 So, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the United States Institute of Peace. We are very pleased to welcome you here this afternoon. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the Executive Vice President here at the Institute of Peace. Very pleased to be able to co-host this with our Kurdish friends. We will have an opportunity to introduce everyone at the right time. The Kurdistan Regional Government Special Representative, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman is here and our co-hosting. And we also have the Ambassador from Iraq, Ambassador Farid Yassin. So Ambassador, welcome. Glad to have you here. Both will have an opportunity to speak to you before the panel discussion. Three years ago this month, ISIS targeted many of Iraq's minority groups, including Christians, Yazidis, Shabaqs, Turkmen, and others in its assault on northern Iraq and in Nineveh plain. ISIS also targeted Arabs and Kurds in many more areas. Last year, the Secretary of State and the U.S. Congress and just last week, the current administration labeled as genocide the attacks on Yazidis, Christians, Assyrians, Kaldians and other groups by ISIS. So last administration and this administration are in agreement and have been very clear. Over the past three years, these communities have faced unspeakable atrocities, including mass murder, sexual enslavement, and torture. Through the efforts of the Iraqi government, the KRG, the U.S. government, and the international community, important progress has been made. The liberation of the Nineveh plain, Mosul, and other parts of Nineveh province are important accomplishments, essential steps in creating conditions for the religious minorities to be able to return home. However, despite these gains today, thousands remain displaced from their homes and many have seen the ISIS assault exacerbate existing tensions between communities and exploit fissures between members of individual communities themselves, creating distrust, division, and insecurity. These groups, who not only suffered at the hands of ISIS, but under the rule of Saddam Hussein and from intermittent conflict with other Iraqis, continue to fight for their rights as citizens and work to ensure a safe future for all Iraqis. Over the years, the United States Institute of Peace has supported Iraqi minorities to advance their rights and emphasize the vital importance of their voices in local and national governance in ensuring fair representation, safety, and security for all Iraqis. The Institute works to find practical solutions for preventing and resolving violent conflict. This is what we do. We do this by working on the ground in Iraq and in other countries around the world with local partners so they can become catalysts for peace in their own communities. USIP has been in Iraq uninterrupted since 2003 with offices in Baghdad and Erbil. Our programs in Iraq focus on improving relations between and among local communities in various parts of Iraq, including areas recently liberated from ISIS through dialogue, fostering inclusion, facilitating joint problem solving. USIP helped establish and continue to support the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, a coalition of civil society organizations that provides a voice for minority groups and works on their behalf in practical terms. AIM was formed in 2011 and is made up of 13 non-governmental organizations working to advance the rights of Christians, Yazidis, Sabayin, Mandians, Shabbat, Faeli Kurds, Kakak Yis, and other communities. AIM also serves as a critical voice for Iraqi minorities to the international and Iraqi stakeholders, including the US government, the UN, the Iraqi, and Kurdish national regional governments. In 2014, AIM worked with the UN to convene a national conference on the rights of Iraqi minorities, which adopted a declaration on the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of Iraq's diverse minority communities, as well as a roadmap for implementation. Currently, the UN consultation with AIM is supporting the drafting process of a law on equality and anti-discrimination in Iraq based on the roadmap and the 2014 Declaration of Principles. AIM has also supported initiatives by its members to respond to and raise awareness of humanitarian crisis in Iraqi minority communities following ISIS assault. Currently, the Alliance is working to promote the participatory budgeting initiatives in local communities to increase minority participation in decision-making at the provincial level in Nineveh, Erbil, and Dahuk. USIP is also working to alleviate tensions between Christians and Shabbats in the Nineveh Plain through a series of dialogues informed by the findings of detailed assessments completed with the extensive input from both communities. In addition to the work of the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities, I also want to acknowledge that many organizations and activists, especially those who work in minority groups, too many to name. They have done commendable work to bring attention to the needs of minorities as well as needed support to address those needs, but we all know much more work needs to be done. This afternoon, we want to focus on the future. Our panel will discuss ways that the United States government, the Iraqi government, the KRG, and international actors can support minorities at this extraordinarily difficult time for all of these groups. This diverse set of speakers is here today to discuss some of the complex pieces involved in addressing the future of these communities, which form Iraq's unique historical and cultural mosaic in the Middle East. It's going to be an interesting conversation, absolutely necessary one at this critical time for minorities in all Iraqis. Before the panel discussion, as I mentioned, we will have remarks from the ambassador and the representative from both Iraq and the Kurdish Republic. Ambassador Yassin has served as Iraqi ambassador to the United States here in Washington since January. Prior to his tenure here, he served as Iraqi ambassador to France for six years and has held a number of positions in the government of Iraq. Please join me in welcoming Ambassador Yassin to the polling. The Kurdish Republic was in 1941, representative of the regional government, which is part of the federal government of Iraq, and I welcome her. She is the daughter of a hero and a hero in herself. This is a topic that is hard for me to talk about, because I've lived it from afar, and when you live a tragedy from afar, you sometimes feel it even worse. And I have reasons to feel it more than others, because my mother is from Mosul, and I have members of my family there. I remember in 2008, Eric Schmidt came to visit Baghdad, and he asked us, what is the worst thing that Saddam did? So some of us answered, it was the Anfal. Others said, no, it was the quelling of the uprising in 1991. I think the worst legacy of Saddam was that we had a choice of these things, you know, which one to choose. If he had asked us that question in 2014, 2015, we would have had one answer, what he did to the Yazidis. This was the worst thing that has happened in the 21st century so far, and I hope that it will be last such event of its nature. This is a sad thing because Iraq is a place of minorities. I mean, if you, there's a good documentary running around based on the letters of Gertrude Bell, she gives a very vivid description of what she sees when she goes there. And it is really a concatenation of minorities. Baghdad at the turn of the last century had a plurality of Jews who would have known that, yet they have left their mark on the Iraqi states. And in fact, this is something that we have taken into account when the drafters of the Iraqi constitution in 2005 started working on their job. If you look at our preamble, you know, the elements of plurality and the multiple nature of Iraq is imprinted there. So this is something we have to live with. And we have chosen as a result a federal structure that can bind us, yet take into account all our diversities. Iraq of 2017 is not the Iraq of 2014. The Iraqi Army of 2017 is not the Iraqi Army of 2014. The government's not the same. The people are not the same. I was recently at a conference in Aspen where people talked about, you know, the relationships between the United States and America after 10 years of war. Well, I have to tell you that for me, the real war began in 2014. And its consequence was that it really brought all Iraqis together. I mean, one of the most emotionally charged images of this picture of this war, I remember, were Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi officers, Peshmerga officers, the Prime Minister, Mr. Masoud Barzani standing side by side to work on liberating the rest of the areas that have been captured by ISIS. And it hasn't been easy. It is hard. And I have to tell you, I think the road ahead is even harder because we still haven't finished the liberation of Iraq. We still have to deal with Al-Hawija, with Talhafar, with Qaim. And then as ISIS morphs into a successor organization, probably something akin to Al-Qaida in 2009, we'll have to still keep on fighting it, okay? And we have to stand together. But on the issues that we'll have to face, the issues that Masoud had just raised on the status of where minorities are in Iraq. Simply put, for most Iraqis, and certainly for the Iraqi government, Iraq is not Iraq without its minorities. I mean, we're not North Korea, okay? And their preservation and their active preservation as vibrant, participative members of society with their role intact and protected is vital. And it is recognized by the constitution. And this is why we have parliamentarians representing minorities by constitutionally mandated law in Iraq. And I really have to give tribute to Vyandhir, who's standing here, who touched the conscience of the world entirely in 