Pence, who describes himself as an evangelical Catholic, unveiled the Genocide Recovery and Prosecution Response Program during the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom conference in Washington DC on Thursday.
“America is launching a new initiative that will not only deliver additional support to the most vulnerable communities but we trust it will also embolden civil society to help stop violence in the future. It is my privilege as Vice President to announce today the United States of America will establish the Genocide Recovery and Prosecution Response Program, effective today,” he said.
Without specifying the sort of aid, Pence said his government and USAID “will closely partner local faith and community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted communities – beginning with Iraq”.
Nineveh and the Kurdistan Region are historically some of the most diverse places in the Middle East, where Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish and Levantine cultures meet. At different times pre-Abrahamic, Abrahamic, and other ethno-religious minorities like Yezidis have coexisted, albeit not always without conflict.
In a bid to preserve the dwindling Christian and Yezidi populations, Pence announced in 2017 that USAID funding could go directly to faith-based NGOs.
At his direction, a USAID delegation including its Administrator Mark Green and Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback led a delegation to northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Region from June 30 to July 3.
Green briefed Pence after returning to Washington.
The Yezidis suffered genocide and enslavement at the hands of ISIS. Considered devil worshippers by the extremist brand of Islam practiced by the militant group, thousands of Yezidis were massacred or sold into sexual slavery.
Pence praised Nadia Murad, a Yezidi women “brutalized by ISIS fighters during her captivity. She was only able to escape because her captor left a door unlocked, and a neighboring family hid her until she could be smuggled to safety.”
Murad is now the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.
“The suffering of the Yezidi people, and all the victims of ISIS has sickened the American people and mobilized this President and this administration to action,” said Pence.
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s representative to the US, attended the conference, where she met with religious leaders and Yezidi groups.
