and Iraq's citizens.
        Finally, no discussion of the ways to assist Syrians and
    Iraqis would be complete without reference to refugee
    resettlement. Although it will ultimately benefit just a tiny
    fraction of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, America's well
    established, secure and successful resettlement program is
    literally a life and death matter for persecuted women, men,
    and children who have no other means of survival. It is also a
    fundamental expression of our values as Americans to offer safe
    haven to the persecuted, and allows us to show the suffering
    and oppressed around the world the best of who we are as a
    people. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your
    questions.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Gottschalk follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you for your testimony. I would just point
    out that we had planned on Yazidi women testifying today and
    they couldn't get their visas in time.
        This has not been the first hearing that I have chaired on
    this and it won't be the last. As a matter of fact, we will
    have the administration, or request that they come and provide
    an accounting. Hopefully it will be a positive one where they
    have indeed declared that Christians and other minority faiths
    have been designated the subject of genocide. Yes, the Yazidis
    absolutely, but also these others, and we will hold the
    administration to account.
        When I got word of this about 3 weeks ago myself from
    someone inside the State Department, I immediately put out a
    press release and a statement and tried to contact folks there
    to convey my utter disbelief that this egregious abandonment
    was about to happen. And it was, as Dr. Stanton pointed out,
    eerily reminiscent to what happened in Rwanda when there was
    this foolishness of the greatest degree and unwillingness to
    call what was happening, 800,000-plus dead in Rwanda, a
    genocide.
        And we saw similar actions by the international community,
    including the United States, occur. It was so bad that when
    Kofi Annan went to Rwanda, members of their Parliament stood up
    and turned their backs on him, and a similar sense of disgust
    also was leveled against Bill Clinton. And as you point out,
    Dr. Stanton, we had a hearing on the famous facts where Kofi
    Annan was advised that the genocide was about to occur he
    ignored it. He was head of peacekeeping at the time. And
    General Dallaire suffered immensely emotionally, because he
    probably could have mitigated if not ended that completely.
        So just for the record I would like to include in the
    record a very heartbreaking, but a story, ``Unconquered:
    Christians Martyred by the Islamic State'' that just came out
    in the December 12 issue of World Magazine. They have named
    these unbelievably brave Christians faithful to the end as
    their ``Daniels of the Year.'' So without objection that will
    be made a part of the record.
        Just a few questions because your testimonies were
    brilliant, I believe. They have really laid out and anticipated
    much of what I and perhaps others might have asked.
        But again, Obama and the administration seem to be on the
    verge of getting it wrong. I think the letter that you provided
    as an addendum as part of your testimony, Mr. Anderson, laid it
    out very clearly, and others have done so as well as to how
    that would be a mistake of monumental proportions to exclude a
    group of people who have been targeted for extinction. It is
    not even in part, it is whole. And whole or in part, and even
    the threat of whole in part is the boilerplate language of the
    Genocide Convention. So, I mean, this fits that definition,
    sadly, to a T.
        The abandonment, perhaps some of you or any of you might
    want to speak to the why of it. I can't get my arms around this
    lack of acceptance of reality on the ground that has been
    documented time and time again. Two years ago I introduced a
    resolution and tried to get the administration, I wrote on
    behalf of it in the Washington Post, to create a Syrian war
    crimes tribunal to hold all sides to account for atrocities.
    This was before the emergence of ISIS, September 13th, and put
    in a resolution that would do the exact same thing.
        I have asked Secretary Kerry. We know that the
    International Criminal Court has been very flawed in
    prosecuting anyone--one conviction in over a dozen years. Great
    idea, but it just doesn't have the horsepower or the
    capabilities to do what is right. We had the former chief
    prosecutor of Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, David Crane,
    testify, and others who gave riveting testimony why a regional
    court would make all the difference in the world. And we are
    losing, as was mentioned, vital information and testimony that
    bleeds out as people move on or die or don't have the
    recollection they might have if it is done sooner rather than
    later.
