Dominicans Testimony Before State Department Bureau Calls Attention To Iraqi Plight

ADRIAN, MI June 18, 2007-- On Wednesday, May 30, 2007, Adrian Dominican Sister Maria Riley, OP, of the Center of Concern assisted the Dominican Iraq Coordinating Committee by attending a briefing of NGO’s at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. As a result of the briefing , Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP, Co-Promoter of Justice and Peace for the North American Dominicans was asked to testify at the fiscal year 2008 annual hearing of the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration held on June 7, 2007 on behalf of the Christian Community and Dominican Family in Iraq .

Testimony regarding this issue was also given previously by Philippe LeBlanc, OP, in Geneva at the UNHRC/4/NGO/20, in March, 2007. Both testimonies identify the humanitarian needs of the people of Iraq as urgent. Both testimonies recommend continued work with the international community through the United Nations to provide basic services, increased funding, and increased medical and educational services to Iraqi refugees in their host countries. Lastly, both testimonies urged the international community, through the United Nations, to take with utmost seriousness, the responsibility for the monumental and long-term challenge of the recovery and reconstruction of Iraq, devastated both by long-term sanctions and the ravages of war.

Source: Adrian Dominican website