Public hearing on minorities caught between the Syrian civil war and ISIS in Iraq and Syria, at the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the EP in Brussels.

Brussels

EU - Syria (T)

Subcommittee on Human Rights

EU - Iraq (T)

public hearing

advance of Islamic State (T)

Public hearing on minorities caught between the Syrian civil war and ISIS in Iraq and Syria: extracts from the meeting

SOUNDBITE (English), Arab Human Rights Academy - AHRA Sam Andrews, The Ba'ath government tried to integrate the Sabah into their Arabization programme and after 2003 the Kurdish regional government has try to claim that the Sabah are Kurdish.

SOUNDBITE (English), President of Iraqi Turkmens in Europe Sundus Abbas, Turkmen expected to see democracy, justice, equality, fairness and end of discrimination. There right of self-determination and the end of violence. Unfortunately the opposite has occurred.

SOUNDBITE (English), President of Iraqi Turkmens in Europe Sundus Abbas, The total number of Iraqi Turkmens displaced forcedly from their homes is around 600.000 Turkmens and they are suffering from lack of food, shelters, suitable housing, health and medical aid. Most of the displaced families are without identification cards, without their monthly food supplements cards, as well as their bank identifications cards. They are depending on hands-outs received from the charity organisations.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Yazidi rights activist Nadia Murad Basee Taha, Humans are humans wherever they are, th earths is for us all, and human values unites us all. These values oblige us to look at human beings in the same way, irrespective religion, ethnicity, sex or colour.

SOUNDBITE (French), Father Ziad Hilal, SJ, formerly responsible for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Homs, Syria, and recipient of the Pax Christi Award, This action is known as the 'crises of the old town' was conducted with the support of the UN . Obviously all of that was done in parallel with our commitments since the very start of the Syrian crises not to allow hatred to take roots. How do we do that? We did it by setting up educational centres and providing social support to help build peace between communities. We set up the centre for children where 3500 children's in Homs and the area are attending, and they are coming from all different communities. They are children's whose parents might be general in the army or children's of the opposition, rebels' leaders. So it's a new form of education to bring back peace and reconciliation.

SOUNDBITE (French), Father Ziad Hila, I think after 5 years of work we can say that we have been successful, and we are now building a generation based on peace, not child solders, or children's who are nothing but victims of the war. When it comes to humanitarian matters, the church's works with Christians and Muslims, without any distinction, and they are working all in our teams across Syria.

SOUNDBITE (French), Father Ziad Hilal, (Daesh) obliged the Christians to either covert to Islam or pay the ransom, and has forbidden religious practices. Today many Christians in the Middle East are haunted by fear. They are hoping to leave, because they are worried about further executions. There is only one community in Syria, constituted by Syrian of multiple confessions.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana, leader of the Assyrian Christians and head of CAPNI (Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq and partner of Caritas) , It's no longer enough just to condemn those who are carrying out these crimes, we need to look towards the future for Christians to make certain that they survive. So by a way of background and introduction I can say that unfortunately the persecution of Christians in the Middle East didn't begin by Daesh, and will not end when Daesh ends.