        I am asking again that the administration work within the
    United Nations Security Council to convene such a war crimes
    tribunal. ICC, they haven't done it. They have one person in
    the DR Congo, a lower-level person that they were able to
    convict. They will look into it, they will issue a report, they
    will go after two people and that will be the end of it. And
    they will never get those two people. Bashir remains in
    Khartoum despite his crimes in Darfur and South Sudan.
        So anyone who might want to hazard a guess as to if this is
    an idea whose time has come? Dr. Stanton indicated that
    already. Carl Anderson, I think you brought up an issue that
    just is beguiling and it begs immediate correction, and that is
    that the UNHCR itself has not been able to provide the
    protection inside the camps, so a place that ought to be the
    place of welcoming becomes a place of continued horror for
    Christians. I promise we will use this subcommittee to look
    into that and push that to the nth degree. The administration
    should be doing the same.
        And I think your point about sole reliance on referrals
    from the UNHCR is an excellent point that needs to be embraced
    immediately because of all this exclusion again of the
    Christians. And of course designation of genocide against
    Christians, like Yazidis and other minority faiths, will make
    the processing of their refugee appeals happen that much sooner
    rather than later. And maybe it might not have happened at all
    without it.
        So those couple of thoughts I can't get my arms around,
    maybe you can, why the exclusion of Christians. It just is mind
    boggling. If anybody wants to hazard a guess, otherwise I will
    yield to my distinguished colleagues.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. Again, thank you for the leadership. Let
    me just note in my 28 years in Congress whenever there has been
    an issue that calls for a moral stand by the United States of
    America, Chris Smith has always led the way and I have always
    been honored to follow him as he led the way. And this is, I
    think, one of those instances of historical significance that
    demands people of a certain moral fortitude to step forward and
    make their moral convictions known on a major contention of the
    day.
        How many, let me just ask the panel. We are talking about
    Christians and Yazidis now, but there are other groups as we
    know that are facing slaughter. But if we don't do what is
    right, if we have an administration in charge of our Government
    now that refuses to recognize that Christians are targeted as
    the Jews were in World War II, how many people is the world
    going to lose? How many Christians? Are we talking about
    millions of people? What is the Christian population of this
    part of the Middle East, and what can we expect if those people
    are not given refuge?
        Mr. Stanton. About 1.5 million in Iraq alone, Christians,
    were there before the second Iraq war. We now have, I think,
    under what, about 100,000 or so.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. And that is just Iraq.
        Mr. Stanton. And that is only, they are in refugees camps
    in Kurdistan, and that is just Iraq.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. Okay, and in Syria and throughout in
    different places.
        Mr. Stanton. Syria, you had 10 percent of the population is
    Christian and they have had to basically flee wherever they can
    go, because not only ISIS has targeted them, but of course the
    Assad regime has bombed so many parts of Syria that they have
    had to flee to Turkey or Jordan.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. So do you have some guesses in terms of,
    or I say educated guesses? So we are talking about over 1
    million or----
        Mr. Stanton. Yes.
        Mr. Rohrabacher [continuing]. One million people dead
    unless we step forward. Is that maybe 2 million people dead?
        Mr. Stanton. Possible.
        Bishop Kalabat. It is also very important to understand
    that ISIS isn't just targeting people in that region. Their
    ultimate aim is the United States, Vatican, Europe. It is the
    world. In establishing an Islamic State right now, that Islamic
    State needs to grow until they can rule the world. So this
    isn't just an isolated group.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. So what we are talking about in the short
    term is that there are maybe 1 million or 2 million people who
    are in danger right now, but what you are saying is unless we
    step up to this part of the challenge----
        Bishop Kalabat. Paris----
        Mr. Rohrabacher [continuing]. There is going to be many
    more millions of people.
        Bishop Kalabat [continuing]. I mean, what we just went
    through just not too long ago.
