FILE - The U.S. State Department building is seen in Washington, D.C.
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BY: Susan Crabtree, July 25, 2017
Obama
holdovers in State Department's legal office are responsible, critics say
The
State Department's top lawyers are systematically removing the word
"genocide" to describe the Islamic State's mass slaughter of
Christians, Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria from
speeches before they are delivered and other official documents, according to
human rights activists and attorneys familiar with the policies.
Additionally,
Democratic senators are delaying confirmation of Mark Green, Trump's pick to
head the U.S. Agency for International Development who has broad bipartisan
support.
These
efforts guarantee that Obama-era policies that worked to exclude Iraq's
Christian and other minority religious populations from key U.S. aid programs
remain in place, the activists said.
Richard
Visek, who was appointed by President Obama as head the State Department's
Office of Legal Adviser in October 2016, is behind the decision to remove the
word "genocide" from official documents, according to Nina Shea, an
international human rights lawyer who directs the Hudson Institute's Center for
Religious Freedom.
"I
don't think for a minute it's a bureaucratic decision—it's ideological,"
said Shea, who also spent 12 years as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom, or CIRF, from 1999 to 2012.
A
State Department spokesman on Monday said he would look into the matter and
respond.
The
latest moves from the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser appear
aimed at rolling back then-Secretary of State John Kerry's March 2016 genocide determination. Kerry's much-anticipated
genocide designation came after months of equivocation and detailed
documentation by interested parties that the Islamic State is responsible for
genocide against Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims.
It
was one of the few times in history that the United States designated ongoing
mass murders against ethnic or religious minorities as meeting the legal
definition of genocide laid out in a 1948 treaty. That agreement requires
signatories, including the United States, to take steps to "prevent and
punish" genocide.
A
bipartisan group of Capitol Hill lawmakers and activists, including Sen. Marco
Rubio (R., Fla.) and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R., Ala.) were hoping the
designation would help direct millions of dollars in U.S. relief funds
to Christian, Yazidi, and other persecuted religious minority communities.
ISIS
murders and kidnappings have decimated the Christian population in Iraq, which
numbered between 800,000 and 1.4 million in 2002, reducing it to fewer than
250,000 now. Without action, activists and charities say, Christians could
disappear completely from Iraq in the near future.
After
meeting with Pope Francis in May, President Trump vowed to do everything in his
power to defend and protect the "historic Christian communities of the
Middle East."
Activists
and Catholic leaders are now calling on Trump to turn the rhetoric into action
on the ground and help get U.S. aid to these persecuted communities trying to
rebuild their homes and their lives in Iraq.
These
advocates want the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), and the United Nations to allow church groups and other
religious-affiliated relief organizations to receive government aid, a practice
prohibited during the Obama administration.
In
early May, Congress allocated more than $1.3 billion in funds for refugee
assistance and included specific language to try to ensure that at least some
of the money is used to assist persecuted religious minorities, including
Christians, Yazidis, and Shia Muslims—all groups the State Department deemed
victims of genocide in 2016.
Nevertheless, only
$10 million is specifically earmarked for Christians, Yazidis, and other
religious minorities. The Trump administration has until the end of September,
when the stop-gap funding bill runs out, to ensure it distributes the funds in
the most effective way.
"There
is congressional legislation … that calls for the U.S. government to stop
excluding the genocide-targeted minorities in Iraq," Shea said. "This
has been a pervasive problem that this aid has not been getting to them."
"Iraq
is home to one of the four largest remaining Christian communities in the
Middle East that are about to become extinct," she said. "Presidents
George W. Bush and Barack Obama made catastrophic mistakes that left these
communities on the brink of extinction, but it's going to be on President
Trump's watch as to whether they survive or become extinct—it's going to be his
policies that make or break the situation."
Instead
of going through Iraqi government agencies or other internationally recognized
groups, activists say the best way to get the aid to Christians and other
persecuted minorities is through local Iraqi Catholic dioceses and
parishes and other religious organizations, such as the Knights of
Columbus, which have spent years on the ground working with these communities.
The
money would be specifically designated for relief efforts for these persecuted
communities and could not be used for other purposes, such as church-building
or more general church operations.
Groups
say the special allocation is needed because Christians, Yazidis, and other
religious minorities often do not go to Muslim-dominated refugee camps out of
fear they will be targeted, killed, or kidnapped.
After
the Iraqi army retook Mosul from the Islamic State with the help of U.S.
forces, much international attention has focused on helping rebuild the Sunni
community so that ISIS cannot regain its influence there through sleeper cells
or other supportive Islamic terrorist groups.
Shea
said Christians will also play a key role in stabilizing the area in and around
Mosul if they have enough aid to rebuild their homes in the area and other
parts of Northern Iraq.
They
could also combat Iran's colonization of northern Iraq, where pro-Iranian
militias are buying up Christian land in the area to try to broaden their
influence.
"Christians
and Yazidis need to be able to go back to their towns just to hold them—it's a
big national security priority for the U.S.," she said.
In
late June, Rubio, along with GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, James Lankford of
Oklahoma, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson urging him to ensure that the 2017 omnibus appropriations are
distributed to "vulnerable and persecuted religious minorities, including
victims of genocide designated" by former Secretary of State Kerry.
"It
would be a deathblow to pluralism and the prospect of religious freedom and
diversity in any future Iraq," the senators wrote, if these victims of
genocide don’t receive the humanitarian aid Congress tried to direct to them.
In
responding to the senators' letter on July 10, the State Department avoided the
question of whether it would allow Catholic or other charitable organizations
to receive the appropriations in order to help the Christians, Yazidis, and
other religious minorities.
Instead,
Charles Faulkner of State's Bureau of Legislative Affairs cited a list of U.S.
efforts to help the "plight of religious minorities in Iraq" and said
the department "shares your grave concern about the situation facing
Iraq’s religious and ethnic minorities."
The
letter also restates the State Department’s policy and that of the United
Nation's of distributing U.S. relief based on means-tested need, instead of the
genocide designation providing some priority for targeted communities on the
verge of extinction.
"The
U.S. government has also provided more than $1.3 billion in humanitarian
assistance since 2014 for vulnerable Iraqis in Iraq and in the region,"
the letter stated. "This assistance is distributed according to individual
need, and many members of minority groups have benefited from it because of
their unique vulnerabilities."
Faulkner
said the State Department "makes efforts" to ensure that the needs of
"minority community members" are "taken into
consideration," when there are concerns that these communities don’t have
access to assistance.
In
addition to U.N. stabilization projects in Iraq, he said State's Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor is managing 22 grants and "interagency
agreements" in Iraq, and "since 2004 has been the lead U.S.
government entity programming directly to support inclusion of religious and
ethnic minorities and other marginalized populations in Iraq."
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