2014 when she raised the issue of our people and forced us into action. And unfortunately, the world was kind of late, you know, had the international community intervened in 2014, I don't think we'll be there. So as we move ahead, we will have to contend, like I said, with the liberation of the rest of Iraq. But then, and in parallel, and all of these elements are linked to each other, we'll have to carry out humanitarian work, we'll have to carry out stabilization work which would enable people to go back to their homes and villages. And then, we will have to engage in reconstruction. Stabilization and the humanitarian work is actually going on remarkably well. These are not my words, these are the words of the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Elise Grandi, who's an incredible lady. She actually, as recently in Washington stated that what is being done in Iraq is really an exemplar and a method and a model to be applied in later humanitarian action. One of the things she said that really affected me because, you know, for a very long part of its history, the first victims of the Iraqi army were the Iraqi people. She said that for the first time in her long experience of humanitarian work had an army put into its strategic and tactical objectives and priorities the preservation of civilian life. That is really remarkable. And this is one of the reasons why I say that the Iraqi army of 2017 is not the Iraqi army of 2014. Anyway, we have to complete our stabilization of the liberated areas and then we'll have to engage in reconstruction. And there the demands are humongous. Nobody I think has really come up with a definitive figure. But I look forward to a pledging conference that our Kuwaiti neighbors are planning to hold beginning 2018 to try to help us do that. And we look beyond that to all our neighbors to chip in because our stability and the well-being of Iraqis is part of the stability of the region. But then beyond that, we will have to look at the issues of governments. And for that, the trend of the politics that you see in Iraq and the intention of the government are quite distinct. First of all, there is a genuine will towards decentralization. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's the efficient thing to do. Nobody is governed better than when people govern themselves. And so this is what is in plan. We intend to have elections at the beginning of next year. Maybe USIP and I'm looking forward to you to send observers. I have to say that Iraq has two maybe contradictory expertises where they're the best in the region. One is its Iraqi counter-terrorism service, the Special Forces. And honestly, American officers have said that it's not me. They're probably the best battle-hardened. And I have to give tribute to them because their casualty rate in these campaigns has been in excess of 30 percent unheard of. But the other one is our electoral commissions. The elections in Iraq and a lot of people have recognized this have been fair and free. And with an outcome that is not always known, rarity in the region, as a lot of people would say. So we will have to deal with the issue of governance. And that will be done. Beyond all of this, I think one issue that is of prime importance for us to deal with is the issue of justice. People have been wronged. And I remember Mr. Masoud Barzani came to visit France in August of September 2014, and I asked him what was the thing that was prime on his mind. And he said the problem that I have is preventing young Yazidi men from seeking revenge. And God knows what happened to them, and that they were justified. But this is a prime thing that we have to deal with. And so this is one of the reasons I particularly commend the work that USIP has done to help prevent revenge-taking in Iraq. I signal particularly the work that you've done with regard to the Spiker Massacre. But I have to note that there have been efforts, Iraqi efforts geared towards this. Of particular note is a project by a parliament member from Mosul, I think her name is Farah Siraj, who decided to look at what has been done in terms of reconciliation and conflict and means to establish social justice and social peace in the world, and came up with a plan which I thought was brilliant and in need of support. So if there are any donors out there, please call her up. The idea was to go and canvas the cities that are liberated and to ask people what their grievances were. If, for example, they had been subjected to something grievous, rape, murder, worse than that, then they would be put on a judicial track. If it would be something else like, I don't know, confiscation of property, then there'd be some compensatory mechanism. If not, then it's maybe some arbitration or some, you know, some, the kind of thing that USIP does well. With incentives to stay on that track, I think, I thought, and then she went around and chopped her proposal around to various members of parliament from the province of Nineveh, which is the most diverse in Iraq, and she got an endorsement from all the women members of that of that of that governor. So it's a woman-led effort, which I salute. I hasten to say that the Iraqi parliament has a 25 percent of its members who are women. That's one of them is right here. It's a transitional justice. It's not an easy thing to do. We'll need all your help to do that. But beyond that, we will need to heal the survivors. I mean, we will need a massive effort in psychological assistance. I think all Iraqis are subject to PTSD, myself included, you know, with varying degrees, and I'm a mild form. So this is something that we need your help with. And if you allow me, I'm going to read to you something I wrote that the international community could do to help Iraq. Iraq needs the help of experienced human rights organizations, medical and legal associations, and donor agencies. Independent Iraqi human rights groups must be formed. These organizations should establish human rights centers in all major Iraqi cities. Processes and mechanisms for documentation and for identification of remains should be formulated and implemented. Iraqi lawyers should be trained in how to document and follow-up on cases of disappearances. Iraqi judges should be trained in how to prosecute them. Iraqi psychologists and psychiatrists should learn how to counsel survivors. Iraqi doctors should be trained in how to identify human remains. And the Iraqi government should be helped to establish the institutional framework for all this to happen. And this can't happen without a concerted international effort. The sad thing is I wrote this in May 2003, okay, when those mass graves were discovered first, and we're still at point zero. And we have even more pressing cases for this. And as opposed to what happened earlier, now the wound is extremely raw. And if it's not dealt with very quickly, it will fester. And God guard us from that. Thank you. Thank you, Ambassador Singh. Our second speaker, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, has served as representative of the Kurdish regional government, I'll get this title right, of Iraq since 2015. Prior to her U.S. appointment in 2015, Ms. Abdul Rahman was the high representative to the United Kingdom. She was also elected to the leadership council of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 2010. Please welcome Representative Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman to the podium. That was about. So good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Ambassador Taylor, Ambassador Yasin, distinguished speakers, ladies and gentlemen. I'm pleased that the KRG has been able to partner with the U.S. Institute for Peace in this discussion. As we honor all those who were killed, raped, enslaved, injured, or in any way harmed by ISIS, we must never forget the crimes that ISIS committed three years ago when it rampaged across Iraq and particularly on August 3rd, 2014, when it targeted Shingalo Sinjar and other parts of Nineveh. We must do all that we can to help the victims, to restore their homes and livelihoods and bring to justice the criminals who committed those crimes. When ISIS struck, it hurt all the components that make up Iraq's mosaic. Not a single community was left unscathed. However, it is the minorities who bore the brunt, especially the Christians and Yazidis. The KRG has taken several steps. The Kurdistan Regional Government was the first government to recognize ISIS's crimes as genocide. In 2014, the KRG High Committee for Gaining International Recognition of ISIS Crimes submitted a genocide Article 15 communication to the International Criminal Court. In April 2015, sadly, the ICC Prosecutor declined to formally open a preliminary examination into the situation, but we continue to encourage the United Nations, Iraq, and other member countries to open an investigation and create an international or hybrid tribunal. The KRG's Prime Minister, his office, and our security forces have helped rescue 3,092 Yazidis, but 3,325 remain in captivity. The KRG has opened a rape victim center in Dahawk, possibly the first of its kind in Iraq, where medical, psychological and social support is available to the victims of rape. We have protected and provided shelter for hundreds of thousands of Yazidis, Muslim Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen in camps, and we have provided resources to Christian churches and communities who fled ISIS. Our Peshmerga forces have liberated thousands of square kilometers of territory once taken by the ISIS. More than 1,750 Peshmerga have been killed and close to 11,000 have been injured. Kurdistan has passed laws and includes articles in its draft constitution that protect the rights of all people of all faiths and backgrounds, but we recognize this is not enough. Even within Kurdistan, where the Kurds have been even within Kurdistan, where the situation