        Mr. Rohrabacher. Yes. Let me note that I worked in the
    White House. God blessed me with the opportunity of working for
    Ronald Reagan as one of his speechwriters for 7 years, and I
    remember when Ronald Reagan declared that the Soviet Union was
    the focus of evil in the modern era. And let me say, Mr.
    Chairman, that I think that we need to make sure that we
    declare that this Islamic terrorist threat of killing people
    for their faith is now the focus of evil in our era, and call
    upon all good people of every faith to step forward and say
    this will not be tolerated by civilization.
        Just as Communism, which was trying to use terror and
    brutality and the same kind of Stalinist obliteration of
    peoples' lives in order to terrorize the population into an
    atheistic dictatorship, we defeated that evil and we must
    defeat this evil as well. As we all know Ronald Reagan did not
    declare war on Russia and send our military to attack Russia.
    We did not do that. Everybody assumed that that is what would
    happen, that is how we will defeat the Soviet Union. That is
    not what we did. Ronald Reagan mobilized the people of the
    world and especially reached out to those people who were
    struggling against Communism and worked with them and helped
    them not just provide safe haven, but the means to help secure
    themselves from that evil at that day. We need to do that here.
        But let me note, just like Ronald Reagan was really
    criticized for calling the Soviet Union the evil empire, and he
    was being, it was I can remember very clearly, oh my God, what
    did you speechwriters give him; what is going on there? And
    actually Reagan was very much part of the whole effort and he
    knew what he was saying. And the bottom line is by labeling
    this something that people could understand and by mobilizing
    behind it, we were able to destroy the Soviet Union which was
    an evil empire of atheist dictatorship. We were able to
    eliminate that without a war.
        And this President's inability to use the words ``Islamic
    terrorist'' in the same sentence and/or to use the word
    ``Christian'' when we are talking about genocidal movements
    that are going on this world today does not give me faith that
    we are going to solve this problem.
        So it is up to us, the U.S., by the way, U.S., United
    States. U.S. is us and what we represent, what does the United
    States represent? Hopefully, we represent every race, religion,
    and ethnic group in the world standing together for higher
    values than those values they had when they left their
    homeland.
        So I thank you all for being with us today. Thank you,
    Chris Smith, for your wonderful leadership on this issue. And
    let me just remind everybody I have H.R. 4017, and I would hope
    that all religious groups get behind this. It says basically
    that if in those areas where we have this genocide taking place
    that those people who are targeted for genocide, particularly
    the Christians and the Yazidis that they will be given a
    priority status for immigration and for refugee status by our
    Government.
        And I do not believe that this is discriminatory against
    anyone. It is simply recognizing that they are the most in
    danger and those are the ones we should focus on first. And
    just as when the Jews came here in 1939 and we turned them
    away, we should not have turned them away saying you are not
    going to get any special favors from us. No, that was horrible
    and we know what happened. Well, now we need to pay particular
    attention to those in danger and to focus on helping them.
    Anybody who can support my legislation, I will be very happy to
    have that too. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Gentleman Rohrabacher, thank you very much and
    thank you for your leadership. And added to that Jackson-Vanik,
    most favored nation status vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, was
    predicated on singling out Jewish refuseniks, those men and
    women who were denied and treated harshly by the Soviet regime.
    So it is not a religious test. That is absurd talk.
        Ms. Bass.
        Ms. Bass. I wanted to know if you could talk about the
    refugees that have gone to Europe and what their status is. I
    have been very concerned about that knowing that some have been
    returned back. But I wanted to know if you could speak about
    that. And then also the ones that are wanting to come to the
    United States, where are they now? Are they in Germany? Are
    they in Greece? Where are they now and what is their plight?
    And I open that up to anyone.
