[inaudible conversations] >> we have a tradition at the religious freedom project where we try to be on time and begin on time. pretty close to that. unfortunately, our moderator is in a cab, impossible to predict what she will encounter, rather than have the uncertainty we might as well begin. eliza griswold is the moderator. when she comes in we have students who will bring her up

a. my colleague kent hill who will be on a later panel is sitting to my left and is going to kick us off. it will be awkward when we make the exchange. and a terribly important panel. >> thank you for coming back. the next panel in civil society. the big issue of the day, domestic minorities within the islamic state. i will be up here for a few minutes, i have the privilege of introducing our four panelists. we turn to each of them, we have five minutes or so, to give their name, organization and to say a little bit about how they and their organization are trying to address this question

in general terms. i will turn to murad ismael who will introduce himself and we will go on from there. >> this organization -- is it working now? working? >> one second please.

>> better to be here. global organization established after august 3, 2014, when the islamic state attacked our community. worked with a group to create and provide different services, and a social program, in addition to work internationally advocating. >> can you hear me? >> my name is mona malik with the aging society of america. i was born in baghdad. i was very young, visited iraq a couple times and plan to be

there again shortly. i'm up here because i am representing someone who wasn't allowed to leave the country to be here. if you see me reading my answers i want them to be his answers and i am his voice. syrians have no right and are not in any position to dictate to the syrians living in the homeland as to what they should be doing or not doing. and we tried to work with the crisis on a humanitarian perspective, with the focus,

that focus has been shifted. and refugees and turning back to the focus of education and infrastructure in the homeland. >> actually in the foundation. >> speak slower. >> actually, in that sector, the foundation is and iraq basis in iraq, including america and uk

and other countries, trying to increase the offering of turk money in iraq and outside iraq to the facility. we are working in media work, depending on simple facilities, many agencies rather than official media attending international efficiency to increase the suffering of our people because suffering, with the century. >> [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] >> [speaking in native tongue] [laughter] change we are working in an organization, the head of

this organization. [speaking in native tongue] >> in 2005, officially in charge of the center of this organization. [speaking in native tongue] >> then i became a consultant for information and media for the same organization. [speaking in native tongue] be change currently number 3 in the community. [speaking in native tongue]

>> an organization for development and culture in the community. [speaking in native tongue] >> a member of the council of diversity, the united council for religious dialogue and in this council. >> thank you very much. i will ask one question. i can ask anything i want. working in a variety of organizations, anybody involved in civil society, the temptation is to believe that kind of activity doesn't have much

impact once you come to a situation where violence is occurring, religious or ethnic minorities, my question for any of you is this question. in a situation like this, who is the focus of your advocacy? who are you trying to persuade what to improve the situation relative to a religious or ethnic minorities in these situations, anyone want to take a crack at answering the question? >> you can if you wish. you understand what i said? >> you speak.

>> is this working? situations like this where entire communities find themselves with a group that believes in nothing but killing, enslavement, rape, a group with no moral responsibility. we have seen many wars, so-called islamic state had no basis of moral image, they attacked entire communities, to wipe them out and their own community, diffraction of the community they represent and in any case don't agree with them or persecute them. we all found ourselves in a situation where we didn't know

what to do. we found ourselves, all the choices we have to have. it is taken, the advocacy that we have done focused on two things, collecting information, and approach the government for example at the beginning of the attack we collected information, and the locations of what is happening. to do the advocacy and to a certain extent to the media. it is hard to make any advance for a lot of media coverage.

and once you bring other advocacy groups you will have more people working with you. and become more active and focusing costs. >> the point is to get somebody to intervene on behalf of the community. >> what it is doing is beyond anything we have seen and we advocate the communities. >> i would like to add, not only are we not prepared to defend ourselves but we just aren't prior to isis coming in and allowed to be part of the security. we had no way of defending

ourselves. and in all those areas, they literally left with the clothes on their back and when they say that it is not just words but reality. who we go to to bring awareness is the international community, the un, who has still not recognized genocide of minorities and they must do that to bring justice, and in the own community, to rise up. crime against our humanity, not just against the minority.

>> good morning. it is our duty for all humanity and human beings specializing each one. and in iraq, with this, to take more about the democracy in iraq. and all others analyzed and to think more about that. and it is a need about that. and my duty to work for all humanity and all human beings,

and always for bidden. and presenting 7% to 10%, they are extending the iraqi -- syrian border, and iraqi iranian border. and a group of activists. making others know the reality, the main problem of minorities in iraq, what happened in isis, back to many of these cases, the media started to convey

something, but the most important thing, and international communities. in iraq, they have another duty, what happened in iraq, and killed, and by burning and 1000 have been killed over these years. and this activity, at the same time, these 15 years and what happened, i think it is too much. the most important issue i want to talk about, the issue

adapted, and they have been abducted by isis, and 120 children. and kill them by beheading, burning, and an entity west -- they burned them and used them to hang them, and the head of the organization, and this is what happened, what is important, the international community doesn't do anything

for us, in 2016 isis attacked the district to the west and attacked with chemical weapons. we have victims including all degree of affected persons about burning condition, problems and other things. they are prone to long-term carcinoma, who will protect them? we need steps. >> thank you so much, we will get to those points in detail because the point of today is to understand what is not being

reported, and what do -- >> 6000 injured. >> under this chemical. >> a number of victims, simple degree, some of them have been killed. >> this is why it is essential, virtually unreported. and to finish the question. >> [speaking in native tongue]

