[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 156 (Monday, October 26, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10738-S10740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 322--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE ON RELIGIOUS 
                           MINORITIES IN IRAQ

  Mr. LEVIN (for himself, Mr. Brownback, and Mr. Durbin) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 322

       Whereas threats against the smallest religious minorities 
     in Iraq jeopardize the future of Iraq as a diverse, 
     pluralistic, and free society;
       Whereas according to the United States Commission on 
     International Religious Freedom, there are grave threats to 
     religious freedom in Iraq, particularly for the smallest, 
     most vulnerable religious minorities in Iraq, including 
     Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other Christians, Sabean 
     Mandeans, and Yazidis;
       Whereas the February 2009 Country Report on Human Rights 
     issued by the Department of State identifies on-going 
     ``misappropriation of official authority by sectarian, 
     criminal, and extremist groups'' as among the significant and 
     continuing human rights problems in Iraq;
       Whereas in recent years, there have been alarming numbers 
     of religiously-motivated killings, abductions, beatings, 
     rapes, threats, intimidation, forced conversions, marriages, 
     and displacement from homes and businesses, and attacks on 
     religious leaders, pilgrims, and holy sites, in Iraq, with 
     the smallest religious minorities in Iraq having been among 
     the most vulnerable, although Iraqis from many religious 
     communities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, have suffered in 
     this violence;
       Whereas the United States Commission on International 
     Religious Freedom continues to recommend that the President 
     designate Iraq as a ``country of particular concern'', or 
     CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, 
     because of the ongoing, severe abuses of religious freedom in 
     Iraq;
       Whereas the Assyrian International News Agency reports that 
     59 churches have been bombed in Iraq between June 2004 and 
     July 2009;
       Whereas persecution and violence in Iraq have extended to 
     church leaders as well, such as the March 2008 kidnap for 
     ransom and

[[Page S10739]]

     killing of 65-year old Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos 
     Faraj Rahho;
       Whereas members of small religious minority communities in 
     Iraq do not have militia or tribal structures to defend them, 
     do not receive adequate official protection, and are legally, 
     politically, and economically marginalized;
       Whereas control of ethnically and religiously mixed areas, 
     including the Nineveh and Kirkuk governorates, is disputed 
     between the Kurdistan regional government and the Government 
     of Iraq, and Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other 
     Christians, Sabean Mandeans, Yazidis, Shabak, and Turkomen 
     are caught in the middle of this struggle for control and 
     have been targeted for abuses and discrimination as a result;
       Whereas governments in the region report that approximately 
     2,400,000 refugees and asylum seekers have fled Iraq since 
     2003;
       Whereas many religious minorities in Iraq, who made up 
     about 3 percent of the population of Iraq in 2003, have fled 
     to other areas in Iraq or to other countries, where they 
     reflect a disproportionately high percentage of registered 
     Iraqi refugees;
       Whereas the flight of such refugees has substantially 
     diminished their numbers in Iraq, and few show signs of 
     returning to Iraq;
       Whereas approximately 1,400,000 Christians were estimated 
     to have lived in Iraq as of 2003, including Chaldean 
     Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, 
     Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Armenians (Catholic and 
     Orthodox), Protestants, and Evangelicals;
       Whereas it is widely reported that only 500,000 to 700,000 
     indigenous Christians remain in Iraq as of 2009;
       Whereas the Sabean Mandean community in Iraq reports that 
     almost 90 percent of the members of that community either 
     fled Iraq or have been killed, leaving only about 3,500 to 
     5,000 Mandeans in Iraq as of 2009;
       Whereas the Yazidi community in Iraq reportedly now numbers 
     about 500,000, a decrease from about 700,000 in 2005;
       Whereas the Baha'i faith, estimated to have only 2,000 
     adherents in Iraq, remains prohibited in Iraq under a 1970 
     law;
       Whereas the ancient and once-large Jewish community in Iraq 
     now numbers fewer than 10, and they essentially live in 
     hiding;
       Whereas in 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for 
     Refugees (UNHCR) reported that approximately 221,000 Iraqis 
     returned to their areas of origin in Iraq, the vast majority 
     of whom settled into neighborhoods or governorates controlled 
     by members of their own religious community;
       Whereas many of these returnees reported returning because 
     of difficult economic conditions in their countries of 
     asylum, principally Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon; and
       Whereas Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other 
     Christians, Sabean Mandeans, and Yazidis are not believed to 
     be among these returnees: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the United States remains deeply concerned about the 
     plight of vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq 
     and is particularly concerned for the Chaldeans, Syriacs, 
     Assyrians, and other Christians, Sabean Mandeans, Yazidis, 
     Baha'is, Jews, and Muslim ethnic minorities, the Shabak and 
     Turkomen, and other religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq;
       (2) the United States Government and the United Nations 
     Assistance Mission for Iraq should urge the Government of 
     Iraq to enhance security at places of worship in Iraq, 
     particularly where religious minorities are known to be at 
     risk;
       (3) the United States Government should continue to work 
     with the Government of Iraq to--
       (A) urgently train and deploy into the Iraqi police and 
     security forces members of vulnerable minority communities in 
     Iraq, including in Nineveh and other areas in which religious 
     minorities are located, who are as representative as possible 
     of those communities; and
       (B) ensure that members of such communities--
       (i) suffer no discrimination in recruitment, employment, or 
     advancement in the Iraqi police and security forces; and
       (ii) while employed in the Iraqi police and security 
     forces, be assigned to their locations of origin, rather than 
     being transferred to other areas;
       (4) the Government of Iraq should, with the assistance of 
     the United States Government--
       (A) ensure that the upcoming national elections in Iraq are 
     safe, fair, and free of intimidation and violence so that all 
     Iraqis, including religious minorities, can participate in 
     the elections; and
       (B) permit and facilitate election monitoring by experts 
     from local and international nongovernmental organizations, 
     the international community, and the United Nations, 
     particularly in minority areas;
       (5) the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional 
     government should work towards a peaceful and timely 
     resolution of disputes over territories;
       (6) the United States Government and the United Nations 
     Assistance Mission for Iraq should urge the Government of 
     Iraq to work with minority communities and their 
     representatives to develop measures to implement Article 125 
     of the Iraq Constitution, which guarantees ``the 
     administrative, political, cultural, and educational rights 
     of the various nationalities, such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, 
     Assyrians, and all the other constituents'' in Nineveh and 
     other areas where these groups are present;
       (7) the Government of Iraq should take affirmative measures 
     to reverse the legal, political, and economic marginalization 
     of religious minorities in Iraq;
       (8) the United States Government should direct assistance 
     to projects that develop the ability of ethnic and religious 
     minorities in Iraq to organize themselves civically and 
     politically to effectively convey their concerns to 
     government;
       (9) the United States Government should continue to fund 
     capacity-building programs for the Iraqi Ministry of Human 
     Rights, the independent national Human Rights Commission, and 
     a new independent minorities committee whose membership is 
     selected by minority communities of Iraq;
       (10) the Government of Iraq should direct the Iraqi 
     Ministry of Human Rights to investigate and issue a public 
     report on abuses against and the marginalization of minority 
     communities in Iraq and make recommendations to address such 
     abuses;
       (11) the Government of Iraq should, with the assistance of 
     the United States Government and international organizations, 
     help ensure that displaced Iraqis considering return to Iraq 
     have the proper information needed to make informed decisions 
     regarding such return; and
       (12) the United States Government and international 
     organizations should continue to work with the Government of 
     Iraq to develop the legal framework necessary to address 
     property disputes resulting when displaced Iraqis attempt to 
     return to their homes in Iraq.