        Mr. Ismail. Well, our Yazidi refugees are mostly in Turkey
    and Syria. They are United Nations refugees. But also most of
    the abducted ones are in Iraq, and we hope that the U.S. can do
    something to help those innocents. The U.S. has more than like
    300 million-plus people. I think they are able to provide help
    and support to those innocent people, both Yazidi, Christian
    and other minorities who are facing the genocide.
        Ms. Bass. How many people did you say it is?
        Mr. Ismail. The Yazidi have more than 30,000 in Syria and
    Turkey. But in northern Iraq there are many who are unable to
    prove their identity with passports or other documents, because
    they were attacked in the middle of the night and were running
    for their lives.
        Ms. Bass. How are they faring in Turkey?
        Mr. Ismail. They are not good.
        Ms. Bass. Are they in refugee camps?
        Mr. Ismail. Yes, in June, thousands of them tried to cross
    the Bulgarian border on foot. Many of them were beaten by the
    Turkish Government, but when they came close they did not let
    them come in. They stayed more than 2 weeks outside. They were
    sleeping outside in the streets. So the Yazidis had nothing to
    bring with them. So if you have nothing, you are only relying
    on the donations that the world, the international community is
    providing.
        And the other problem, when it goes to the Iraqi Government
    or Kurdish Government, unfortunately that aid does not reach
    the needy people. And we cannot say that in Iraq. If you say
    it, your family is going to face real consequences by the
    authority based there. Many of those abducted women and girls I
    spoke to, they were afraid to tell me the truth.
        Ms. Bass. They what, I am sorry?
        Mr. Ismail. They were afraid to tell the truth.
        Ms. Bass. Right.
        Mr. Ismail. When they came they were taught what to say and
    how to say. And also, because they saw people from different
    groups who joined up with ISIS who raped them, who tortured
    them, who kidnapped them, who sold them into sexual slavery,
    many of them they were their neighbors. They were beheaded and
    put in a bakery oven by their neighbors. So it is a very
    difficult situation.
        When that delegation visits Iraq, it is accompanied by the
    authorities. They provide what they call the security for them.
    So when there are four or five armed men behind you and then
    you ask me a question and how you want me to answer your
    question, why I cannot say anything.
        Ms. Bass. So what is your thought about what the U.S.
    should do? Should the U.S. bring over, how many, and do you
    have----
        Mr. Ismail. Whatever the possibility we hope that you can
    bring, especially as I said, those abducted women who were able
    to escape on their own, and with their families to provide
    social-psycho help so that they can go back to their normal
    life.
        Ms. Bass. Do you have relationships here like with
    religious organizations or particular states that would receive
    the people? Where would they go?
        Mr. Ismail. Well, the Yazidis are very easy in integration,
    and I think Bishop knows like we have been together for
    thousands of years. That is like brothers and sisters. The
    Yazidis are not against any people, just say we are human
    beings. We are human beings. God created us and we should
    respect God's works.
        Ms. Bass. Yes, I just wondered if there were organizations
    here you were affiliated with that if we were able to bring
    people----
        Mr. Ismail. But we have at least about probably 350 to 400
    Yazidi families here. They are all willing to help.
        Ms. Bass. Where are they, everywhere?
        Mr. Ismail. In Lincoln, Nebraska, in New York, in Houston,
    Texas, and some are based in DC area.
        Ms. Bass. And they have been here for a while?
        Mr. Ismail. Yes.
        Ms. Bass. And they would be willing to receive people?
        Mr. Ismail. There are many of them that were the victims of
    Saddam's attack in 1991.
        Ms. Bass. I see, okay.
        Mr. Ismail. So they sat in a refugee camp probably for
    about, many of them more than 10 years. We have many who were
    sponsored by U.S. Government. So we hope that you could provide
    the same help in bringing these needy people.
        Ms. Bass. Thank you.
        Mr. Gottschalk?