>> explain the community. people from iraq in the community with others, explain what is happening. >> it is an independent tradition. [speaking in native tongue] be change in 3 years. [speaking in native tongue] >> in iran, they are known -- [speaking in native tongue] >> in iraq there are 200,000 we

cannot be completely sure of the numbers because there have been no statistics about the numbers. [speaking in native tongue] >> today i am here as an iraqi citizen in iraq. [speaking in native tongue] >> can you say this? [speaking in native tongue] >> ethically we are kurdish and a religious texts are written in the kurdish language. [speaking in native tongue] >> our tradition is islam, we are a religious minority.

[speaking in native tongue] >> isis occupied 7 villages near kirkuk. [speaking in native tongue] >> the number of people displaced are 2117 families, equal to 19,000 people, 253. [speaking in native tongue] >> other villages were occupied, they had a premonition isis was on its way, they fled before

they came. isis blue up temples. >> they diminished many houses. they turned trapped the rest of the houses. >> after this was liberated by fishmongers and kurdish forces. >> in the home. [speaking in native tongue] >> they liberated villages to look at their houses. and because of the booby-traps 19 people -- [speaking in native tongue] >> and material damage, 52

million. [speaking in native tongue] >> i want to speak about psychological affect on people living in iraq. [speaking in native tongue] >> because fear of isis, several community members were on television. [speaking in native tongue] >> i have more to say but i would like to leave the opportunity to my colleagues. >> thank you so much.

we have so many representatives, we have the syrian community, that is pretty rare that we are able to sit together and understand who are these minority groups, what have they faced at the hands of isis, now that we have a general understanding of those principles we have such short time today i would love to give each of you the chance to talk about what isn't being reported that your community has endured, what has your community's response been? we have millions of people fleeing the area, the response of trying to leave the country or not, do people want to go home, do they want to stay put, what is the desired response post isis? and the idea of self protection, formed a militia of some kind, would they be recognized by the

iraqi government? do you want self protection? simple questions, militia questions, questions about flight and accidents. let's start out with when you hear the stories what isis is doing around the world and think of what is happening in your own community, what are you not hearing? i think in general what we are not hearing about, what do you wish the people knew about that you are not hearing? >> i wish everyone knew they were going through this and it is fair to say, killing people and burning people, not just by daesh but also in the past, being an engineer i was summoned

many mornings to extend who i was, but they were not dirty. they were other human beings, that created a situation where a genocide took place. when we say genocide will not take place, unless there is general understanding in the region that these people do not deserve life, until now the strategies have not been acknowledged, to the extent it is. when you have distinctive religious minority who have been given two choices that nobody does in the region, these were not -- according to interpretation, existence in the

muslim world, the extent of the tragedies, every single woman have seen the many women i was with over the phone, in some cases they had them cases 3200 women children in three villages and kept those villages retention centers but factors would go through and whatever woman they wanted to pick on. i will never forget this woman, committed suicide. and two weeks ago in the eyes of the husbands, and two medical school students who were the

best in the province of mosul, they were put aside, the women who were taken, enslaved or killed, to see those women with their children living under horrible conditions, no income, talking about people in the population about 400,000 people, for two years now no income, for two years they have been decreasing every day. many have not received dry food for the past 6 months. >> this is so essential, the next phase of the story, i wonder what you think, mona malik. the casualty rate remains an open question. we cannot establish it definitively but we do know that

by 2016, 3.3 million people had been displaced by isis. before the syrian community, driven from their homes, what does living far from home mean? what are you not hearing about the next phase of the story? >> i want to say that one of the things we need to make clear is ethnic cleansing has not just started two years ago. it has been slowly happening and isis expressed the process, made it happen in a shorter period of time. >> can i interrupt? it is so essential and tricky politically to look at that, when you look at the syrian christian community, before the us, and and mass exodus

happening before, and -- >> it was 1.5 million in 2003, maybe from 250 right now. we are not really sure. this has been happening for a while. there are different reactions. take the culture going, that is not our place. the stories that get out of there resonate the feeling, these women -- he interviewed some of these people. one woman being moved from one place to another, if you move my family, you have to move me with all my neighbors, because that

is how a syrian christians are. the whole neighborhood is their family. just -- how they are coping with this, they stay together as much as possible, a semblance of normality in the middle of this whole awful ugly crisis and the only way they can cope with the loss of their home, their family, to be human and genuine and stay together as much as possible. what i hear is we are pleading with the international community, and infrastructure again, a marshall plan.