for communities is far better than in other parts of Iraq and the Middle East, we need to accept that society evolves and demands change. For example, we have a system of allocating a quota of seats to the minorities in the Kurdistan parliament. Some are calling for the allocation to be widened. This should be studied and carefully considered, so that the inclusivity we are so proud of in Kurdistan is maintained and enhanced. This is just one example. What about the broader picture outside of Kurdistan, the rest of Iraq? What do we need to do to enable people to live a reasonable life? I don't speak of reinstating trust since trust was lacking even before ISIS came and is now, I would argue, out of reach in the near future. It is more realistic to speak of security, stability, protection. The steps that need to be taken are many and I echo some of the recommendations that His Excellency the Ambassador made. First, justice and accountability. We need the international community to step up and say never again, but not allow the perpetrators to escape justice. The government of Iraq should answer the call from other United Nations members and allow an investigation of ISIS crimes. The KRG was the first to recognize these crimes against the Yazidis, Christians and others as genocide and we commend the government of the United States and others for doing the same. The question is whether we allow the recognition of genocide to be the only step or the first step towards justice. We also need to enhance security, engage in stabilization and reconstruction. We need the liberated areas to be decontaminated of mines and unexploded devices and various local and foreign militias need to be removed so that communities can return to their homes. We need economic opportunities and development. Many of the disputed territories, including Shingal, were economically neglected before ISIS came. Now they are rubble and practical solutions are needed to enable families to revive their farm lands, businesses and professional practices. We need the international community to engage wholeheartedly in this effort. We cannot do it alone, neither the KRG nor the government of Iraq. We need legislation to bring about equal citizenship. We need to change laws that currently do not treat women and religious minorities as equal citizens. When the World Bank and the International Coalition speak about the economic empowerment of women in the reconstruction phase, one cannot help but be skeptical. A woman in Iraq lacks the basic right to pass on citizenship to her children. A Christian in Iraq whose children that, sorry, let me start again, Christian children of a father who converts to Islam or a mother who marries a Muslim are automatically Muslim. There is no choice. There are many laws that need to be changed to empower women minorities. We need to consider local autonomy. Many of the communities in the Shingal area and Nineveh in general have called for their towns and areas to be protected and administered by their own communities. The KRG has and continues to support this. Even within the Kurdistan region, there are many who hope to have a much more decentralized system of governance in future. We need to build a true army for the whole of the country of Iraq. Iraq needs to build an army that truly reflects the makeup of the country and not just one component. The Iraqi military fought bravely in Mosul and defeated a determined enemy. If its reputation is to last, it must become a professional army made up of the many peoples and faiths that are encompassed in Iraq. In Kurdistan, we need to professionalize train and crucially equip the Peshmerga. When ISIS struck in 2014, the Peshmerga were outgunned. We were not able to protect our citizens or ourselves. We need to change that. We are working with the United States, Germany and Britain to professionalize the Peshmerga and we hope that eventually we will be able to consider their training and equipping in a different way. We need to reconsider education. Our children need to be educated in a way that we and our parents were not. Children need to learn about other religions, not only Islam. Education will also be one of the key components of countering radicalization. The KRG Prime Minister has instructed the ministries of education and endowment and religious affairs to change the curriculum of our schools from Islamic studies to religious studies in schools across Kurdistan. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, no one can deny the fact that trust, if there was any, is now broken among the communities that used to live together in Shingal, in Musil and Nineveh prior to the ISIS onslaught. It's our shared responsibility to make a coordinated effort to pursue justice and accountability, to launch a reconciliation process, secure stability, provide economic opportunities and encourage peaceful coexistence. We need to be realistic. The task at hand, as has already been stated, is immense and difficult. The wounds are very deep and raw. It's immensely painful to be betrayed by your neighbor, to have your loved ones raped, enslaved, killed, purely for their faith or their language or their background. Reconciliation and peaceful coexistence amongst different groups, even if possible, will be a long and painstaking process. There is no quick fix to implement. I look forward to the discussion that we will have today with the panel. And once again, I'd like to thank the USIP for organizing this event with us at a very timely moment. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rosemont. And we admire your poise in the face of that interruption. Good job to our security team for handling it for us. Now I'd like to welcome the distinguished panels to the stage. And Ms. Naomi Kicola will be our moderator for today. She's the deputy director of the Simon Skolts Center for Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust Museum. She will moderate and will introduce the panel. Please welcome the panel to the stage. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a real honor to be here for this conversation. I think I would speak for all of us on the panel to say it's also a moment of considerable reflection and also humility because we really should not be here for this conversation. We should not be here because three years ago, over 700,000 Iraqis, ethnic and religious minorities were driven from their home by the Islamic State, many with only ours notice if even that to leave their homes. As Ambassador Taylor mentioned, they were the victims of ethnic cleansing, of crimes against humanity, of genocide. Those communities should never have had to flee. We're here because of a collective international failure to protect them. We're here because that failure started not when the Islamic State arose, it started decades before. These communities have been in a situation of economic and political marginalization of physical insecurity for decades. And I think part of the conversation today has to be incumbent on looking to the future and how we can ensure that those same communities are not targeted yet again, that they do have a place in the future of Iraq. And it's important not just because we as an international community have made a commitment to prevent genocide, to ensure that individuals are not the victims of atrocity crimes. We have a collective interest because these communities and their wellbeing is very much at the core of creating a stable Iraq and region. I'm hearing a little bit of back. Yes, it is the Skype. If we can ask our panelists, Mr. William Warda, if you can mute your microphone, please. Thank you. We're thrilled that William can join through Skype, so we'll hopefully be able to do it without too much of the background there. But I think part of this conversation is about ensuring that these communities are protected going forward, that they don't find themselves as they have unfortunately in the past as pawns in a greater political dispute about the future of Iraq and trying to ensure that these communities that are displaced are able to return home. As many of you know, much of the territory has been liberated, yet these communities, Christians, Yazidis and others, have been unable for the large part to return home, both because of the destruction of the areas from which they come, but also because of the increased militarization of those areas and the lack of economic opportunities. Those are issues that we as an international community have a collected stake and a need to ensure that we remain engaged in building an environment by which these individuals and their communities can return homes that we do have a pluralistic and diverse Iraq going forward. It's a real honor to be able to be joined here by Vian De Kiel. Vian De Kiel is a current member of Iraq's parliament. Many of you know her, as Ambassador Taylor mentioned, because of her courageous stand that she took as her community was being victimized when she implored the Iraqi government and the international community to stop the genocide against the Yazidi people. We are joined by, phoned by a remarkable Iraqi human rights advocate, William Morda, who's the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities. It's a network that represents Iraq's minorities, including Christians, Shabbat, Sabian Mandans, Kaka'i, Baha'i, Faeli Kurds, Yazidis, and non-Myanorities. We're also joined by Knox Tames, a wonderful advocate for these communities here in Washington who I think deserves considerable credit for the work that he and his office have done to advocate on their behalf. He serves as a special advisor for religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State here in Washington, D.C. And finally, by Sarhan Khamsid, who many of you know who's the director of the Middle East programs here at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He joined USIP in 2011, and I am a very strong supporter of the remarkable work that he and his team have been doing in terms of building reconciliation on the ground and trying to directly work with these communities to help them. To start this conversation, I wanted to ask you, Bian, if you could talk a little bit about what are the conditions and the needs that minority communities need to see in order to be able to return to their homes. Welcome, everyone. My name is Bian Dakhil. I am a member of Iraqi Parliament and I represent the ESZD community. It's an pleasure to be with you today, especially now. It's the third anniversary of the brutal attack of my people. Three years ago, my people were living their daily life with a peace and harmony. But then suddenly, this ice still came and the problem was, they were neighbors. They were neighbors. Our Sunnah Arabs, they came and killed the men, abducted women and enslaved them and killed brutally their children and took them. The very first day, they killed 1,300 persons and the ESZD persons. Now, after three years, we have 2,700 orphans. 