        Mr. Gottschalk. Thank you very much. I just wanted to
    respond to your two questions. First, I had the opportunity to
    travel to Serbia last month and spent some time talking to the
    people who were traveling. Most had come from Turkey via
    Greece, Macedonia, were heading to Serbia, passing through on
    their way to Croatia and then further afield. The people in
    that were probably some of the nicest, friendliest people I
    have ever met in the many years I have been involved in
    humanitarian work, and none of them that I spoke to had any
    interest in going to the U.S. They were looking to go to
    Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Belgium.
        UNHCR actually came out with an interesting study today or
    yesterday, I believe, that highlights the percentage, the very
    large percentage of those who are moving to Europe who are
    actually students. And a lot of the people that I met were
    looking to continue their education. I met people who were
    marketing majors at University in Damascus, people who just
    wanted to find some way of resuming their studies and resuming
    a normal life as best they could.
        On the question about the people who do want to come to the
    U.S., I think it is really important to highlight that the vast
    majority of the 4.2 million refugees from Syria who are being
    hosted in the region are actually staying outside of camps.
    Those people who are registered with the UNHCR are eligible for
    resettlement. They are able to go through that process
    irrespective of being in the camp or not.
        One of the things that we are advocating for is for more
    opportunities for livelihoods for those people to be opened up
    in the countries where they are. We have seen that the average
    refugee crisis now lasts about 10 years and it seems that Syria
    will be likely to certainly not be an exception and perhaps
    stretch that amount even longer. It is really important that
    aid gets to people where they are and not just focusing on the
    camps, and that people can be able to work for themselves to
    provide for their own families and really have that dignity
    that through working comes in being able to take care of
    yourself.
        The process of resettlement as I said is available to
    people who are outside of the camps. Most of them though are in
    Jordan and Turkey. There is not a processing facility as far as
    I know, as the last I checked, available in Erbil for the U.S.
    to process people there, and there has been really a lot of
    delays due to space in the Embassy in Beirut for there to be
    interviews conducted in Lebanon. So we are seeing the majority
    of people who are being processed happening in Jordan and
    Turkey.
        It is worth again noting that the process is incredibly
    expensive. It takes usually 2 to 3 years. We unfortunately just
    heard the really tragic news that one of the families that we
    were working with who were undergoing this process, they are a
    family of seven from Syria. They are living in northern Jordan.
    They have five children, three of whom have very serious
    medical conditions. We just received the word that the youngest
    of their children, a 1-year-old boy who really required open
    heart surgery died just a few days ago. They have already gone
    through two interviews at the Embassy. They are in this very
    expensive----
        Ms. Bass. Why did he not get the medical treatment or he
    died in the process of receiving the treatment?
        Mr. Gottschalk. He wasn't able to have the surgery that he
    needed, and their hopes were really pinned on coming to the
    U.S. They have been through I don't know how many months of
    screening process, two interviews which of course requires----
        Ms. Bass. When a situation like that where there is a life-
    threatening disease we don't expedite?
        Mr. Gottschalk. I don't think there are that many
    opportunities. Certainly on the security side those processes
    do take a long time. And I think this is one of the reasons
    that our response to some calls for a pause to the resettlement
    process----
        Ms. Bass. Right.
        Mr. Gottschalk [continuing]. To observe it, we wanted to
    really educate people and particularly Members of Congress that
    the dangers that that kind of pause could bring. It sounds very
    reasonable and something that might give us an opportunity to
    reassess.
        But the way their system works is that people who are in
    the midst of the process who have various processes, steps,
    have checks and screening processes, those checks will expire
    and they will have to start again from scratch. And people like
    that family would have to restart if we were to pause that
    process. So what we are trying to emphasize is----
        Ms. Bass. Oh, wait a minute, if we were to pause the
    process then they would have to go back?
        Mr. Gottschalk. In all likelihood, yes.
        Bishop Kalabat. If I may also continue with what Mr.
