Whereas, on October 31, 2010, gunmen stormed Our Lady of
Salvation (Sayidat al-Nejat) Church in an historic neighborhood in Baghdad,
Iraq, and took hostage more than 100 Catholic men, women, and children
worshipping inside;
Whereas over the course of the hostage crisis and rescue
operation, 52 police officers and worshippers, including 2 priests, were killed
and 75 people were wounded;
Whereas the Islamic State of Iraq, an al Qaeda affiliated
group, claimed responsibility for the attack;
Whereas, the Iraqi Human Rights Minister, Wijdan Michael,
reportedly said at the scene of the attack, What happened was more than
a catastrophic and tragic event. In my opinion, it is an attempt to force Iraqi
Christians to leave Iraq and to empty Iraq of Christians.
;
Whereas, on November 9, 2010, and November 10, 2010, more
than a dozen homes inhabited by Christians in Baghdad were targeted in
coordinated bomb and mortar attacks, killing at least 4 people and wounding
dozens more;
Whereas the victims of the November 9, 2010, and November
10, 2010, attacks included at least one family of a victim of the Our Lady of
Salvation attack, whom terrorists may have identified by funeral signs hanging
outside the home;
Whereas these attacks are only the latest instances of
violence directed against Iraq’s vulnerable religious communities, including
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Mandeans, Syriacs, Yazidis, and other religious
communities;
Whereas Iraq’s ancient and once vibrant Christian
population that numbered an estimated 1,500,000 out of a total population in
Iraq of 30,000,000 in 2003 has been reduced by at least one half, due to
Christians fleeing the violence;
Whereas most of Iraq’s ancient Jewish community also has
fled out of fear and the community has almost disappeared;
Whereas the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom noted in its 2010 Annual Report that, despite the
overall drop in violence in the country, violence against religious minorities
and their religious sites continued in 2009 and 2010, particularly in the
Northern disputed regions.
;
Whereas vulnerable religious communities have been
subjected to a specific pattern of violence and discrimination, and as such,
require a comprehensive and cohesive strategy for their protection and
preservation;
Whereas the survival and prosperity of vulnerable
religious communities is critical for the long-term stability of Iraq;
Whereas in fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010, Congress
appropriated funding specifically for the protection and development of efforts
aimed at Iraq’s minority populations, with a particular focus on the Nineveh
Plains region; and
Whereas H. Res. 944, passed by the House of
Representatives on February 24, 2010, requested that the Secretary of State
develop and report to Congress on a comprehensive strategy to encourage the
protection of the rights of members of vulnerable religious and ethnic minority
communities in Iraq: Now, therefore, be it
That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that the United States Government should—
(1)continue to clearly and forcefully denounce
any form of violence and other human rights violations committed against
vulnerable religious communities in Iraq;
(2)assist the
Government of Iraq in developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to
ensure security at places of worship and other sites where vulnerable religious
communities congregate and to include measures to increase the representation
of vulnerable religious communities in the Government of Iraq, including the
security forces, and the inclusion of vulnerable religious communities in
economic, social, and political aspects of Iraqi society;
(3)assist the
Government of Iraq in establishing, funding, training, and deploying police
units that include officers representative of vulnerable religious communities
for the protection of vulnerable religious communities;
(4)strongly urge the
Government of Iraq to undertake prompt, transparent, and thorough
investigations of all allegations of human rights abuses against vulnerable
religious communities, including those stemming from sectarian, religiously
motivated, or other violence by Iraqi security forces, political factions,
militias, or any other para-state actors;
(5)strongly encourage
the Government of Iraq to secure the prosecution of those who perpetrate
religiously motivated violence;
(6)continue to
process Iraqi refugees for resettlement to the United States, taking into
account the recent and continued targeted violence against members of Iraq’s
vulnerable religious communities and the P2 designation in the Refugee Crisis
in Iraq Act of 2007; and
(7)ensure that
members of Iraq’s vulnerable religious communities scheduled to be resettled to
the United States are not delayed unnecessarily by providing adequate personnel
to conduct background screening procedures and by enforcing proper application
of the existing waiver of the material support bar to those forced to provide
support to terrorists under duress.