43 mass graves. We have all these holy shrines, 68, they attacked and destroyed all of them. They abducted 7,418 persons. We could rescue 3,054 persons of these, but still 3,360 persons are still imprisoned by Iceland, enslaved by Iceland. They took 1,060 children. They took them, they were aged 4 to 10 years. They trained them, they converted them to Islam. They changed their languages, their faith. They don't even recognize their own parents. They are now training them to come and attack the Yazidis and Christians in the region. It's just because of we have different faith. I don't know what gives you the reason or the logic to kill me just because of my different faith. 85% of our villages and cities, Shanghai, Bashiq and other cities have been totally destroyed and raised by us. 400,000 Yazidis have been displaced. 90,000 of them are now over, live overseas and they went to Europe and other countries. While our population was 550,000 before Iceland comes, we are all now displaced. Now, what are we asking the international community to do for all people? All our people need relief, need help in order to begin a new life. We need the guarantees from international community that this will not happen again. We need the international community and urge them to recognize, to label all these atrocities as genocide. We are in a very bad need to recognize our cities, Shanghai and other cities. After rebuilding our cities and villages, Shanghai and others, then we have to rebuild trust. How can we make this person to trust in his neighbor while he's been attacked before by him? We know some of them are neighbors, so how can I convince this Yazidi man who lost 68 persons of his family, children and girls who has been abducted and enslaved by Iceland, but by these neighbors, how can I convince this man and tell him come back and live again in your Yazidi area? And of course I know this happened to other minorities and it's very difficult for everyone, for Yazidis, for Christians and for Shabbat. But of course we have to extend our hands for everyone who didn't have bloody hands and who didn't kill our people. Justice is very important. All those Icelandic people should be brought to justice. So we have to build the social peace among all these people. So I'm here to ask you and I'm here to urge you to help us in not just rebuilding our cities, but also rebuilding the social peace. And I'm not talking just for the Yazidis but also for other victimized communities like Christians and Shabbat. Thank you. Thank you for that. It was an incredibly powerful one reminder that the genocide is actually still going on for the over 3,000 women and children that are still being held by the Islamic State from your community, the Yazidi community, but also a call to action to ensure that we are investing in trying to provide physical protection, rebuilding your communities, allowing for trust. I think what we often forget is that the perpetrators of many of these atrocities were actually neighbors who turned on neighbors and to create the conditions for people to return home and feel safe, we have to address that. But also to remind us of the fact that these minority communities, you said 550,000 Yazidis have had to flee. I know the Zambian-Mendayan community has gone from over 50,000 in 2003 down to 5,000 living in Iraq. Iraq's Christian community from 1.5 million down to 350,000 now all displaced. I think that's a very, very important thing for us to remember, just the sheer impact and scale that this has had and what it has meant for individuals in their own lives. William, you are working on these issues on a daily basis. I was wondering if you could share with us through Skype from Iraq, what are some of the top challenges that are facing your communities and others as they attempt to move forward? Hi, William, could you hear the question? Yes, we were wondering if you could share with us some of the top challenges that your community and others are currently facing as they envision a future for them? And to share with you with the events. Hello for everyone in the events. And for sure, the issue of minority is very critical and this is very good to have an event in Washington to discuss the challenges and the future of the minorities in Iraq. So, you know, I believe that the minority in Iraq, they were not in the equation of the net political map of Iraq. And I think now it's the time to think about minorities and maybe one of the benefits of that is that the guys shared life on the issue of minority while they were neglected for decades. I think we have to focus on different files to speak about the settlement and political and security and even social settlement for the areas of minorities and also their future in Iraq. After that, maybe I didn't hear all the speakers maybe they thought about what happened and the suffering and they thought about feeling is nothing to both everything happened against minorities. I don't like to mention all these things but we would like to speak about future. I think we have to think about three, four things very important. The third thing is the security file. How how secure those people how to guarantee security for the people and how to guarantee the secure return to them to their land again and not to repeat the atrocities these atrocities again and again same. So, also how to neutralize neutralize their areas from the conflict between the majority between like that and Erdil between neglecting from government of mortal and and the other majority this is very important and how to protect their specificity their their identity. This is one the second thing how to fulfill the justice and to control those people. Now they are non-state actors and armed groups in their areas and how to make them to involve in the security institutions and to think who will control who will grant the security in their area whether it's central government or KRG and this is this is questions sometimes where the majority of the minorities asking for protection international protection there is there is very misunderstanding from the government when especially from back that when minorities asking to international protection they are some of them they are speaking about serenity and intervention which is which is not because I am specialist in the international relations I know that if the state can ask from the international society for protection to help them to protect the area whether they couldn't do and there is a will from the government and but they couldn't fulfill and control this area so very it is very important to ask for help from the from the international society to help I think then that that government and also KRG alone they cannot control this area there is a there is a conflict the minorities are living in the this youth area who will find solution for these this youth area when what will happen that the people this is affecting for returning people they they scare from returning because so their area is complex area and and also there is different kind of forces and with different resources as we saw political Marj Ayat Marj Ayat some of them they belong to Al-Hashid from to KRG some others I don't know so this is this kind of different forces and with different leadership and political loyalty different political loyalty that will that will making people scared of returning this is this is another issue the other issue building a peace and reconciliation in that area we are working with USIP especially to to open the dialogue and to both peace in this area between Christian and Shabbat and also there is issue of the legal reform and how to help people to return to their areas and to both as social cohesion this is also subject who will do that and who will fulfill the other issue is to reconstruct the infrastructure so who will who will do that and compensation while the economic situation of Iraq is very bad now and in this kind of situation who will do that reconstruction and in that area which is destroyed approximately with some places about 80 percent are destroyed so this is and who will compensate those people in such that economic situation of Iraq I think this is kind of challenges the other things main things that we should speak about building the trust the building the trust between the people and their government whether the it's back that government or a review government this is this is one main issue because because those government the people they think that they didn't protect them how how we could help to return this kind of trust thank you thank you William also the people they don't love the trust from those most government also they love the trust the from the most of the government themselves they are they are very far of the people especially of minority they don't take care they don't worry about again so this