    Gottschalk was saying that in Turkey, I was there in April and
    visited, was able to celebrate Easter with many of the
    refugees. In a minimum of 10 to 12 different regions in Turkey,
    when you register with the United Nations as a refugee your
    first interview in 2022. That is interview, that is not----
        Ms. Bass. You register today?
        Bishop Kalabat. If you register today, actually those who
    registered had already been registered in June--I am sorry, in
    April of this year. Their first appointment is in 2022, 2023.
        Ms. Bass. Why did we say it was a 2-year process then?
        Bishop Kalabat. I do know of refugees that have been there
    for 7, 8, 9 years. I do know that also Homeland Security have
    gotten cases where everything is ready, everything is done, and
    in many cases, and we have proof and we have the files where it
    has been 9 years, 10 years, 11 years, 13 years.
        Ms. Bass. So you have seen what legislation we have been
    discussing in passing over the last few days? Well----
        Bishop Kalabat. I have not seen the legislation, no. I am a
    little behind that to be honest. But I can say----
        Ms. Bass. But we are making it slower.
        Bishop Kalabat. Well--yes.
        Ms. Bass. What did we do yesterday?
        Bishop Kalabat. I think we froze it for a while.
        Ms. Bass. Oh, visa waiver. A couple of weeks ago, or was it
    a week ago that we slowed it up?
        Bishop Kalabat. The case with Homeland Security, these are
    cases that are already done that just need to do--I mean, there
    has been no response. If it is denied, it is denied. It is not
    even a denial, it is cases that are lost in some cases in some
    issues. And to be able to deal with people and countries that
    are hosting them such as Jordan and Lebanon, they are
    overwhelmed, Turkey as well.
        Ms. Bass. Oh, I know. I know, especially Jordan too.
        Bishop Kalabat. So processing centers are extremely
    important to have. I am working with the United Nations trying
    to get processing centers. And also allowing different
    countries who have avowed to say, you know what, we will take
    an X amount of refugees from these particular situations, and
    if they are not processed then there is nothing that can be
    done.
        Ms. Bass. So Mr. Ismail, you are proposing that we kind of
    fast forward all that, right? I mean, the 30,000 people you are
    talking about----
        Mr. Ismail. Yes, we are not saying that the U.S. should
    bring all of them----
        Ms. Bass. Oh, I am sorry, did you want----
        Bishop Kalabat. No, no. I am good.
        Ms. Bass. Oh, okay.
        Mr. Ismail [continuing]. But just could help them, many of
    those families that lost just more than half of their family
    members, and there is just no way that they can go back to Iraq
    because----
        Ms. Bass. Yes, but given this process, I guess I am
    asking----
        Mr. Ismail. It is the same thing, where they provide their
    UNHCR PAPER. And they have many of those. They give them like 7
    years, 8 years. And also we have some sponsored by a private
    group. There are other people, they have an interview in less
    than 6 months. So there is something going on that is not
    right. They don't get equal treatment. And there are many of
    those that especially in dealing with for the kind of easy
    cases, I don't know how many they have in Canada. They give
    them like, probably the soonest one they give like more than 5
    years.
        Ms. Bass. Okay.
        Mr. Ismail. So I think 5 years, how they are going to
    survive.
        Ms. Bass. Right. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you, Ms. Bass.
        Let me just ask a question about disproportionality of
    those who are Christian who come here. Over the last 5 years
    the estimates are that there has been one Yazidi, 53 Syrian
    Christians, and that 2.6 percent of the 2,003 Syrian refugees
    that have come to the United States are Christian from Syria,
    so disproportionate to the need.
        Mr. Anderson, you spoke very eloquently to the issue of how
    there is a discrimination that happens starting in the camps,
    or at least those under protection of the UNHCR. That seems to
    be an area ripe for reform. One Yazidi, 53 Syrian Christians in
    5 years. That is outrageous, I believe. And very few Jews,
    Baha'is, or Zoroastrians as well, like 10 total.
