Protecting Iraq's religious minorities
The Washington Times, December 22, 2006
By Felice D. Gaer and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Since 2003, more than 1.5 million Iraqis have fled their country, and a similar number are displaced within Iraq - a massive flight of more than one in 10 members of Iraq's prewar population of 26 million. This exodus has not only caused tragic hardships and uncertainty, but could mean the end of the presence in Iraq of ancient Christian and other religious minority communities that have lived on that land for 2,000 years.

Amid the widely publicized cycle of Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian violence in Iraq, members of non-Muslim religious minorities continue to suffer a disproportionate burden of violent attacks and other human-rights abuses. Minority communities, including Christians, Yazidis and Sabean Mandaeans, have been forced to fend for themselves, and are particularly vulnerable given their lack of a tribal or militia structure to provide for their security. The repeated targeting of Iraqi religious minorities in coordinated bombing attacks and other violence has forced many worshippers to cease attending religious services or participating in religious events. Moreover, they face a continuing climate of impunity.

As a result of these attacks, Iraqi ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans are fleeing Iraq in numbers disproportionate to their size. While they constitute less than 3 percent of the Iraqi population, they represent approximately 40 percent of those who have fled Iraq seeking refugee status over the past three years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Numbering at least 100,000, these refugees are dispersed today in Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Lebanon.

In the countries to which they have fled, their welcome is wearing thin. Iraqi refugees live in fear that they have no legal protection and no work opportunities in the countries where they have sought refuge, and are vulnerable to forced repatriation.

When a delegation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom visited Turkey last month, we met with representatives of Iraqi ChaldoAssyrian refugees who spoke despairingly about their feelings of abandonment by the international community. Moreover, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has not even acted to assess their claims of religious persecution. They spoke to us of religious leaders being targeted for execution, and of churches being burned and threats posted on Christian homes. Even the trades in which many Christians have long worked in Iraq without problem, including hair salons and the sale of alcohol, have made them targets of extremists who say these activities are against Islam. They report that groups fighting the United States in Iraq are associating Christian Iraqis with the United States and treating them as an internal enemy.

In October, UNHCR acknowledged that recent developments in Iraq have "necessitated a reassessment" of its work and priorities of providing assistance to the tens of thousands of Iraqis "who are now fleeing their homes every month" in a "steady, silent exodus." According to UNHCR, those who have managed to flee Iraq increasingly "are becoming dependent and destitute."

Despite this grave situation, the United States has not made direct access to the U.S. Refugee Program available to Iraq's religious minorities.

The State Department has indicated its willingness to take referrals from UNHCR, but UNHCR has not conducted refugee status determinations for Iraqis. This means that Iraqis fleeing persecution in their home country are being denied international protections to which they are entitled as legitimate refugees.

The United States should create new or expand existing options, independent of UNHCR, for allowing members of Iraq's ChaldoAssyrian and Sabean Mandaean religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program. It should also urge UNHCR to assess all claims from Iraqi asylum seekers without delay.

Thousands of Iraqis are suffering and fleeing their country, and refugee protections should be available to all of them. Iraq's Christian and other religious minority communities are particularly vulnerable, and UNHCR, the United States and other nations must recognize their special circumstances and address their needs. Surely countries can make "room at the inn" for these vulnerable people so badly in need of help.

Felice D. Gaer chairs the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and is director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. Commissioner Charles J. Chaput is the archbishop of Denver.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 21, 2006

Contact:
Angela Stephens, Assistant Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 114

WASHINGTON-Felice D. Gaer, chair of the independent, federal, bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), will testify Thursday, December 21, at 11:00 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2172, at a hearing of the House Committee on International Relations entitled "Examination of a Fundamental Human Right: The 2006 International Religious Freedom Report." The purpose of the hearing is to review the Department of State's 2006 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.

Commissioner Gaer will present the Commission's response to the Department of State's annual report, including the designation of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for severe violations of religious freedom. This year the Secretary of State added Uzbekistan to the list, which the Commission welcomed and has recommended since 2005. The Secretary also removed Vietnam from the list, which was contrary to the Commission's recommendation.

The Commission had also recommended that Pakistan and Turkmenistan be added to the CPC list, and regrets that the Secretary did not designate them CPCs. The Commission welcomed the continued designation of Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as CPCs.

