RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Coptic Christians in Egypt and Falasha Jews in Ethiopia THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1982 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND The subcommittee met at 10:19 a.m., in room 2255, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Don Bonker (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. BONKER. The Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations will come to order. Today we are meeting in another of a series of hearings concerning specific cases of religious persecution as a human rights violation. This will be the fourth case that the subcommittee has considered. We started with two general oversight hearings. Then we had a hearing on the case of the Baha'is in Iran who are suffering under a repressive government. We then had two sets of hearings on religious persecution in the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries. One concerned the Pentecostals and the other concerned Christians, and the Jews. Today we are taking up another case of religious persecution as a human rights violation. This phenomenon of religious persecution is not limited to any political system or region of the world. Unfortunately, it occurs all too often. People are made to suffer simply because of their religious faith. The two specific examples that are the subject of today's hearings are the Falasha Jews in Ethiopia, who are relentlessly persecuted, though it's not clear whether it is an act perpetrated by the Government of Ethiopia or just individuals out of control. Obviously, it is a problem that has been occurring now for some time. In Egypt we have a situation involving the Christian Coptics. They are still being repressed despite a promise that was made to me some months ago when President Mubarak appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee. I asked him specifically about the fate of the Coptics that were being held in Egypt. At that time I had received assurances that they would be released shortly. The sad truth is that the free exercise of religion is limited, at least to a degree, in many parts of the world. [Mr. Bonker's prepared statement follows:] PREPARED OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DON BONKER, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS This is another in the series of hearings on religious persecution as a violation of human rights. Today we will consider two more cases-the Falasha Jews in Ethiopia and the Coptic Christians in Egypt. The five hearings held so far leave no doubt that many innocent people around the world are victims of a special kind of human rights violation-religious persecution. This phenomenon is not limited to any political system or region of the world. Unfortunately, it occurs all too often. People are made to suffer because of their religious and ethical convictions. Two specific examples are the subject of our hearing: In Ethiopia the Falasha Jews and the Christian community are relentlessly persecuted though it is not clear whether it is an act perpetuated by the Government of Ethiopia or individuals-out of control-acting on behalf of that government. In Egypt many Coptic Christians are still being held despite a promise made to me many months ago by President Mubarak that all detainees would be released. The sad truth is that the free exercise of religion is limited, at least to a degree, in most parts of the world. Discrimination, imprisonment, torture and death are often the price that one must pay of one's religious beliefs. We are privileged to have with us several witnesses who are experts on the questions of religious persecution of the Falasha Jews and the Coptic Christians. We are anxious to hear from our witnesses today. We have a distinguished panel, but before we get to the public witnesses, I would like to call upon two colleagues who have been in the forefront of our human rights effort in the Congress and specifically in this area of religious persecution. That is Barney Frank, who represents a district in the State of Massachusetts, and Representative Tom Lantos, who hails from the State of California. I should mention that Annette Lantos has been a source of encouragement in these hearings. She has provided the subcommittee continuing information on religious persecution around the world. It is really a pleasure to have both of my distinguished colleagues appearing before the subcommittee this morning. We will first begin with Barney Frank. STATEMENT OF HON. BARNEY FRANK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS Mr. FRANK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to congratulate you again for the role you have taken here and I think it was important that you listed, as you did, the range of subjects this subcommittee is concerned about, whether we are talking about the Soviet Union, Iran, or other nations which may be more friendly to us. I think it is important to establish the legitimacy of the concern of this subcommittee and that you have not picked and chosen, and it was not a case of, well, if it is an ally of America we will look the other way, but if it is a somewhat hostile country, we will focus on it. We can only have leverage on behalf of human rights if we have seemed to be, and in fact are, honest about it. By that I mean we do not pick and choose human rights issues and do not make it a partisan foreign policy issue. Your subcommittee has really played a major role in this. Today, I want to talk about the really desperate plight that faces one of the ancient Jewish communities in the world-the Falasha community in Ethiopia. I very much welcome the chance to speak before this subcommittee because it is a subject which has not gotten enough attention, and if more attention is not focused and things are not done, a terrible tragedy could befall this relatively small group of people. The Ethiopian people have historically been suspicious and resentful of the Falashas, despite the fact that the Falashas have lived in Ethiopia for centuries and centuries. The very word in the Ethiopian language means "stranger" or one who does not own land. There were, in the 19th century, a quarter of