is many issues we should work on we are we are trying to find a solution for that especially when we are discussing these days about the issue of Shabbat how we do what to create and administrative units and administrative places for them like some and and and about these for for for Shabbat because Shabbat areas they were neglected and it was a problem between Shabbat and Christians because the issue of the land and the issue of this intervention between the the land and this is this is the main issue that we should wear and the people they are oppressed of this situation and the the percentage of return is not that percentage that we were expecting because now we are encouraging people to return for example Hamdaniyah was about sickest William in the family in Hamdaniyah and now fire has its family's return and also this is and now we should wear on many issues especially security is a very important issue and also and how to find solutions the political issue especially the complex between that William William thank you for that I think you did a remarkable job of covering a lot of the the challenges in detail and I think that be fair to say we wish that we would be able to have you and beyond to share your experiences and your concerns more because of course the power of hearing from the communities that are affected is so much more important than hearing from from those of us that are are removed from it I think you highlighted a couple of points so that are critical importance and that we need to keep in mind here in Washington and our discussions about how to protect these communities first and foremost you underscore the importance of remembering that these communities are living primarily within Nineveh an area that is contested by both Baghdad and Erbil and that informs the sense of security or insecurity to a degree that many of these communities have faced it also exacerbated their vulnerability when the Islamic State actually attacked and from that you talked about the importance of their being guarantees for physical protection the need to rebuild trust not just amongst neighbors but also with the governments themselves that are responsible for providing resources and protecting communities the importance of protecting identity including legal reforms reforms needed to ensure that people can move home and actually reclaim their properties the need to ensure that one's identity is preserved and that all of that is tied very much to the pursuit of accountability and justice and the need to build greater social cohesion so I want to thank you for touching on a lot of those points and I know that there will be questions I'm sure for you from the audience Nox all that leads to a very important question around how we regard the protection of minority communities as part of being part of the national security conversation and all too often governments set their priorities including what the strategy should be to fight the Islamic State or how we should be investing in rebuilding and stabilizing areas based on this perceived sense of what is part of our national security and I'm curious from your perspective how does the the US government understand these issues and how is it integrated into thinking about what the strategy needs to be post-Mosul post-Rakha for protecting these communities that we're not here again in 10 years Well thank you for that question and thank you to USIP for hosting important discussion on a week where we are pausing to remember those who fell to ISIS starting three years ago and we are also remembering those who are still in ISIS captivity those Yazidi women and children but I think the point of our conversation today needs to be while reflecting on the recent past looking forward to think about what can we do as a government as a community of values to ensure that religious minorities have a future in their ancestral homeland in Iraq So to your question Naomi these issues are really front and center with so many of the discussions that we're having at the State Department about the future of Iraq post-ISIS You've seen Vice President Pence now on two occasions highlight that religious freedom will be a foreign policy priority of the Trump administration and that our government will work to assist persecuted believers in the Middle East or anywhere around the world We've seen President Trump highlight the vicious attacks that terrorists have perpetrated against Christians Muslims Jews Hindus and others just because they're the the wrong faith and of course we've recognized the genocide that ISIS perpetrated against Yazidis and Christians and others with the spokesperson saying last week that the Secretary firmly firmly believes that genocide happened So the question is what do we do? We we're all in agreement that atrocities occurred What can we do to ensure that future for minorities? It's going to be difficult there'll be but we've got many lines of effort underway The first is what we've heard from Vian and from William is the issue of security How do we empower minorities to play a role in providing their own security to ensure that Yazidis and Christians are recruited and incorporated into the various police forces There's the issue of ensuring equal treatment and the human rights of minorities as equal citizens There's concerns about stabilization What can we do to see that communities that ISIS destroyed are rebuilt and people can go home But with this rebuilding of structures there's also rebuilding of relationships The question of reconciliation How do we encourage communities to come back together to re-knit those communal bonds that were ripped apart And then of course there are the issues at all Iraqis want an economy that works education for children And then the last element is what we've also heard from previous speakers the questions of accountability How do we make sure that those people who perpetrated unimaginable evils against innocents are held accountable So this is and I could go on there are more issues to discuss But these are the areas that we're pursuing We're also not doing this alone While the United States is a key if not indispensable player in Iraq We're working very closely with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government and you heard the excellent presentations earlier We're also working with our allies in the region both through the Defeat ISIS Coalition to help bring resources to meet the huge stabilization needs And we're also working with our European friends and allies We have specific multilateral engagements focused on promoting religious freedom around the world with our Canadian and European friends But also working with just most recently the French and the Spanish to help focus international attention on the specific needs of minority communities which are often as we've heard distinct from those of the majority So I would just conclude by saying we're at a pivot point There's a moment of great opportunity and a moment of great peril With ISIS being pushed down We have an opportunity to see conditions recreated where all the Iraq minorities Yazidis Christians different denominations Assyrians Kaldian and others Shabbaks Kekai Cebim and Deans Different denominations of Muslim communities can live together to protect this beautiful diversity that once was So we're certainly committed to doing everything we can in that regard at the State Department But we also very much appreciate the partnerships we have represented in this room today Thank you Thank you Knox for that And I think for many things you said they're important within that to underscore one you mentioned about the conditions being recreated and I think that anytime you speak with and a member of a minority community in Iraq they will start their conversation by saying that the attacks by ISIS was only the latest iteration of extremist attacks and that for them the reason they feel so insecure is because though we can defeat ISIS and Mosul and hopefully in in Raqqa as well they are waiting to see what will come next And I think for the Yazidi community that's experienced already 74 genocides before for the Christian community that has been this persecuted over the last few decades for other religious minorities that is what informs their sense of insecurity that's why they want to arm themselves that's why they seek to create militias that's why they want greater autonomy because of that general sense of insecurity that comes from a history of knowing what has come before And I think that that's also what makes it so incumbent that when we talk about the language of genocide or ethnic cleansing that we are ensuring that there's actual action in accordance with that if we're concerned about protecting these communities we have to be investing in rebuilding Nineveh in resolving the political disputes in ensuring that the governance that is needed is there to protect those particular communities that's what we should I think be talking about when we talk about the importance of talking about genocide and atrocities having been crime is what are the obligations going forward to actually take care of these communities and that leads me to question for you Sarhan because for those of us who do engage the Hill and the administration or we work a lot with foreign governments as well what I'm concerned about is that there isn't enough attention on what needs to be done to invest in reconciliation stabilization what have you done to protect these communities there's a sense of once we've fought the fight the Iraqi government the Kurdish regional government will be able to step in and I think that what both Ambassador Yasin and Representative Rahman had noted is their governments also face considerable challenges and in the absence of the international community helping these communities are going to be neglected perhaps again or not get the level of attention and