S.Amdt. 608

SA 608. Mr. GRAHAM submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title XII, add the following:

SEC. 12___. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON REPATRIATION OF RELIGIOUS
AND ETHNIC MINORITIES IN IRAQ TO ANCESTRAL
HOMELANDS.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Nineveh Plain and the wider region have been the
ancestral homeland of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Christians,
Yazidis, Shabak, and other religious and ethnic minorities,
where they lived for centuries until the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS) overran and occupied the area in 2014.
(2) In 2016, then Secretary of State John Kerry announced,
``In my judgment Daesh is responsible for genocide against
groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis,
Christians, and Shia Muslims. Daesh is genocidal by self-
proclamation, by ideology, and by actions - in what it says,
what it believes, and what it does. Daesh is also responsible
for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at
these same groups and in some cases also against Sunni
Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities.''.
(3) These atrocities were undertaken with the specific
intent to bring about the eradication and displacement of
Christians, Yazidis, and other communities and the
destruction of their cultural heritage, in violation of the
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide.
(4) In 2016, the Senate passed S. Res. 340 (114th
Congress), expressing the sense of the Senate that the
atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria
include war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
(5) It is consistent with the commitments of the Republic
of Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government, the United States,
and the international community to guarantee the restoration
of fundamental human rights, including property rights, to
genocide victims, and to see that ethnic and religious
pluralism survives in Iraq.
(6) President Trump issued orders to defeat the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria, and with the joint efforts of the
United States and 79 allies and partners, the Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria, which once controlled large swaths of
territory in both Iraq and Syria, no longer controls any
physical territory.
(7) In July 2018, under the direction of Vice President
Pence, the Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program
has partnered the Department of State and the United States
Agency for International Development with local faith and
community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted
communities, beginning with Iraq.
(8) Christians in Iraq once numbered over 1,500,000 in
2003, and have dwindled to less than 200,000 today.
(9) Armed militia groups linked to Iran and operating in
Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains are increasing the instability
and insecurity of Northern Iraq, preventing the conditions
for local and indigenous minorities to return to their
homelands.
(10) Facilitating the success of communities in Sinjar and
the Nineveh Plains requires a commitment from international,
Iraqi, Kurdish and local authorities, in partnership with
local faith leaders, to promote the safety and security of
all people, especially religious and ethnic minorities.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) it should be a policy priority of the United States,
working with international partners, the Government of Iraq,
the Kurdistan Regional Government, and local populations to
support the safe return of displaced indigenous people of the
Nineveh Plain and Sinjar to their ancestral homeland;
(2) Iraqi Security Forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga should
work to more fully integrate all communities, including
religious communities, to counter current and future
terrorist threats; and
(3) the United States, working with international allies
and partners, should coordinate efforts to provide for the
safe return and future security of religious minorities in
the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar.
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