Commissioner Gaer will also speak about the Commission's concerns regarding Russia, where a Commission delegation traveled in July, and Bangladesh, where religious extremism appears to be gaining ground. In addition, she will comment on the absence of protections for religious minorities in Iraq and the subsequent refugee crisis.

The  full text  of Commissioner Gaer's testimony will be available immediately following the hearing on the Commission's web site at  www.uscirf.gov .

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2006

Contact:
Angela Stephens, Assistant Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 114

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal agency, was troubled to learn that the official Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association on November 30 ordained Wang Renlei to serve as bishop for the Xuzhou Diocese in Jiangsu province despite objections from the Vatican, and that officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau detained two bishops from Hebei province, pressuring them to participate against their will in the ordination. The Xuzhou ordination illustrates again Beijing's insistence on actively controlling religious institutions and contradicts religious freedom guarantees in China's own constitution and the international covenants to which China is a signatory.

Felice D. Gaer, Chair of the Commission, remarked: "The Chinese government continues to repress Catholics who refuse to join the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) and refuses to allow all Catholics to choose and train their own leaders. Article 6 of the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Religious Intolerance explicitly states that freedom of religion includes the right to 'appoint, elect or designate ... appropriate leaders' of one's religion or belief."

There are an estimated 12 million Catholics in China. That population is almost evenly distributed between parishes associated with the CPA and the "unregistered" Roman Catholic Church. Bishops and priests affiliated with the unregistered Church face constant harassment, with many serving prolonged terms in detention, as they come under pressure to affiliate with the CPA. The issue of bishop selection and leadership of the Catholic Church is politically sensitive for Beijing. The Chinese government's role in the selection of bishops, its vetting of priests and seminary candidates, and its increasing pressures on "unregistered" churches to join the CPA structure are parts of a policy to exert government influence over the direction of Catholicism in China and to minimize a perceived threat of "foreign infiltration."

Complicating this plan, however, is a fast-aging population of bishops and the fact that an estimated three-quarters of all bishops and priests have, either publicly or in private, gained approval from the Vatican for their assignments within the Church hierarchy. Thus, in order to maintain state control, Beijing has an interest in ordaining bishops without Vatican loyalties or ties.

During the Commission's visit to China in August 2005, there were signs that the Vatican and Beijing were working toward some form of accommodation regarding the approval and selection of bishops in the CPA. In Shanghai and in Xian, through a process of consultation, both the Vatican and the Chinese government agreed upon candidates to replace two aging bishops. Although the Chinese government never publicly acknowledged the Vatican's role in the selection process, both candidates publicly professed communion with Rome during their ordination ceremonies.

Despite this example, in April and May of 2006, the Chinese government and the CPA ordained two bishops without Vatican consultation in Anhui and Kunming. These ordinations initiated a series of high-level consultations between the Vatican and Beijing about bishop selection and ordinations. After these meetings, Vatican officials expressed optimism that they had reached a consensus that ordinations would proceed with some sort of consultation.

The ordination of Wang Renlei in Xuzhou abrogates and undermines this consensus. In addition, the Chinese government took specific actions to demonstrate their overt support for the new bishop. Security personnel from the Religious Affairs Bureau detained two bishops from Hebei province, who both publicly acknowledge their connection with Rome, and pressured them to participate in the Xuzhou ordination. They refused and were later released. Additionally, Ye Xiaowen, Director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, attended the ordination ceremony in his official capacity, although he had not attended several previous ordination ceremonies that took place in April and May of this year.

"The Xuzhou ordination and China's actions to repress Catholics who do not join the CPA call into question China's sincerity of claiming to be a nation that respects religious freedom," said Gaer.

The Commission calls on the Chinese government to allow religious institutions to freely organize and to select and train their own leaders consistent with international norms and treaties to which China is a signatory.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

Felice D. Gaer, Chair • Michael Cromartie, Vice Chair • Elizabeth H. Prodromou, Vice Chair •Nina Shea, Vice Chair • Preeta D. Bansal•Archbishop Charles J. Chaput• Khaled Abou El Fadl• Richard D. Land• Bishop Ricardo Ramirez• Ambassador John V. Hanford III,Ex-Officio • Joseph R. Crapa, Executive Director