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, today I submit, with Senators Brownback and 
Durbin, a resolution expressing the concerns of the Senate over the 
plight of religious minorities in Iraq and calling on our government, 
the government of Iraq and the United Nations Mission in Iraq to take a 
series of steps designed to alleviate the dangers that members of these 
minority groups are confronting. Regardless of our position on the 
wisdom of the Iraq war, we can all acknowledge a tragic consequence of 
that war: the widespread persecution of religious minorities.
  The statistics are chilling: of approximately 1.4 million Christians 
of various denominations living in Iraq in 2003, only 500,000 to 
700,000 remain. Another minority group, the Sabean Mandeans, has seen 
its population decline by more than 90 percent. Iraq's Jewish 
community, once one of the largest in the Arab world, has almost ceased 
to exist.
  What has happened to these hundreds of thousands? Many have fled 
Iraq; my own hometown of Detroit, long home to a large community of 
Christian immigrants from Iraq, knows firsthand the challenges for 
families abandoning their generations-long home for a strange new 
country.
  Others have not had that opportunity. The United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom reports that members of religious 
minorities ``have experienced targeted intimidation and violence, 
including killings, beatings, abductions, and rapes, forced 
conversions, forced marriages, forced displacement from their homes and 
businesses, and violent attacks on their houses of worship and 
religious leaders.'' Leaders and members of these minority groups have 
been kidnapped, assassinated or forcibly removed from their homes. The 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that in 2008, 
there were an estimated 2.8 million internally displaced persons living 
in Iraq. Of that 2.8 million, nearly two out of three reported fleeing 
their home because of a direct threat to their lives, and, of that 
number, almost nine out of ten said they were targeted because of their 
ethnic or religious identity.
  While violence has declined in Iraq overall, religious minorities 
continue to be the targets of violence and intimidation. Members of 
many minority groups who have fled other parts of the country have 
settled in the north, only to find themselves living in some of the 
most unstable and violent regions of Iraq.
  Our resolution addresses this tragedy in several ways. It states the 
sense of the Senate that the fate of Iraqi religious minorities is a 
matter of grave concern. It calls on the U.S. government and the U.N. 
to urge Iraq's government to increase security at places of worship, 
particularly where members of religious minorities are known to face 
risks. It calls for the integration of regional and religious 
minorities into the Iraqi security forces, and for those minority 
members to be stationed within their own communities.

[[Page S10740]]

It calls on the Iraqi government to ensure that minority citizens can 
participate in upcoming elections, and to enforce its constitution, 
which guarantees ``the administrative, political, cultural, and 
educational rights'' of minorities. And it urges a series of steps to 
ensure that development aid and other forms of support flow to minority 
communities.
  I encourage the administration and the United Nations to address 
these steps without delay. I hope our fellow senators will join with 
Senator Brownback, Senator Durbin and me to voice the sense of the 
Senate on this important matter.

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