Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2014

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I have one quick question to our friend in Erbil. Our government has put some focus on the air strikes. We believe we should be doing more in humanitarian support. Can you tell us, what is the most important thing for your people right now? Is it the humanitarian assistance that Canada can provide, or is it the combat mission? Is it the air strikes?

[Vian Saeed]

Could you please repeat the question?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you think that Canada's role should be to provide more humanitarian assistance or should we be involved in the air strike campaign?

Are the air strikes helping your people right now or what do you need most, humanitarian support or the air strikes from our CF-18 fighter jets?

[Vian Saeed]

Mostly, we need humanitarian help or aid for our people, including housing in the camps. We need military help for our fighters in the mountains in order to provide them with weapons, so that they can fight ISIS.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Ms. Brown, for five minutes.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hopefully I'll get through these questions.

Are the Yazidi people looking for their own territory within Iraq or are they happy just staying as Iraqis, and being recognized as a minority group within the Iraqi country?

Were they looking for, or were they fighting for, or are they fighting for, a territory to call their own?

Perhaps Mr. Haider can answer.

[Khalid Haider]

In fact, as Yazidis, we've never looked for or sought our own territory. We want to be looked at as Iraqis only because we coexist in peace with every religion or nation around us.

When there is any catastrophe happening to any tribe—not even a religious minority or anybody—we go ahead and support them with whatever we can. We are well-known for being generous and peaceful.

We've never wanted to claim that this territory should belong to us, no. We want to be within the frame called Iraq, but we want to have our rights as well.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Have you been recognized within Iraq as a minority population that deserves representation in government or Ms. Saeed, did you have to fight for your seat in Parliament along with others to get recognition?

[Vian Saeed]

For me, no, I have never been treated as a minority in Parliament. It was not hard for me to fight for my seat there.

As I've said before, we are living peacefully with all people and we respect other religions as do other nations. I haven't had any problems with my colleagues in Parliament.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

We're glad to see you there. As female parliamentarians in Canada, I'm sure Madame Laverdière and I applaud your initiative and your desire to serve your people.

I would like to go back for a moment to the discussion about humanitarian assistance. As I said before, Canada is the third largest contributor already in humanitarian assistance. We are very concerned about what is happening in this part of the world and getting humanitarian assistance there.

Since the World Food Programme has identified the real problem as other countries not paying what they've pledged, is there a message or a way of taking this message to other countries and asking them to ensure that what they have said they would contribute actually gets put through to the World Food Programme?

Have you taken this message to other countries and asked them to pay what they have pledged?

[Vian Saeed]

I have no opportunity to talk this widely to other countries, asking them for or giving them their message. Maybe now, through you, I can say my message to all the countries.

What we went through, I don't want any person on this earth to go through. Seeing your children dying, seeing your mother or father killed in front of your eyes, seeing your sister and your daughter being killed on the mountains, [Inaudible—Editor] this is a terrible situation for any person to go through. I don't want anyone to go through this, and I'm saying this with my whole heart.

But I'm asking all these countries, if you were in our place, if you had been facing all these terrible conditions that we went through, what would you feel, or how would you want the world to help you? To every person that is hearing me now, or any country that promised to help or to contribute, give aid, I hope you will be able to provide what you have promised us.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

We're going to round four now.

We're going to start with Mr. Saganash, for five minutes, please.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our guests for their testimonies this morning.

I want to start with Ms. Saeed. I'm picking up on Ms. Brown's questions here. I guess in these sorts of conflicts, the most vulnerable people are always girls and women, without exception.

What are the particular needs of the women who are impacted by this conflict in this case, and what role can Canada play in that area specifically?

[Vian Saeed]

First of all, we need a higher power to release all these girls who have been kidnapped. Maybe your power or the higher power, or the power that we have here, can help us to get our girls back to their families.

After that, we look forward to making rehabilitation centres to help those girls rehabilitate and get back to their normal lives. Or maybe we can move them abroad to better centres to be treated if they have any psychological or physical problems or injuries.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you.

My next question is for Rabbi Bulka.

You spoke about the need for an international army, and you responded partially to that question from Mr. Hawn.

I want to follow up on the other aspect that you mentioned. You spoke about the need for an international strategy. You spoke about human rights in that context, which I believe are very important. All member states to the UN clearly have an obligation to uphold all human rights at all times. That's at the core of the purposes and principles of the United Nations, and I think we need to be reminded all the time about that.

Can you elaborate further on this need for an international strategy? I get the impression that we'll be getting more and more of these sorts of conflicts in the future, and that need for an international strategy is quite important in that context.

Can you elaborate a bit?

[Rabbi Reuven Bulka]

Right, it's precisely that. I'm happy you brought that up. It's precisely because it seems like an endless thing, and the tragedies we've had have been on a massive scale. We talk about every life being precious, but you're talking about hundreds of thousands, millions of people.

My main problem is that it shouldn't get lost in the bureaucratic mess. There are countries around, including mainly democracies, that are committed to this and that perhaps have to take the bull by the horns and say they're going to do something now to prevent this type of thing down the line, in the future, to have a rapid response force, and to look at this.

At least put the world on notice that there's a serious effort going on out there to counter the types of atrocities that we seem to be hearing about week in and week out.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Hawn, five minutes, sir.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Saeed, you responded about what is more important—military aid or humanitarian aid—and really, you answered “both”, which I think is true. The humanitarian aid is obvious. You also talked about needing firepower to rescue the girls. In your opening statement you said that the genocide must be stopped. Of course genocides aren't stopped by humanitarian aid.

I think there are about 700 Yazidi fighters, if I heard correctly. Can you tell me who is supporting the Yazidi fighters militarily, or with training or supplies, or whatever?

[Vian Saeed]

Now the supplies for the Yazidi fighters on the mountain are all from the Kurdish government.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Okay, but what we heard from Mr. Haider is that the Kurds are abandoning the Yazidis. Mr. Haider, I'll turn to you. Is there a contradiction here?

[Khalid Haider]

Sir, first of all we are not Kurds, as Ms. Saeed claimed that we are.

After the genocide it is hard to trust the Kurds and live with them, especially after what we've seen. As my colleague mentioned, we've seen the Kurds in Sinjar have guarded ISIS and led them to the houses that belonged to the Yazidis.

In fact, there are over 5,000 to 7,000 Yazidi fighters fighting inside Sinjar Mountain, and they are not Kurds, and they aren't supplied by the Kurds.

In fact, all the aid was dropped through the central government of Iraq. After that, a heavy raid by ISIS took place in the Sinjar Mountains. There was wave upon wave of ISIS that our fighters in the mountain have decimated. They have taken over their machine guns and weapons, and some of them are heavy Russian-made Dushkas.

Thank you.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Just a clarification on a matter of terminology, in the west, a division is about 20,000 people, so it's just a difference in terminology.

Mr. Haider, I think in your opening statement you referred to this being the 74th genocide, comprising 23 million Yazidis. Can you give us some context on that timeframe?

[Khalid Haider]

It started almost 1,100 years ago after the existence of Islam and spreading the word of Islam.

It started with the Mongols, then the Persians, then the Turks, and today it is happening by both Kurds and Arabs.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

So it seems to me, from everything I'm hearing—and I asked that question earlier—if ISIS is gone the Kurds are still going to be your enemy. Is that a fair statement?