        Maybe, Mr. Anderson, you might want to expound a little bit
    on what needs to be done on the refugee side. And secondly, in
    the letter that was signed by you and many other people of
    faith, leaders, where there is a call for a limited review,
    when you exclude or narrow what it is that you are looking at
    so unnecessarily, which I think has happened or is happening at
    State, it is like a fireman entering just one room in a burning
    building and concluding that one room of that building is on
    fire while the whole building is ablaze.
        And so my question would be why the limited review?
        Again going back to Dr. Stanton who just showed the
    connectivity over the years to this false reliance on terms
    like ``ethnic cleansing'' which have no legal definition and it
    was used extensively at the U.N. and here during Bosnia as well
    as in Croatia.
        So if you could, what could we do to get it right
    immediately so that these refugees--and follow-up to Ms. Bass,
    there has been a vote on pausing but it is not law. Nothing
    precludes the person who was so sick getting that help right
    now from this administration, and why haven't they? I mean that
    is what my colleagues and I often do with case work, we try to
    find someone who is really, really being hurt, whether it is a
    health issue or whatever, in trying to find a way through the
    bureaucracy to mitigate that pain.
        So Mr. Anderson, did you want to touch on that and any
    others, because we are going to have to conclude in a minute
    because there are five votes on the floor.
        Mr. Anderson. Well, then let me just say quickly I think
    that it is very clear that the religious minorities are not
    welcome and do not feel safe in the camps. And therefore if the
    process hinges on being in the camps, we have to find
    alternative mechanisms to go out and register these people
    outside of the camps and that requires an extra effort. I think
    that is why the designation of genocide is so important because
    it gives priority to these vulnerable minorities who, as Mr.
    Ismail said, cannot go back to their communities. Their homes
    are destroyed or occupied by other individuals. They have no
    opportunity. We are talking about 5 or 10 years to get a visa
    and immigrate to another country. It may be that amount of time
    before they could go back to their own communities, but by that
    time what are those communities going to look like? They are
    going to be totally populated by people who are not just going
    to move away and say come back to your homes that you left 10
    years ago or 5 years ago. So I think the designation of
    genocide is essential to prioritize these minority communities
    that have no alternative in the region.
        Mr. Stanton. Just to reiterate that our conclusion as
    genocide scholars is that when lesser terms, weaker terms, are
    used it is a sure indicator of an unwillingness to act. In
    other words it is a sure indicator of lack of political will.
    And in this case what we have got is a lack of political will
    to accept Christians on a preferential basis as the refugees
    that we will accept in this country.
        I think there is a general view that there should be no
    preferences at all. In fact, I think President Obama has said
    such, almost exactly that. And our view is that in fact certain
    groups are being targeted, and let's call what that means.
    Let's call out the right name and that is called genocide. And
    that is why we think what is going on when they are making
    these selective determinations is an expression of lack of
    political will.
        Mr. Smith. Yes, Mr. Gottschalk.
        Mr. Gottschalk. If I could just have, Mr. Chairman, in
    response to your point about and Mr. Anderson's point about
    expanding the referral process, I think that is something we
    would absolutely agree with, and just want to let you know that
    there is in fact precedent for that. I believe at present there
    is one NGO that has been authorized to conduct referrals to the
    U.S. for resettlement. There is, I think it is a short
    curriculum that NGOs would have to go through in order to, or
    any contractor would have to go through, to be able to learn
    what criteria the U.S. is looking for, and it is something that
    we would very much like to see. It would be really a way of
    expanding the reach of resettlement referrals across the
    region.
        And also just finally to add, the funding shortages that
    you made the subject of this hearing and that I testified about
    and others have mentioned has directly resulted in many, many
    refugee families really falling through the cracks. Because
    these appeals are so underfunded, 40 percent inside Syria,
    about 50 percent in the regional response, the prioritization
    is given to lifesaving services, which means that social
    services and the types of activities that are really about
    protection and making sure that communities and refugees who
    are living in host communities where the majority are can be
    safe and can resolve some of their own challenges--those type
    of programs just aren't being funded.
