[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 130 (Thursday, September 11, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1389-E1390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 GENOCIDAL ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIAN AND OTHER RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN 
                             SYRIA AND IRAQ

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 11, 2014

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I convened a 
subcommittee hearing on the desperate plight of Christians and other 
religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.
   As images of beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven 
Sotloff are seared into our consciousness, we would do well to honor 
their memories by recalling that they saw it as their mission to alert 
the world to the horrors committed by the fanatical Islamist terrorist 
group ISIS in Syria and Iraq: Children forced to view crucifixions and 
beheadings; women bartered, sold, and raped; prisoners lined up on 
their knees to be shot--this is ISIS' legacy.
   Today Christians and other religious minorities, such as Yezidis, 
Shabaks, and Turkmen Shiites are not just facing a long winter without 
homes. They are not just hungry and thirsty and wandering from village 
to village in Northern Iraq and Kurdistan.
   They are facing annihilation--genocide--by fanatics who see anyone 
who does not subscribe to its draconian and violent interpretation of 
Islam as fair game for enslavement, forced conversion or death.
   If the phrase ``Never Again'' is to be more than well moving 
sentiment we simply give lip service to, then we must be prepared to 
act when we see genocide unfold before our very eyes.
   After the U.S. pulled out of Iraq in March 2011 we left in charge a 
prime minister hostile to political inclusion of all Iraqis beyond 
simply Shiites. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL--also 
known as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS-saw an 
opportunity to exploit Sunni resentment at this treatment, and surged 
to fill the gap.
   We withdrew, they surged.
   This is not the ``Junior Varsity'' team of terrorists, as the 
President dismissively asserted earlier this year. Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Iraq and Iran Brett McGurk has described ISIL as having 
``unprecedented'' resources in terms of funds, weapons, and personnel.
   We have seen what ISIS is doing in Syria, beheading and crucifying 
Christians and political opponents, taking hostages and kidnapping 
religious leaders, blowing up churches and mosques, and forcing 
religious minorities to convert, flee with the clothes on their backs, 
pay an exorbitant tax for infidels--or die.
   When ISIS overran Mosul in June, Mosul's 35,000 inhabitants not too 
old or sick fled for their lives. At checkpoints leaving the city, ISIS 
took the Christians' wedding rings, money, travel papers, and 
medicines--even their cars. Families walked carrying their children, 
pushing wheelchairs with elderly parents, mile after mile into the hot, 
barren, Nineveh Plain. As ISIS continued to gain territory in July and 
August, the Christians fled further north, joining Yezidi and many 
other minorities trying to find safety in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
   More than 1.7 million people have been displaced in Iraq this year. 
Many were Christians who fled the brutal Syrian civil war, now on the 
run again.
   Where will they be safe?
   Kurdistan, a region of 8.35 million people currently hosts nearly 
750,000 refugees. The Kurdish Peshmerga militias are underfunded and 
under-armed, now that ISIS has captured U.S. heavy weaponry across 
Iraq. Yet they soldier on.
   I have received emails from Bishops and nuns chronicling the dire 
needs of their flocks who are being ``exterminated'' and ``expelled'' 
from regions their people have occupied for millennia.
   The U.S. has in the last few weeks geared-up for the humanitarian 
crisis. As of September 5, the U.S. had dedicated nearly $140 million 
in humanitarian assistance to Iraq--and USAID airlifted more than 60 
metric tons of humanitarian aid into Kurdistan's capital of Erbil.
   We need, however, to make sure that aid gets to people who need it 
most. This means working with religious leaders who are closest to 
those in need.
   We may also need to invest more in our relationship with the Kurdish 
Regional Government--a regional government which has taken on the 
aspects of a de facto national government, and one whose brave militia 
men have stood up against ISIS while members of the Iraqi Armed Forces 
have folded and fled.
   It must also be remarked and remembered with gratitude that the 
Kurdish Regional Government has extended protection to Christians

[[Page E1390]]

and other victims of religious persecution. While their record has not 
been perfect, the Kurds appear to be more tolerant of diversity of 
thought and belief than many of their neighbors.
   But aid alone is not the solution. The U.S. has already spent $2.4 
billion on the Syria humanitarian crisis that rages on.
   We need shrewd power--a strategy for action that is in touch with 
reality on the ground. A strategy born of thinking ahead and preparing 
in advance for contingencies so that we are not playing catch-up while 
the enemy rapes, pillages, kidnaps, massacres--and amasses wealth and 
weapons.
   The reality for religious minorities is that their very lives are at 
risk as long as ISIS controls territory and continues to gather 
strength on the ground, drawing funds and fighters from around the 
globe.
   As Pope Francis has noted with regard to this crisis, ``where there 
is unjust aggression . . . it is licit to stop the unjust aggressor.''
   This may indeed require the use of force, but it also requires using 
other means at our disposal. I have called for the establishment of a 
Syrian War Crimes Tribunal, and introduced H. Con. Res. 51 to hold all 
sides accountable for the heinous atrocities they have committed.
   H. Con. Res. 51, introduced last September, calls for the creation 
of an international tribunal that would be more flexible and more 
efficient than the International Criminal Court to ensure 
accountability for human rights violations committed by all sides.
   With a Herculean diplomatic push by the United States and other 
interested nations, past success in creating war crimes courts can 
indeed be prologue. Such a tribunal would also draw upon past 
experience, creating a justice mechanism robust enough to right the 
most egregious wrongs, yet nimble enough not to derail chances for 
peace due to rigidity.
   The Foreign Affairs Committee approved H. Con. Res. 51 on April 30, 
and I hope this measure will come before the House for a vote at the 
earliest possible time.
   As ISIS does not respect borders, committing atrocities in both Iraq 
and Syria, the jurisdiction of such a tribunal could and should be 
expanded to hold ISIS accountable for its evil acts on either side of 
the border.
   Today the Black Flag of ISIS flies over vast swaths of northern Iraq 
and even cities such as Fallujah, which we had won at such great cost. 
Indeed, ISIS says that they intend to see the Black Flag fly over the 
White House. Where the Black Flag flies, there is death and misery.

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