and to thrive again in the homeland. indigenous people in the area, we say syrian christians, we -- our lives are more valuable, we need to be a priority, 1.5 million, 250,000, there needs to be a priority for that. >> come back to this question, what is the landscape like? what will the community do, it

is so essential, they say this today. this is our communal identity. we have been fractured, it is not just us, okay. in terms of the turkmen community, this has gone unreported. maybe you could talk to us about it, and what we call in the international community now. >> in this district, at the south to the center. mostly they have been attacked from a village to the other side

of crime and disaster, when daesh attacked 12,000, it was a fight with isis or they were already attacking, every day, the government was silent, because they are busy with isis there wasn't any action. in march 2016, twice attacked by isis, about 22. the total number of affected civilians was 7000 because we know some of it will be -- after

days and months and years, according to the report, we have 7000 civilian attacks, injured or affected by this. according to the official reports, official reports by the organization of chemical weapons, there was a conference, they declared it was mustard gas so it was genocide. today there wasn't action, some action was taking steps to send some people, there was no strategic plan to solve this or

take care. >> what would the strategic plan look like? that is part of articulating how can we not only layout the scope of the problem but address means by which what would a response look like? >> before three days i had some news from iraq that isis attacked another city which is also in that province, 280 km north of baghdad. basis is prevalent in some areas away from civilian places. trying to get victory, to the north -- and inhabited by isis

and affected for any time. in the cities, must prevent the work about the ability of isis, it should prevent what occurs at any place, the second point another way, should be dealt with, i know that in syria. in places or cities, giving care for such people in this case with a long complication, and in

the future. we need -- this is related to release this issue. >> the least heard from, what is happening, this is a really good moment to hear about what persecution has looked like and what is being suffered now? >> [speaking in native tongue] >> i just introduced you to what the community is about. [speaking in native tongue] >> since the iraqi state was

formed in the last century. [speaking in native tongue] >> the religion is the religion, was not mentioned in the iraqi constitution when the country was first formed. [speaking in native tongue] >> the reason the name is unknown to people who are not close to the community. [speaking in native tongue] >> for example, many would know it has existed for live in areas where they have no idea what it is and what it is all about. [speaking in native tongue]

>> it is similar to what my colleagues said about his community and people asking him about the background of the community. we face the same problem and the same questions. [speaking in native tongue] >> many claims have been made that we are devil worshipers, the we turn off all the lights on the new year. these are said out of ignorance. [speaking in native tongue] >> the first iraqi constitution ignored this and made no mention.

[speaking in native tongue] >> since the year 2003, a select group of iraqi legal experts spoke to iraqi parliament. [speaking in native tongue] >> they made a big push to be included. >> i will stop you there because that is part of our next question. we heard a little bit about what each community is facing, who they are, what we are not hearing in the news which is everything. we heard about systematic attempts to destroy different

peoples, targeted campaign massacre of rape, kidnapped for ransom and kidnapped for taking children into what daesh calls the cubs program, child soldiers. i interviewed the mother of a 3-year-old girl who was taken by isis and was yet to be returned. this problem could not be more pressing or multifaceted. let's turn to solutions. let's hear from each of these guys about their community's most effective solution. is it a simple solution, is that a military solution informing militia, attached right to that, more successful to leave the country? what is the reality for displacement? we will turn to that, each community's response and where it has been effective, what does

a post isis iraq look like? what can the international community to to safeguard ancient communities in iraq? let's begin with that? i will ask about the response. what is effective if anything and what are you seeing in terms of self defense, civil society? >> we emphasize the current situation, the mistrust, living in the homeland, anyone will tell you whether those international protections of the genocide as a community that i

will leave. it would have been 1000 different things in iraq with different people. talking about the solutions from what happened with the genocide, that was different. >> is that helpful? is that a case on the ground for the international community of knowledge? >> the international community, drafting defeat not to take the case and the little case, no compass working for the international criminal court and it is important, on this scale, and met many victims, first is what happens with the experience

of night. i think the solution was several letters internationally. done by the muslim community. and say that it is not right, something i never heard, challenge whoever was to bring the question that it wasn't clear internationally. never came out and said what was not in line with the sharia. something the muslim world evolved into chaos, anything against the religion was said internationally. what happened in the name of islam does not present any religion to be clear on that but

the muslim community came out in iraq, the sunni community in iraq, tribal leaders could have said no to the distribution or the genocide. that is one angle. and the african -- and the community that find the genocide, how can a community that lost everything for the next 3 generations, left his home. ..