Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Survivors of Religious Persecution | Eastern North Carolina Now

    REVEREND BARROSO: President, I am Pastor Mario from Cuba.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

    REVEREND BARROSO: A blessing. One Pastor, Ramón Rigal, and his wife are imprisoned in Cuba. Please pray for them and help the people in Cuba. Five pastors, the (inaudible) invite for this event in Cuba are not here because the government in Cuba no permission for today here.

    I am here because I am refugee in United States. Thank you for your hospitality for me.

    THE PRESIDENT: How has it been in Cuba without Castro? There's still a Castro there, but you have a new leader. How has that been? Any different?

    REVEREND BARROSO: No, it's not real. Castro continuing the power because Castro is the first secretary to the party - the communist party. And the new President is not really. Castro is the real leader (inaudible).

    THE PRESIDENT: I see. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

    Yes, please. Go ahead.

    MS. BITRUS: Thank you, Mr. President -

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you.

    MS. BITRUS: - for the opportunity to see you. I am Esther, from Nigeria. I do three years in (inaudible). I escaped from Boko Haram. So thank you for (inaudible).

    THE PRESIDENT: It's tough stuff, right?

    MS. BITRUS: Yes.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's a tough one. Thank you.

    MS. BITRUS: Thank you.

    MR. JU: (Inaudible.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Please. Go ahead.

    MR. JU: Mr. President, thank you very much for your (inaudible).


    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.

    MR. JU: I'm Ilyong from North Korea. And first, I want to say thank you. And then my aunt - a lot of my aunt family, (inaudible), Kim Chul, Kim (inaudible), Kim Jong (inaudible), all of them, they are in political prison camp -

    THE PRESIDENT: Where?

    MR. JU: In - I don't know where is; they just took it at the dawn. And just because aunt's father-in-law was a Christian and my cousin's whole family (inaudible) executed because of their (inaudible).

    But even though the persecution of Kim (inaudible), the North Korean citizens, they are trying to - they are - they want (inaudible) and they want to worshipping now. And they are worshipping in underground churches right now. And even though a few weeks ago we had a message from North Korean underground churches and they sent a photo of the wood and they are three of them gathered there and they were praying for South Korea. So those kind of things are happening in North Korea.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'll bring them up.

    MR. JU: So, yeah.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm understanding exactly what you're saying. I'll bring it up.

    Yes, please.

    MS. MURAD: So I'm -

    AMBASSADOR BROWNBACK: Nadia is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

    MS. MURAD: I'm from Iraq and I cannot see my family. They are in (inaudible), because when ISIS attack us, no one protect us. After 2003, we started to disappear from our area, from our homeland. And then when ISIS attack us in 2014, they killed six of my brother. They killed my mom. They took me to captivity with my (inaudible) sister-in-law, with all my sister and my nieces.

    And today we have 3,000 Yazidi women and children in captivity. So although they said ISIS is defeated, but where is those 3,000 Yazidi?

    And our home is destroyed. We come to here, we go to Europe, we go to Arab country that ISIS did this. Everyone saw that. And we - I appreciate Vice -


    THE PRESIDENT: And you were captured?

    MS. MURAD: Yes. Vice President - he help us a lot, but now today, you can't solve our problem. Now there is no ISIS, but we cannot go back because Kurdish government and the Iraqi government, they are fighting each other who will control my area.

    And we cannot go back, if we cannot protect our dignity, our family. But we get a lot of support from President Macron. He push - he put a lot of pressure in Iraqi and Kurdistan government to help minorities. The Yazidis will stay in their home, but we still continue to emigrate to find a safe place to live. I hope you can call or anything to Iraqi and Kurdistan government to -

    THE PRESIDENT: But ISIS is gone?

    MS. MURAD: But, if I can -

    THE PRESIDENT: And now it's Kurdish and -

    MS. MURAD: And Iraqi. Iraqi government. If I cannot go to my home and live in a safe place and get my - like, my dignity back, this is not about ISIS, it's about (inaudible). My people cannot go back. We are not million of people; we are only half million people. And after 2014, about 95 years - 95,000 years, Yazidi, they immigrate to Germany through a very dangerous way. Not because we want to be a refugee, but we cannot find a safe place to live. All this happened to me. They killed my mom, my six brother. They left behind -

    THE PRESIDENT: Where are they now?

    MS. MURAD: They killed them. They are in the mass graves in Sinjar. And I'm still fighting just to live in safe. Please do something. And it's not about one family -

    THE PRESIDENT: I know the area very well, you're talking about. It's a tough - yeah.

    MS. MURAD: It's about half million. It's about the whole community.

    THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Well, we'll continue very strong.

    MS. MURAD: Thank you so much.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. And you had the Nobel Prize?

    MS. MURAD: Yeah.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's incredible. They gave it to you for what reason? They can explain.


    MS. MURAD: For what reason? For that - after all this happen to me, I can - I make it clear to everyone that ISIS raped thousands of Yazidi women. This one was first time the woman from Iraq, she gave out and spoke about it happen.

    THE PRESIDENT: Oh really? Is that right?

    MS. MURAD: And it's -

    THE PRESIDENT: It's the first time?

    MS. MURAD: First time. And it's -

    THE PRESIDENT: So you escaped.

    MS. MURAD: I escaped, but I don't - I don't have my freedom yet because -

    THE PRESIDENT: I understand.

    MS. MURAD: - you didn't see any ISIS (inaudible). It (inaudible). ISIS are - we don't know if they killed everyone, if they are in jail, but we know we have 3,000 Yazidi women and children, including my niece, my nephew, my sister-in-law. Three years ago, she call us. She said, "I am in Syria." And now, we didn't know anything about her.

    THE PRESIDENT: Let me look. We're going to look, okay? Thank you very much.

    MS. MURAD: Thank you so much.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Thank you.

    MS. WEISS: I am a survivor of the Holocaust, of a different era of persecution. And I have great sympathy and empathy with these people; that I'm very sorry to realize that things have not changed and persecution continues.

    AMBASSADOR BROWNBACK: That's why we're putting such an emphasis on it, Mr. President, because there just is a lot of work to do in the world. But - and we're going to - obviously, we've got a lot yet to do. But we're pushing the effort. We're going to be announcing additional measures - the Secretary of State is - tomorrow.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good.

    AMBASSADOR BROWNBACK: He's giving a big speech. The Vice President is giving a speech tomorrow about measures. And we're going to keep leading this charge.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. The world is a - the world is a tough place.

    Yes, please. Go ahead.