        They are the very types of programs that would identify
    vulnerable people, get them to where they could get referred
    for resettlement or for treatment or whatever they might need
    in the host community if that was in fact the case, but those
    very programs are the ones that are really first on the
    chopping block when it comes to funding shortages.
        Mr. Smith. Well, thank you. And that was an eye opener for
    many of us at the hearing I chaired in September just how
    underfunded it is, so your point is very well taken. And we are
    pushing the administration to do more, and our allies too. We
    have asked them to give us the list of those who have not come
    forward with the pledges at least, and what diplomatic efforts
    are being done by the administration to say to Saudi Arabia--I
    asked the Saudi Ambassador when he was here a week ago. He was
    claiming that they were giving 2.5 million Syrians refuge and
    that they had spent $1 billion last year, I think $1 billion
    was the total; it was approximately $1 billion.
        So your point is well taken and I agree with you
    wholeheartedly. We have got to push, and I said even if it is
    seen as a bridge, we try to get the others to come up with the
    money, but this is a short-term tourniquet that is needed
    because people, and he himself, Shelly Pitterman said, that the
    trigger for the mass exodus to Europe was undoubtedly the
    funding shortfall for humanitarianism exacerbated by the World
    Food Programme's 30 percent cut. They said they don't care, we
    are off, we are leaving. And it was a very, it was a point well
    taken. We had PRM's Assistant Secretary here and asked what
    could be done. We are still trying to work with them, so I
    agree wholeheartedly on that.
        Mr. Gottschalk. If I might as you wait for the list from
    the administration, we, Oxfam, actually has a list of major
    countries and what they have donated according to their fair
    share. According to our statistics, Saudi Arabia has only
    contributed 6 percent of their fair share this year; Qatar 17
    percent; United Arab Emirates 38 percent.
        Mr. Smith. Wish I had that last week, but I follow----
        Mr. Gottschalk. I will pass it on to your office.
        Mr. Smith. Let's make it a part of the record, if you don't
    mind.
        Mr. Gottschalk. Absolutely.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you.
        Mr. Gottschalk. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Any other comments before we conclude? There is
    a vote and I am going to have to run. I do thank you so very
    much. I think the President got it wrong when he said that we
    don't want a religion test. This has to do with who is being
    targeted. It is a whole different issue than a religious test.
        And I again underscore my first trip on human rights issues
    was to Moscow and Leningrad, 1982, during my first term on
    behalf of Soviet Jews, and I was very happy that our country
    was wholeheartedly using its policies, Jackson-Vanik in
    particular, to protect Jewish people who were being put into
    psychiatric prisons or worse, killed.
        Yes, Mr. Ismail?
        Mr. Ismail. Two important points, we hope that for the
    short term solution, you can bring as many as possible of those
    needy refugees, especially those traumatized ones, whether they
    are in Syria, in northern Iraq, in Jordan, or in Turkey. And
    for the long term solution, we hope that you could work with
    the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Government to create a
    safe haven for the Yazidis and other minorities.
        Mr. Smith. You had that in there as your number three
    point, I saw that.
        Mr. Ismail. So that these people can survive in an ancient
    homeland where we survived for thousands of years. Yes, there
    are many people who because of fear, they want to get out, but
    there are also thousands of people who say we are ready to die,
    but we are not ready to leave our homeland.
        Mr. Smith. If that is done it has to be better than what we
    have done before. When Srebrenica and other safe haven areas
    were designated they became mustering areas for killing.
        Mr. Ismail. Now most of these, if you ask, they are going
    to tell you this is the end of Yazidis in the Middle East
    because no action has been taken actually to save them, to
    provide safety and security for them, this could be the end of
    the Yazidi people in the Middle East. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. The meeting is adjourned and I thank you all so
    very much.
        [Whereupon, at 4:21 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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