Iraqi human rights leader speaks about the state of her country

On Wednesday September 20, Representative John E. Sweeney held a press conference with Dr. Katrin Michael, a member of the Chaldean sect of Christian Kurds residing in northern Iraq. Dr. Michael, who has spent the greater part of her life in the Kurdish resistance movement against Saddam, was also a victim of chemical attacks by Saddam’s forces against the Kurdish population. Due to her first-hand insight into the atrocities carried out during Saddam’s reign in Iraq, Dr. Michael was chosen by the Iraqi Prosecutor to testify against Saddam.

At the press conference, Dr. Michael expressed her gratitude to the American soldiers who captured Saddam, who killed her father and maimed her people through his regime’s use of chemical weaponry. “I thank Americans for not giving up”, she said expressing the need for the American presence as Iraq’s nascent democracy is consolidated. She further asserted the importance of education in preparing the Iraqi people to take control of their own system of government.

Representative Sweeney commended Dr. Michael for her tireless work as a human rights leader in Iraq, saying “I don’t know of any American who fought so long and so hard for human rights and civil rights.” He stated his commitment to working with people like her to establish long-lasting freedom and democracy in Iraq.