support that's needed wondering if you can talk about the work that you've been doing and how you make the case to those on the Hill the administration and others about the importance of supporting reconciliation work building that trust again and why that's very much part of trying to build a more stable Iraq and a more stable Nineveh as well thank you thank you this is the danger of going last what do you say well there's a lot actually reconciliation is one of the concepts and words that I am glad that is being repeated more now because three years ago that was seen more in the concept of the framework of Iraq that the top leaders but today ISIS has changed that concept and for many people especially the minorities and others who have been the victims of genocide and mass atrocity and other crimes they equate reconciliation with forgiveness you forgive the perpetrators of the crime which is not the case so they those who that are those who equate or the sequence reconciliation as a fluffy term that will come later after you have liberated the land after people have gone home after you have rebuilt and then you worry about about the relationships and that is also not applicable in the context of Iraq because as the other speakers eloquently spoke about we can't do we can't go about that sequence there are issues of the past I'm starting with Ambassador Yasin and then Mr. Rahman and the other speakers spoke about how these communities okay you go to speak about Saddam Hussein you speak about ISIS you speak William spoke about Christian Shabbat tensions this is this is the reality of Iraq and we have done we've been in Iraq since 2003 and we have been monitoring these things and we've been working with them but recently we've also done a dedicated research where we asked and we did this in partnership with the Middle East Research Institute but also with our partners and Senate for Peacebuilding a network of Iraqi facilitators to ask the communities themselves what do they see as a source of conflict in the future and what does reconciliation mean to them and that this is where you go that each community each group within those communities each political stream of within those communities defines these issues differently and they approach it in a different time scale all of them unanimously the minorities will tell you don't look at this problem just from the ISIS perspective ISIS is just one one of the many things that we suffer from yes it may be the one that made news in the recent future but you have to take a wider lens and you have to look at this issue from from two layers there's a national layer there's an Iraq layer and I usually like metaphors I see Iraq as a ship in a very turbulent sea that is heading for the cliffs when it's going for conflict and it has many damages on that on that ship and water is coming from many places and you try to address all these issues focusing only on the minorities issues in that picture will be just one that will not prevent the ship from sinking if we do not address the other part so it is important to address the totality that will be one of the biggest favors that the international community could do to help minorities to help fix this bigger problem on the minorities themselves at the local level there are specificities any community you take there is at least about a dozen tensions and conflict layers that they will point out to you whichever community that you point out this is across the communities for them reconciliation is now to get back to what Ambassador Taylor said is practical there is nowhere near or in no context that is more true than the context of the Iraqi minorities when you say the international community has supports you say okay what are you doing practically that's the question that's what they're looking for and they approach this from their needs and sometimes the those who talk to them do not see those needs not because they do not value them it's just because they are at different levels of seeing that problem so practically reconciliation it's a loose term that for the minorities at least in the first stage would be for them to be able to go home it touches on security will our neighbors attack us again so to prevent that there has to be not only protective measures of how do you put up a security parameter around those minorities but how do you work on that relationship where at least in the first stage it's a nonviolent coexistence second how do you then build on that and you take it to a peaceful coexistence and that is where okay you restore some trade so some relationships and there is no competition for resources but there is a process I know others go into the more looser terms of okay we are one Iraq one citizen we're the citizenship identity these are all important within the context of the country but for the wounds of those people they think in practical terms when I go through this checkpoint whether it's a Peshmerga checkpoint where it's a Iraqi security checkpoint or another group am I being treated differently because who I am that's the level of practicality that they think about when money comes in to do reconstruction is it going to that village versus our village because because of the tensions that we have is it going to the Shabbat because there is a grand scheme of changing demographics by a regional neighbor so it is very complex please be on the lookout for the research that will be coming out gradually and if we want to enable those people to go home we really invest in practical steps and the work of the like the alliance of the Iraqi minorities participatory budgeting is what they do for example they have done this is the role of civil society they work with the provincial council in Erbil in Duhok and in Mosul about how to engage the community and get their needs and convey them to the government because of the lack of resources that was mentioned tensions could come just from the fact who receives the assistance not only dealing with the problem who receives the assistance so those community relationships could help prevent violence help manage scarce resources and prevent violence and we have a number of flashpoints to look out Bartilla has a flashpoint of a Christian Shabbat tensions Karakosh could be a flashpoint a Christian Christian tensions Sinjar could be a flashpoint from actually an internationalized one including Talafar where you have the sensitivities between the minorities themselves you have regional countries like Turkey, Iran who have a stake in this so this is where we have to really go for a nuanced approach for practical steps and reconciliation can help manage those conversations Thank you for the sarhang I think it's just so critical to constantly be reminded of the complexity of the pre-existing tensions that were there even before ISIS came and how we need to be addressing them that those tensions are within communities between communities even just within the minority communities as well but that through investing in trying to do a mapping of them identifying the flashpoints investing resources and coming up with strategies we can actually de-escalate those tensions so they don't become flashpoints and that we've at least got one level of protection for these particular communities so just want to thank you for your incredible work that you have been doing because I think it's one example of a very practical contribution that can be made We have some time thankfully to open up two questions from the audience here and I think that I believe there are microphones on either side There are micro-runners Okay that's great so there's two questions right away on the left over there to the back and to the right if I could ask the questions if you could keep them quite short and why don't we take two at a time and just a reminder that William Wurda is participating by Skype so just if there's a specific question for him please just also signal that and William I'll check with you if you've got comments you'd like to make Thank you my name is Martin Umar I'm the President of the Assyrian American National Federation I want to thank USIP for having this important event but unfortunately Mr. Wurda wasn't here to represent the Assyrians in person but my question is to Representative Bayan Rahman if she can answer this She spoke very eloquently about never again an equality for all but my question is why has the KRG forced the removal of an elected mayor of Al Qosh Assyrian town and replaced him with a KDP member who was not voted by the people and after protests by our people for him to be reinstated they initially replaced him with a Kurdish representative who wasn't a member of Al Qosh wasn't a representative of Al Qosh then they replaced him with another KDP member who was not voted by the people so I'd like to ask her to respond to that removal force removal of him and is this the plan to annex the NINWA plane into the KRG is this the first step should we be worried that other towns of Assyrians because we've suffered a hundred years of genocide we continue to suffer a genocide and our people are the indigenous people we're a minority today but we weren't we were 7,000 years and that is our ancestral homeland that was the Syria and today we don't even have the NINWA planes that we're trying our ancestral homelands that were destroyed by ISIS and the antiquities and everything and now force the final people to leave so I'd like her to answer that thank you thank you for that I believe there was one more question in the back yeah hello everyone my name is Noa Ashur Haskan I'm Yazidi from Sinjar I'm here a fellow with National Endowment for Democracy I mean I just I was texting my friend to come to this event but she just said it will be another dog-on-pony show that we we always be used to with all respect because I'm Yazidi I'm from Sinjar I know what's going on I elders but I mean thank you for