Lawmakers urge Bush to not overlook Assyrians (16/06/2003)

In a letter organized by Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza, 11 House members are championing Assyrians as crucial to Iraq‘s future. The lawmakers cite an estimated 2 million Assyrians living in Iraq, and the repression they suffered, as reason for the attention.

“We believe it is critically important for the future government of Iraq to recognize the Assyrian people, who made great sacrifices to oppose the regime of Saddam Hussein,” the letter to President Bush stated.

Cardoza’s district contains one of the largest Assyrian populations in the United States, with an estimated 10,000 living in Turlock alone.

Mariposa Republican George Radanovich, whose congressional district shares Stanislaus County with Cardoza, also signed the letter and joined in introducing a related House resolution.

The nonbinding House resolution voices “concern for the status” of Iraq‘s Assyrian population and urges that Assyrian rights be upheld under any new government.

“We’re concerned with the Islamic fundamentalist parties in Iraq,” said Sargon Dadesho, a Ceres resident and founder of the Assyrian National Congress. “There have been some speeches by the mullahs asking the Christians of Iraq to submit to Islamic law.”

Dadesho said the new Iraqi constitution should recognize the nation’s Assyrian population. The Iraqi constitution under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein referred to Assyrians as “Christian Arabs.”

The Iraqi constitution remains a work in progress. The former U.S. diplomat overseeing the rebuilding, L. Paul Bremer III, discarded plans for convening a national conference to establish Iraq’s new political leadership.

Instead, Bremer said he would select 25 to 30 Iraqis to serve on an interim advisory board.

Thursday, Bremer told reporters he expected to name the advisers “within the next four or five weeks.” Bremer added that a larger convention of “several hundred” should convene in late July to draft a constitution.

The new House resolution states Assyrians should be “consulted and included in discussions” about the government. An eight-member international task force to which Dadesho belongs, and which he said represents the five leading Assyrian political parties, has asked the State Department to be incorporated into planning efforts.

The resolution is the first of its kind to be introduced on Assyrians’ behalf since 1997, when a House measure expressing concern for the plight of Assyrians attracted two supporters and did not advance out of committee.

The Assyrian measure also reflects how Congress caters to concentrated ethnic populations with commemorative and advisory resolutions. Other ethnic groups prevalent in the San Joaquin Valley, including Indian Sikhs, Portuguese, Laotians and Armenians, have all had resolutions introduced on their behalf in recent years.

Bee Washington Bureau reporter Michael Doyle can be reached at (202) 383-0006 or mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com.