(AINA) -- Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20515
February 11, 1998

Secretary Madeleine Albright
Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Albright:

We are writing to alert you to gross violations of human rights being perpetrated against the Assyrians in Northern Iraq. Assyrians have long suffered from violence at the hands of their neighbors. Over the past few years, reports of these attacks have increases, fitting a pattern of increased violence against Assyrians with an intent to drive them from their ancestral home.

On December 13, 1997, it was reported that seven unarmed Assyrian civilians were murdered by a group of armed Kurds. This latest attack follows a report of an earlier attack against an Assyrian man and his wife in Mzezakh, Turkey on September 25, 1997. These attacks are only two recent examples of the dangers that Assyrian civilians face each day. The United Nations and international human rights organizations have documented extensive abuses of Assyrians' human rights, including torture, murder, theft of property, abductions, rape, and forced conversion to Islam. In many cases, Assyrians are denied the right to practice their religion, speak their language, and express their identity as a separate culture.

According to Amnesty International, the two main Kurdish factions in Iraq are said to support "assassination squads," which answer to the leadership to those factions. Amnesty International also reports that the killings "could not have been perpetrated without the knowledge, consent, or acquiescence of the leasers of these two parties, to whom the security and intelligence apparatuses are ultimately responsible."

We believe that the United States Government must send a clear and forceful message that it will not tolerate such abuses. We ask that you advise all governments and political factions where Assyrians live that the United States expects the human rights of Assyrians to be respected. In addition and upheld, wherever they may reside, and that further support is conditional on those rights being respected. In addition, we ask that you instruct Ambassador Richardson to work with the United Nations to ensure that Assyrians are receiving the benefits of UN humanitarian assistance to Norther Iraq.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We hope that this effort will lead to an improvement in Assyrian human rights, and look forward to hearing from you on this issue.

Sincerely,