raising all the issues Vian, Serhan, Bayan everybody else but my question is how do you have you know this question may go to Nexon too I'm to Nax too so do you have any strategy when you can point it out that's it give people the young people like me Yazidi young people I hope that they will go back to because what I'm seeing there is also injustice in applying the justice part of it is a corruption I think William Warda is aware of that maybe two days ago the head of the committee of documenting the genocide came out and said the whole process of documenting the genocide is a total corrupt so how can you do that the other concern I will say nobody raised that how you'll convince a young boy Sunni Muslim young boy whose father joined ISIS I killed an ISIS will not will stop thinking about his father he was a hero and he was killed for a cause not because he was he put you know like he let's betray his country thank you so much thank you for those two questions but one was posed to someone who's not on the panel but I'll just quickly check to see whether or not represented it could a microphone be given to Representative Ramon the question about political representation in areas that have been liberated thank you very much and thank you for the question my understanding is that the mayor of Al-Kosh who was removed was removed by the local council it wasn't a political party's decision it was the council's decision I also understand that there had been a long running investigation into that mayor and there had been protests against him so this is my understanding of the situation there more broadly I would like to ask a question of this young man who rightly is very concerned for his people if the Kurds if the Kurdistan regional government if the people of Kurdistan was so bad towards the Christians the way you describe why is it that almost every Christian left in Iraq has taken shelter in Kurdistan they haven't chosen to go elsewhere they have chosen to go to Kurdistan I'm not saying Kurdistan is perfect but it's the safest place for your community for other communities and for many others even people who are Muslim feel safer in Kurdistan that they do elsewhere can I I think that's it it's an important conversation but I think that if we could get to the question that was asked afterwards and then there are other questions as well can I if I can just quickly summarize thank you for the thank you for the point I think we'd like I think you're underscoring something that's of critical importance I would like to ensure you have a very very important we can have this conversation I think this is an important conversation but I'd ask that we be able to move on to the next question and that that be if the future discussion did not disarm anybody they did not disarm the Assyrians nobody said this at the time this is something that lobbyists in Washington are raising it's working okay thank you very much for your comment if we can move every single word that you have said and I'm happy to answer but I think the conversation is bigger than your little not not your little is bigger than the dispute that you're raising there are Yazidis here there are Shabaks there are Turkmen there are many Christians who disagree with you the majority of Christians disagree with you please let's let the others have the conversation you know when I used to play water polo competitively I never thought I would play the role of goalie and I never wanted it because it was always the hardest position being a moderator of any discussion is hard especially on issues like this but I want to thank you for raising your concerns and I want to thank also those who left earlier for expressing their concerns because I think it is important to try and identify and find a solution going forward to ensure that these communities are protected they have legitimate concerns there is no one voice that represents any particular communities no one voice that represents a democrat or republican in this country so I want to thank you for for expressing that I think there was a very important question that also touched on how to create conditions for people to feel safe to return and also provide opportunities and that was posed by our Yazidi colleague I believe it was directed towards Sarhan yeah I think this is a great question and a strategy to deal with that it will it will have multifold some of the some of the things require an international community support some of it require the Iraqi government support some of it require some decisions by the communities themselves and through the work of USIP I know that there are leaders in each community they are trying to deal with those issues and they are different they the context is different from sometimes from one village to another and to convince a young man to go home it has several layers of of that I have had some of those discussions they do want to feel secure so security is an important one they want to provide their own security so someone from whether it's Al-Posh or Bartella or Teluskov or Sinjar they want to provide their own security they want to prevent what happened and I think that's a right that's an important point and there are other actors in this conversation that may see that as a threat so this is why a conversation is necessary to say okay how do we how each community and how each actor where you can deal with them you can address the mutual concerns and find a mechanism to deal with them and to the question about if somebody whose father was killed or who was a hero to him from another community with time I would have explained my ship imagery a little bit more because for the minorities ISIS came not from within their communities it came from elsewhere so to protect the minorities you will have to put safeguards for preventing another ISIS to come again from another force to emerge that will attack attack the minorities that's a difficult conversation as an institute we are raising this issue we are working on local reconciliation and we have done this and we are working on Talaafah right now we are working on the Christian Shabbat in Bartilla we've done this and we're working on Hawija and other places but more needs to be done it's a very very legitimate question and many actors are struggling with it there is no unfortunately there is no clear crystal answer to that and I think we need to wrap up at that time is there time for one more question okay we'll take a few more questions then this gentleman right here in the front and there is a woman in the middle who is black and white yes thank you go ahead sir police my name is Robert Amos and in 2015 because of what I saw in the Yazidi committee in Sinjar I went to fight with the Kurds against ISIS my basic question I have for you and I really respect everything you've done in Iraq with the Yazidi community but not all of the Yazidis that fled Sinjar fled to Iraq my question is a lot of them fled to Rojava in Syrian Kurdistan and unfortunately they don't have the services that are provided in Iraq in fact due to the blockade a lot of needed humanitarian aid has not been brought to camp camp in the Roos and other places like that and they're still in horrible humanitarian condition and my question to you is what exactly have you done in Syria to help the community there that's still suffering and still does not have any relief from the situation thank you if we Vian if we may just take one more question before my name is Jo-Leen Stikrath and I'm asking this question from an American perspective although I have worked in the Middle East and I thank you all for having this by the way I think it's sorely needed my question is what you just got through saying you've got ISIS out of there if there isn't some form of governance we're going to be fighting them again and again and again and my perspective on ISIS is just like any dictator people that like the Nazis that took over it's not really about religion it's about money and power what is the Trump administration going to do to bring in some sort of governance or this will not happen again thank you very much thank you for that question Vian okay thanks Syria thanks for your question yes there are two types of we have two different communities of Yazidis in Syria one of them has been the Yazidis people have been abducted by ISIL and took to Raqqa and also those who fled the war went to Camp Norouz and of course both of them are our people and we have to work to save both of them we know that there's a marketplace in Raqqa where Yazidi girls and girls and women are sold so we try to save them by selling them Kurdistan Kurdistan regional government has helped us in selling these Yazidis people in these buying I'm sorry buying these Yazidis in the marketplace and saving them but unfortunately Iraqi government hasn't helped any industry God I'm sorry ambassador I apologize to your since Mr. Ambassador that they didn't help us in buying up buying these Yazidis you are right in 2014 when all people fled Shungali Yazidi people most of them went to Rojava to Syria and then most of them came back to Kurdistan region to Doho but some of them still left in in Norouz camp and some of them left to Europe of course you know that for me and for everyone every Yazidi in every camp needs help need mature thank you though we're just highlighting the fact that there are large populations that are in Syria as well and we've sought refuge and are outside the realm of also a lot of international assistance as well Knox would you be able to respond to the question about from the American perspective what's being done we're taking actions on a number of different fronts you know the overarching question we all need to ask ourselves is what drove Iraqis to support ISIS their issues of governance respect for human rights other complicating factors I think right now we have a very good partner with the prime