a million Falashas. Today, there are less than 30,000, and despite all of this, despite these hardships, the Falashas have persisted in religious observance, and that is probably one of the reasons for the persecution. But Westerners who have been there come back and are impressed, amazed favorably by the religious dedication of these people-their dedication to the Hebrew language, to the Torah, to the religious practices of Judiasm. The Ethiopian Jewish community wants to maintain their Jewishness. That has been a problem. It has been a problem historically and it has gotten worse. Today, it is at a critical juncture, because with only about 25,000 Jews left today, and approximately 7,000 more appear to have been killed in the fighting that took place after the last coup in 1974, the situation has gotten significantly worse. There was some hope that the land reform program of this new government had been helpful. Instead, it has engendered a dispute in which the Falashas were caught in the middle. There were the innocent victims of people on both sides. It was suggested that if, in fact, they were prepared to assimilate and give up their Jewishness, things would be better for them. They were not willing to do that, and that, of course, is precisely the kind of issue this subcommittee is focusing on. Oppression and persecution of these people has continued because of their insistence on maintaining what we regard as a basic freedom, to practice their religion. I also want to be clear, however, that this is not simply a case of direct government policy, and when we talk about the Soviet Union or when we talk about Iran, the central government there was clearly following policies of oppression. Here it is a little more complicated because the major part of the problem deals not primarily with the central government, although obviously they have responsibility for what goes on in the country and it is not a specific policy coming out of the central government. The problem that we have is that the regional authority, Major Melaku-and I will stipulate at the beginning that my pronunciation being only marginal, my pronunciation of any other language may very well be incorrect and I do not worry about trying to correct it but he is the man with regional authority in the Gondar Region, where the Jewish population is concentrated to a great extent, and he has been responsible for a specific anti-Semitic policy. He has a policy which he calls "Ethiopia first," which to him means, with regard to the Falashas, obliterating their Jewish identity and punishing anyone who will not give in to this effort to obliterate their identity. The attitude is aggravated by the fact that he is fiercely anti-Zionist. He has claimed that the Falashas are somehow inaccurately claimed-alined with the CIA here in America. In January of this year, Dr. Bruce Gottlieb of London interviewed him and Melaku made very clear his disdain for the Jews and his belief that their connection with Israel is something for which they had to be punished. There have been a couple of very severe examples of this. One has to do with education. The International Development Program, ORT (Organization of Rehabilitation and Training) which is a Jewish philanthropy, had been working in Ethiopia before the revolution. They continued until Major Melaku closed it in 1981, and there was a school there which was teaching people Hebrew, teaching Jewish religious values, and culture. The people there were the subject of incredible persecution, including imprisonment, and with imprisonment came, for the Falashas, particularly harsh treatment. They were singled out for beatings, for being held in solitary confinement for completely inhumane forms of treatment, again because of their Jewishness. Now obviously the Horn of Africa is in upheaval. There is fighting between Somalia and Ethiopia. There is the Eritrean succession problem. Our role is limited; I understand that. But I do not think the State Department has done enough. I think we ought to be pursuing efforts to discuss and maintain contacts with the Ethiopian Government, making clear that this systematic oppression and mistreatment of Jews not so much by the central government but by Major Melaku in the Gondar region is simply intolerable, that it is a burden that must be lifted if we are ever to have the kind of normal relations we someday hope to have with any other government. It is important that the State Department, in its relationships with the government and its activities in Africa, be cognizant of this. We should not have to be fighting with the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the State Department to recognize that these people are being persecuted. We should not have to have people living under a cloud of uncertainty as to whether or not they will be able to accept asylum if that was, in fact, available to them. Finally, in addition to pressing the State Department, I welcome this opportunity again to simply give some attention to this. We have to believe that when the Congress of the United States focuses on governmental action which denies people such a basic right as the right to practice their religion, that it does some good. We know that to be the case from the reaction of those on whom we focus. You will be hearing today, in addition to my colleague Tom Lantos, who has done so much in this field of human rights, a number of people who have worked very hard at great personal sacrifice, and in some cases at personal risk, on behalf of the Falashas of Ethiopia. I have come to know these people in my own work in the last year and a half. They have educated me on this subject and they have inspired me. I just want to express publicly my admiration for the people whom you are going to be talking to, both American and Ethiopian-people who, as I said, at great sacrifice to themselves have voluntarily made the cause of these beleagured and oppressed people their own. Mr. Chairman, again I want to thank you very much for the chance to testify, and I will submit a written copy of the statement for the record. Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Mr. Frank. [Mr. Frank's prepared statement follows:] |