[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S3599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  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.
                                 ______