minister of Iraq who's committed to as we heard the ambassador say to an agenda that is inclusive that ensures all of Iraq's diverse components have a voice have a role in their government we've seen with the Iraqi security forces and their battle against ISIS a really remarkable commitment to civilian protection to ensure that in liberating areas they're not destroying the communities they're trying to save so that they can be rebuilt and they can have confidence in their government that's protecting them there's also the question of how do we defeat the ideology of ISIS how do we encourage those voices who say no this is not my faith this is not the right way how do we partner with them to see those perspectives amplified those are debates that Iraqis need to have and we can't we can't enter them but we want to ensure that there is a framework where they can they can occur but it's going to be difficult the fight isn't over we need to remember that as well and we are committed though to continue to partner with our Iraqi friends to help ensure that not only for the minorities but for all Iraqis that tomorrow is is brighter than yesterday thank you I wanted to just very quickly see if William you wanted to respond to any of the questions and comments that have been been made I would like to just to add something that it's very important to think of the challenges now raised after that and also to think about how to find solutions one of the maintenance solution is how to how to find and and solution for administrative issue in the area of Nileba plane and the area of minority this is is a kind of challenge and a part of solution and also to think about those forces now from different groups in Nileba plane even they are part of Al-Qashir from but they have a different loyalty political loyalty I was thinking and it's a kind of recommendation how we could find and another leadership for them like there is a leadership operation for Nileba we can find and unify leadership for all these groups whether they are EZDs or Christian or or Shabbat to find and unit and unified leadership for them like to be and leadership of operation of Nileba plane otherwise we will see complex between these between these forces a week ago I was in the area there was a touch and tension between two groups Christian groups this is this is what this is what expected because the these forces these forces are from different political loyalty and this is one of the problem that we will face people now scared to return this is we should we should work how to both piece in that area and to how to reduce the tension between groups that's what aim and US IP is working and we would like the international society and international organization to help people how to both piece in that area also to air the Iraqi government and KRG how to normalize this area from the tension between them this is very important issue that I would like to raise because otherwise the people people they don't like again to live in the crisis they would like they are very eager to see peace that's why now for example in September next September people they should return and because here the government the the government from Baghdad Baghdad government will start the schools and all the administrative institutions function in the area and any person and those who are officials will not return maybe he will face problems maybe he will fire from his position so the people they are now obliged as a kind of of forcing people to return so this is what affecting them and even they are not convinced that to return because of this kind of conflict between the groups this is what I would like to raise to urge the Iraqi government and KRG to support and help NGOs and help international organization and themselves they should work to to both be in this area to enable people to return and live in peace thank you so much William I think that that is an appropriate place to perhaps start to kind of wrap up the conversation I want to give an opportunity to Ambassador Yazin and Representative Raman to also potentially give comments and I understand that there's a desire to do so in light of the conversation so if I might just turn it over if there could be a microphone given is the the microphone working I think it it might not that's better thank you for comparing Iraq to a leaky ship in a storm I've heard worse it and Aspen recently was compared to Humpty Dumpty okay 2014 Michael Crowley had a cover page article in Time Magazine entitled the end of Iraq okay one thing that people will be surprised by and I'm this is a prediction of mine is that in a few years from now people will start work writing articles on the resilience of Iraq or how it'll have weathered the storm and and all this to say what we achieved is nothing short of miraculous you know three four years ago three years ago we were worried I mean back that was almost about to fall Erbil was a stone's throw away from from from ISIS ISIS mortars yet here we are we're closing in on them and the objectives that we have is not to defeat ISIS is to make sure that they're there and they're like never rise again and I want to close by one thing where's this young man who wanted to know what arguments I could give him to go back to Iraq could you raise your hand please where are you don't fear fear okay there are many psychological barriers put against us to go back and help one of the most heartwarming things that I've seen in the last two three weeks was a conference organized by the World Bank on the reconstruction of liberated areas and one of the things that like I said gave me a lot of hope was that the representative of Caldean Americans who were very fortunate and very successful came to see him to see what they could do to help rebuild their ancestral areas and I know there's a sizable and very powerful and very well and very very capable Iraqi community in in the United States think of what you can do to help us rebuild think of your of the villages where your grandparents came from you yourself sir think what can you do I mean this has been said before what can you do for your the country of your parents and your country please come back and help us thank you thank you very much I'd also like to thank USIP for hosting this I think the nature of the discussion some of which was heated just reflects the problems that we face in Iraq but it's good to have a conversation that's where dialogue begins and long-term negotiations begin I would like to remind everybody that the 3rd of August is the anniversary of the genocide of the Yazidis in Shingal there will be a vigil outside the White House on the front I think the North Lawn it's called at 8pm I encourage all of you to come along it's not organized by us it's organized by the Free Yazidi Foundation and I would encourage all of you to come and show solidarity with the Yazidis and others who've suffered genocide at the hands of ISIS thank you thank you I think just in maybe summing up I'm going to just take a point that Ambassador Yazin mentioned about resilience and I think that in this particular context as we approach August 3rd and for those who aren't aware August 3rd was when ISIS attacked for Sinjar and then from Sinjar moved elsewhere into the Nineveh Plains and attacked Karakosh and other Christian communities we could follow that as it was happening we could follow it on social media on Twitter and see these communities being imperiled these communities were calling for international assistance and none was forthcoming when it was and the US government did do airstrikes thousands of people's of lives were saved tens of thousands of people's lives were saved the resilience that I'm marveled by is the resilience of these particular communities the facts that they continue to try to seek ways to return home the fact that they do have a desire to remain in their own countries that's a resilience that we need to applaud but it's a resilience that we need to do everything we can to support and right now I think unfortunately at times we are failing those particular communities and we fail them when we don't also have the conversations about the realities of the situation on the ground and we don't acknowledge the specific minutiae of the tensions that exist between different communities and when we also ignore the fact that this particular community and these communities were made vulnerable in part by the fact that there is an ongoing political dispute that we need to seek a resolution too and that these communities need to be very much at the fore of our thinking about what the future of Iraq's strategy needs to be for the U.S. government and others otherwise we will be back here talking about genocide again in another decade in a decade after that and I would like to thank Ambassador Yasin and also the Representative Raman for being here and for being open to these difficult conversations and I hope that they will be able to continue and to be able to work with with USIP on the remarkable work that they're doing on the ground because these communities deserve much more than they're currently receiving in terms of support from the international community. So with that I would just like to end by saying that these are very painful discussions the crimes that happened were simply absolutely horrific. I'm the grandchild of Holocaust survivors I cannot comprehend when talking to Christian, Shabbat, Yazidi and other colleagues what they've had to injure. Those wounds do fester if they are not addressed and we need to do everything we can to address the concerns of those who are raised here and those that were expressed through the phone from our colleague William Orda who was calling us from Iraq. So a very, very sincere thank you to everyone for participating and may we hopefully not have to be here again in the future talking about Iraq and genocide in the future. Thank you.